SAN ANTONIO—It’s simply not enough for a credit union to check off the boxes when it offers a product such as home banking or mobile technology, according to one person.
Jason O’Brien, senior vice president of payments at SWBC here, disagrees with “the notion that as long as we can do a transaction on home banking or a mobile device, let’s move on.”
Instead, to be effective, he said credit unions must provide “polishing touches” that “go beyond delivering the functionality.”
O’Brien’s remarks are part of a CUToday.info series on “fake news” in the credit union industry—myths and misperceptions held by members, officers or outsiders that credit unions need to consider and possibly rethink.
What O’Brien would really like to see for credit unions to get to the next level is a better job of embracing new technologies as part of what he called a “true relationship” with those members.
There are two good tools cooperatives can use to achieve that true relationship, according to O’Brien. The first is to conduct a “self audit” among leadership, marketing and other departments. Credit union leadership needs to walk itself through a transactional experience and then analyze it, O’Brien suggests. Credit unions should score themselves and must not be afraid to be critical, he added.
“Get everyone in the room,” he advised. “You get different thought processes.”
A Second Tool
The second tool to be used to help create that “true relationship,” he said, is to conduct a similar audit of the process, but this time with members. Don’t just give members a survey to respond to, he said, but instead sit down with them one-on-one and engage them for a good block of time, such as an hour, he said.
Jason O'Brien
“It’s far more eye-opening than an online survey,” he shared. “It’s a very fast avenue to finding your problems and seeing new opportunities.”
If the credit union is considering deploying some change to its online environment, for instance, “Sketch it out with them. Walk them through it. Do a few of these conversations.”
In exchange, he said, the credit union should be willing to offer some small token, such as a Starbucks gift card, to recognize that members’ time is valuable.
What will management get out of these conversations? A surprising array of things, according to O’Brien. It will get feedback on things the member feels are good, but just as importantly, aspects of the operations that members aren’t happy with. The credit union will also get advice from the member—some good, some bad.
Even if not all members are using the latest technology—and most won’t be-- it’s important to remember that they remain dedicated members. And they are influenced every day by the things they see in other environments, such as banks, he reminded.
“Every aspect of their lives is influenced by some form of technology,” he noted.
A Two-Way Street
SWBC itself employs these kinds of conversations with its clients, who can be lenders, consumers, or other businesses. It’s a two-way street, O’Brien said. “We’ve helped introduce important concepts to financial institutions,” he explained—and those contituencies have heard a few things back from the company, as well.
SWBC was founded in 1976 by two partners, Charlie Amato and Gary Dudley, who remain the company’s president and chairman, respectively. Currently the company focuses on technology research and market research. And much as the business has changed over those 40 years, it can be expected to do so in the near future as well.
“The next 10 years are going to be pretty amazing,” O’Brien predicted.
—Mark Fogarty