RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Credit unions that want to grow marketshare must start taking a more holistic, consultative approach, according to Samantha Paxson, chief marketing officer with CO-OP Financial Services, who shares her thoughts in this CUToday Q&A as part of our “100 Million Members: Now What?” series.
Samantha Paxson, CO-OP
CUToday.info: Why are CUs so good at signing up new members, but then not capturing wallet share?
Paxson: If we are truly “people helping people,” how are we naturally engaging with our members to help them navigate their financial lives through our industry’s wide array of offerings and platforms? Credit unions have an opportunity to view members through a more holistic, consultative lens. Helping members to solve their problems and achieve their life goals will propel them organically across products and channels, mutually benefitting the member and the credit union.
Process, training and culture all need to be audited to ensure each is pointed toward achieving that goal.
CUToday.info: What can be done to improve wallet share capture among new members? Existing members?
Paxson: Keeping credit union cards top of wallet is a constant process of exposing members to the range of services and technology credit unions provide, which will increase the likelihood that they will chose a credit union as their primary FI.
To do that, credit unions need to leverage four key trends today. First, they need to deliver an unmatched member experience, one that is consistently “fast and brilliant” – consumers are impatient and want financial technologies that are real-time and built for needs, but delivered in a pleasing way. Second, they need to adopt technical back-end integration across all channels, including those most frequented by members, such as mobile, digital, card, call center, ATM and more, to further enhance the member experience. Third, they need to innovate across security channels to create the strongest payments protection in all of services.
Finally, the best way to focus on credit union revenue growth – what wallet share capture is all about – is to adopt a card payments slant that concentrates on personalized debit solutions for Millennials and exemplary credit loyalty engagement programs aimed at Gen X and the affluent.
CUToday.info: What can be done to better align marketing, IT and management?
Paxson: We are at the point where there is really no alternative – marketing and IT must partner to craft what the member experience will be when using a product. This is a collaborative process that covers issues such as user interface, consistent branding and making the whole experience delightful. In marketing, we are seeing the emergence of a new type of executive – the chief marketing technologist, part strategist, creative director, technology leader and teacher. Marketing needs to be the glue that brings it all together, breaking down barriers that may exist to collaborate on strategy and planning, execution and operations/infrastructure.