Blog

The account opening process is critical for new account and loan acquisition. While that’s true, it’s important to realize that account opening is often seen as a process by financial institutions while consumers consider it an experience. This account opening experience is often the make-or-break stage for a consumer relationship with a financial institution. If the consumer hits roadblocks and becomes frustrated with a negative account opening experience, they will open the account elsewhere.

Location, location, location! That phrase has morphed over the years. “Location-based” marketing strategies have focused on physical location, newspaper ad placement, billboard location, postcards or mailers sent to targeted zip codes, and even SEO. The main drawback of those strategies is that they require a lengthy analysis period and can be costly. Even SEO, which was thought to be a lower-cost alternative to traditional marketing media, can accrue expenses quickly based on ad category and click-through rates. In addition, all of those methods utilize passive marketing campaigns. Yes, even SEO marketing is passive, despite being digital, because the end-user must enter a search term and scroll to where a credit union is listed in the results.

Today, almost every company website and app use passwords to authenticate customers. Credit unions are no different with their requirements for strong passwords, authentication challenges, enhanced security measures such as multi-factor authentication, and blocked usage of easily obtained data such as date of birth as a password. In addition, members are prompted to change their passwords at intervals such as 30 or 45 days. These security protocols, however, are often a point of frustration for members. With so many passwords to manage, they will often use the same easy-to-remember password across multiple sites.

While common fraud attempts such as vishing and phishing are well-documented, Social Media fraud is an often-overlooked topic. Seen as a soft target, the social media space is public and more relaxed, so most people tend to let their guard down. However, just like many soft targets, social media lacks supervision, and with few restrictions and relaxed rule enforcement, it leaves businesses open to attacks.

Life doesn’t stop while on vacation. It may be more hectic. Members are looking for (expecting) convenient access to those essential applications for assistance while juggling transportation, itineraries, travel disruptions, and general travel-induced stress. Checking their account balances, monitoring and making payments, accessing funds, freezing, canceling, and reissuing cards are all part of members’ daily routines whether or not they are on vacation.

In this period of high inflation, members are looking for ways to conveniently monitor their financial activities. Where in the past this may have been a periodic activity every few days, members now feel the need to stay constantly informed about their finances. Financial peace of mind is a requirement as members deal with pricing pressures and budgeting in every aspect of their lives. In fact, 73% of Americas rank their finances as their number one stressor.

Spring is here again, which means it is time for spring cleaning. Members get themselves in gear to clean out closets and tackle home repairs that arose during the winter, such as roof leaks and cracks in the driveway. Spring is an opportune time for credit unions to offer loan promotions such as home equity and personal lines of credit. We know that members can avoid high-interest rates from most lenders by taking advantage of loan products through your credit union.

Credit unions require faster and more efficient contact touchpoints servicing and onboarding new members in today's digital world. Traditional phone support and email are no longer sufficient. Credit unions need chat. As more consumers move into the digital channels, their requirements are shaped mainly by their experience with their preferred digital businesses. The primary communication for digital business is chat.

The accelerated digital financial services revolution has created a more convenient but often less personal member experience. Having a member interact with a non-conversational chat tool is like sending them through a macro search experience. But as we have mentioned in several of our blogs, digital users expect efficiency during their interactions in the channel. This requires service tools that offer both personal interaction and a service experience that is familiar to consumers.

Consumer expectations are higher than ever before. A Talkdesk research report showed that 58% of consumers reported their customer service expectations to be higher today than in the previous year. Primarily driven by the pandemic, brands everywhere have modified their customer service strategies to better interact with customers in the new digital landscape.