Now more than ever, member retention is a requisite for the success of credit unions. The steady rise of technological innovations has impacted the delivery of financial services and significantly changed the financial landscape. Not only are financial service consumers spoiled for choice, but they have also been handed a sizable measure of freedom by digital banks and large financial institutions. This leaves credit unions struggling to attract new members and more importantly, retain the current ones.  

Unlike banks where customer acquisition is a priority, credit unions derive the most value from preserving existing members. They achieve this by providing personalized financial solutions and building lasting relationships with these members. The successful ones are those who recognize this value as a competitive advantage and exploit it for the mutual benefits of the company and its customers.

But is it enough?

Your biggest competitors are banks and large financial institutions with access to sophisticated technology and tools for delivering upgraded services to customers. This begs the question, “why should your customers be loyal?”.

When designing your retention strategy, it is crucial to prioritize the relationships you’ve built with members as well as the trust they have placed in you over the years. You should aim at improving the overall quality of these relationships and the experience of members.

Here are several key ways you can put this into action:

Customers are more likely to remain loyal if they feel a genuine sense of connection with your company. You have a responsibility to identify new opportunities to sustain the connection and one of such is by keeping channels of communication open.

Determine each member’s communication preferences such as channels (digital or in-person), frequency (weekly or monthly), messaging style, etc., and use your findings in managing your relationships with them. It is also important to keep them engaged by directly requesting feedback on your products and services and ensuring their feedback is analyzed and incorporated where possible.

Leverage your relationships with members to find new methods of providing their financial needs. Credit unions are typically smaller in size compared to banks thus the advantage of customization. As a follow-up to tip #1 above, you can pair customer information gained from feedback surveys with analytics from technology-enabled customer research to create personalized experiences for members.

This would require a sizable investment in digital transformation as well as human resources, the latter would especially be useful in physical branches. Customers value experiences that leave them feeling extra special and the merits of the human touch cannot be overemphasized.

Another way to secure member loyalty and deepen relationships is to provide incentives such as reward programs to make them stay. Implementing such programs can also be an offshoot of your survey. Ask leading questions on your services, improvements they would like to see, and new offerings that would excite them. This would help in designing a fitting program. Rewards can be designed in the form of points program, cash back systems, referral programs, among others.

Data holds the power to study the behaviour of your members and decipher their next moves when it is strategically captured and analyzed. Investing in modern predictive analytics tools that make this possible can significantly boost your member retention rates. You’re able to better understand your members, predict their actions, and feed the captured data into your marketing campaigns. It also helps in identifying gaps in your service delivery that need to be immediately filled.