By Ray Birch
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.–It can be expensive to respond to new consumer expectations around service, especially digitally, but CUs can save time and money by focusing on several key areas and by learning from the big banks, according to one person.
“Three aspects of the mobile experience present opportunities for taking an app from good to great,” said CO-OP Financial Services Tom Church-Adams, SVP of pay products. “First, make sure there are no interruptions in the mobile experience. The key is to think through how the member is interacting with the different features of the app—can they do what they need to do easily and without interruption?
The second piece of meeting consumer expectations is to ensure the app intuitive—can members find what they are looking for in the right areas?
“You never want to build a feature that is hidden to the point that members are calling the contact center or visiting the branch to get a service that was already there for them on the app,” Church-Adams said. “And, third, have a strong level of communication with the app. Members should come away from a digital transaction with the assurance it went through and they know what to expect next. Credit unions should leverage the intuitive digital communication solutions. For example, text or push alerts should be interactive, empowering members to communicate back and forth with their credit union.”
Church-Adams’ insights are being shared here as part of a series in CUToday.info has launched in response to research showing credit unions have, for the third year in a row, finished behind banks in a national survey of American consumers when it comes to “satisfaction.” As CUToday.info was first to report, in the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), credit unions even hit a “historic low” when it comes to consumer “satisfaction” with their financial institutions.
The objective of this CUToday.info series is to deliver more actionable strategies to credit unions so they may more effectively respond.
The Key Finding
The biggest key finding in the ACSI research was credit unions were ranked behind banks on digital services, enough so to drive the biggest difference in consumer levels of satisfactions. And that raises a challenge for many CUs that are more limited in assets, which Church-Adams acknowledged.
“If you’re a smaller credit union with fewer funds available, it will always be more challenging to build out a holistic digital experience. For those cooperatives, it’s important to know where to focus your dollars in development of the digital experience,” he said. “That way, even if you don’t build the entire experience yourself, the features you do build are really nicely done.”
Church-Adams noted that large credit unions with deeper pockets can have the same issue if they are not focusing on the right areas or prioritizing investment in the areas of the digital experience that need the most help to become smoother or more innovative for the consumer.
“Anytime you have a small budget, it’s a struggle. But, you can still be smart and agile with the funds you have available today,” he said.
Market Expectations
Church-Adams acknowledged consumers’ mobile expectations are being set outside the financial services market.
“It’s true that consumers see the experience they have on Amazon and expect the same level with their credit union,” Church-Adams said. “But it’s completely doable for credit unions to not only match these experiences, but in some cases perhaps even leap over Amazon. Credit unions can take a lot of learnings from how big companies build out their experience—it usually comes down to a very simple, intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface. That doesn’t necessarily require more dollars; it requires smart technologists willing to spend the time to understand the consumer journey today and imagine what it could be like tomorrow in the digital interface.”
Church-Adams said CO-OP regularly sees fintechs “leapfrogging” the big retailers, even with their small budgets.
“They come up with fantastic apps that revolutionize the way consumers tackle all kinds of different banking use cases,” he said. “The dollars or the size of the fintech is not a hinderance to them outperforming the market. Their ability to produce a good consumer experience comes from a smart group of innovative technologists who can define a smart, intuitive experience. Credit unions can match or even beat the Amazons of the world if they hire the right folks who can both understand and innovate the member journey. Then, they are in the same league. It’s about how, not about how much.”
Learning from Banks’ Investments
With the ACSI data showing banks beating CUs at mobile, what are the big boys doing well with their mobile apps and from which credit unions could learn?
“Over the last one to two years, banks have focused on improving their messaging services within their apps,” Church-Adams explained. “That could be a text- or email-type service, or online chat, in which a user is talking directly to an agent. Consumers like this. They get a very quick response to a question or concern with a written history of that dialogue. If they can get their questions answered efficiently, in a way that is fast and easily accessible, most people prefer that to speaking to someone in a call center.”
Church-Adams explained such services allow consumers to carry on with their daily life.
“For example, if I have a question about my account this morning, but a whole bunch of meetings prevent me from calling into the contact center, it’s nice to be able to shoot a quick chat message,” he said. “I get an instant response that I can react to that afternoon after my schedule settles down. I’ve gained a huge efficiency in my day.”
Church-Adams reiterated that banks’ success in this particular area does not have to be a byproduct of budget.
“They don’t need deep pockets to match that kind of investment because, again, it’s about how, not how much. Credit unions just need to focus on the areas that are the highest priority for their members,” he explained.
Value in Collaboration
Collaboration among credit unions to build even better mobile apps will be important, Church-Adams believes.
“Many credit unions are building smart, digital, intuitive experiences within their digital apps and leading the way in terms of a tech-first experience for their members,” he said. “No doubt each has an area they excel in compared to others. By their nature, credit unions are very collaborative, so there is no doubt they can take learnings from one another,” he said. “If you’re a smaller credit union looking to speed up delivery of functions and features, certainly you should look to those credit unions that are setting the new standards and do have the resources to research a strong user experience.
“Talk with them to find out why they chose a specific innovation over another or what they learned from the due diligence on understanding members, the industry and the market, and how each of those elements are changing. Getting your hands on that research reduces a lot of the legwork work for a smaller credit union,” continued Church-Adams. “At the end of the day, a high tide raises all ships. The more they can collaborate and learn from one another, the stronger the industry becomes.”
Church-Adams said CO-OP is seeking to help credit unions collaborate with its industry-wide events and “co-creation.”
“Our Co-Creation Councils, for instance, are incredibly informative in building out credit union solutions that appeal to the whole industry,” he said. “We are constantly looking to gain the feedback and do the research for credit unions so we can build innovative, forward-thinking digital solutions. We’re also doing the competitive research to understand what the big banks and fintechs are doing in this space.”
Church-Adams asserted that all of that allows CO-OP to match or even lead the market in certain areas of development by focusing on credit union needs.
Building a Buy Now, Pay Later Solution
“And, importantly, credit union values,” he said. “For instance, we are building our own buy-now, pay-later feature specifically for credit unions. Even though we have gone out to the market to see how the industry is trending, we are committed to building a solution that considers what credit unions want to do with this tool. There are many BNPL use cases, and we want to think through how both credit unions and their members can benefit mutually from such a feature.”
In the end, Church-Adams noted again that credit unions should think carefully about how the mobile experience fits into the in-person experience, said Church-Adams.
“They want to make sure it all comes together in a consumer-centric and seamless way,” he said. “Consumers expect the handoff between what they do in an app and when they need to go into a branch will be smooth. We can’t think about the mobile experience in a vacuum. What happens if a member stops using the app and walks into a branch? Does that flow smoothly from one channel to another?”
Solving for Seamlessness
Solving for that seamlessness could be as simple as the credit union having access to members’ histories so they don’t have to explain themselves more than once, Church-Adams said.
“Maybe it’s making sure transactions are handled in real time so there is no concern about the status of an account if I walk into a branch,” he suggested. “Maybe it’s giving contact center agents access to card fraud claims status so a member has the confidence to call in and get a meaningful answer. The last thing credit unions want to do is add more stress to the consumer. A member expects that what they are doing in the app gets communicated to a real person in a real office within the credit union. Credit unions have to think about the member journey holistically, all the way through. If they do, they will have a big impact and their Net Promoter Score, and score within the ACSI, will rise as a result.”