Young and loyal

CUs must know how 18- to 34-year-olds conduct their financial business.

Young adults want financial institutions that provide high-quality service and support, act in their best interests, and make conducting business easy—in that order. If your credit union can accomplish all that, it will gain young members’ business and loyalty.

The good news is that credit unions score well on all three counts, according to the Filene Research Institute report, “Next Generation Needs: Examining Credit Union Loyalty Among Young Adults.”

Analysis of young adults’ feedback reveals three priorities:

1. Service and respect. Members believe high-quality service and support are important, and agree their credit unions do a good job of providing it.

2. Ease and convenience. Younger members don’t want to expend much effort in their dealings with credit unions. The keyword “easy” showed up twice as often among top-performing credit unions as among low-performing credit unions.

3. Financial assistance. The most common request regarding financial capability is how to establish solid credit. Some of the most passionate comments came from members who built up their credit and finally got a credit union loan for their dream car or first home.

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