By Ray Birch
TAMPA, Fla.–A credit union that has meticulously reviewed all member touch-points around its cards is now bringing its cards in-house, saying the “card experience” is going to be more critical to future card loyalty than even rate or rewards.
GTE Financial recently brought its debit and credit card programs in-house, and Chad Burney, EVP and COO, said too much competition is headed CUs’ way to do anything less.
“We want to be in control of our own destiny and provide the experience we know we need to provide,” said Burney, adding significant changes are taking place at GTE financial and that even more change is coming to its card offerings.
Complete control of a credit union’s card programs is extremely critical today, providing the credit union has the resources to do it, said Burney.
“The competition is getting so tough, and it’s not going to take much to have an Amazon or Apple chip away and take the credit union’s card business,” said Burney, who emphasized non-traditional financial players are very focused on the card experience. “Unfortunately, it’s going to be rough on those who don’t realize this. Soon enough, if you are not offering a really great card experience, you will become irrelevant to your cardholders, particularly the younger ones.”
Can’t Afford to ‘Slip’
Burney emphasized credit unions cannot slip “behind the curve” of change within the cards industry, and that doing so would make it difficult to climb back into the game given all of the offers from the major players in this space.
“In the coming years I want GTE to always be in the position where we're never behind the curve,” said Burney.
The $2.1-billion GTE Financial has already announced the rollout of a summer‐long initiative aimed at delivering a new debit and credit card experience for members.
Among the changes are new card control features to give members complete control over their plastic while also helping eliminate fraud and friction, explained Burney.
Components of New Program
Some of the components of the new program:
- A brand new card design built for enhanced durability
- Increased call center hours, seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“What we are launching in January—no one's doing what we will be doing then. It will revolutionize mobile banking and online banking. We have so much change coming, and the only way to do that well is to do it ourselves,” said Burney.
Chad Burney
Burney acknowledged it’s a huge undertaking, saying it took seven years for GTE Financial to be ready culturally to take on an initiative of this magnitude.
“This is the next biggest thing you can do besides a core conversion,” he said, adding bringing cards in house will also save GTE money.
“Two years ago we said, ‘OK, culturally GTE is ready,’ and then we made a decision to bring things in house,” Burney explained. The credit union currently runs on a Fiserv DNA core system.
Touchpoints Mapped
With the focus on a greater member experience, Burney said GTE two years ago began meticulously examining all of the touch points a cardholder can have with the credit union.
“We mapped out every single member touchpoint, whether it's debit or credit, and it took us three-and-a-half weeks,” explained Burney. “And we identified 72 separate member touch-points related to debit and credit. It could be something as simple as when you call to activate a card. We took what I call our ‘old car’ and dismantled it piece by piece. At the end of the day we had just the tires and an engine sitting on the floor. Now we're going to basically build this car back up with 72 parts lying on the ground. That’s what we are doing with our card program to rebuild the member experience.”
Burney emphasized the credit union methodically examined each every “part” of the car, asking “is this the best we can do for our members here. If it wasn’t we improved it or changed it. We have a lot of improvements coming for our cardholders.”
Reissuing a Quarter-Million Cards
With the move in house, GTE is reissuing new cards to all of its 240,000 debit and credit cardholders that have a distinctive, new look, Burney said. He also noted how cards are distributed is an important part of the member experience.
“One of the parts of our car is how we distribute new cards,” explained Burney, who said many non-traditional players don’t do it with the typical business envelope. “Some will send them out in a fancy box. That’s what your members are seeing more of. So presentation is important. We are hand stuffing 240,000 cards into a really cool purple envelope—when you pull out the note inside of the envelope the telescopic envelope also pulls out the card and presents it to the person. We believe it’s important to go to that next level.
“What we believe, at GTE, is we can focus on the member experience better than anyone in the industry,” said Burney.