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The concept of creating an Amazon-like experience has been fairly common in the credit union industry. But as banking expectations and trends continue to evolve alongside the lifestyles of modern-day members, is your credit union building a better, bingeworthy banking experience?

When someone binge-watches a television show, they found the show engaging enough to watch many, or all, episodes in rapid succession. Let’s explore what it takes to transcend your credit union beyond basic banking transactions.

Stage one—The Idea: Better member experiences.

With lackluster experiences impacting consumer loyalty and retention efforts, and an Accenture study revealing that 59% of consumers recently acquired a financial product from a provider other than their main financial institution, credit unions need a new and exciting way to secure their primary financial institution status.

Stage two—The Plan: Make them bingeworthy.

How members use and manage their finances has changed significantly. And with the rapid emergence of digital-first providers like Chime® and big-name players like Amazon®, Meta®, and Apple® stepping into the space, the competition is fierce. The good news is that credit unions have an advantage that other providers don’t—an ecosystem of data that shows how members are using their money, who they’re paying, and what they need to improve their financial well-being.

The obstacle many credit unions face, however, is easily accessing, analyzing, and interpreting these massive data sets. Think of your data as a storyline. You can follow the protagonist's journey, use the information available to build connections, and equip your credit union with the tools and resources available to solve conflicts along the way.

Using business intelligence is an effective way to unravel your data story and identify the individual needs of a member based on their financial behaviors and spending trends.

Stage three—The Shoot: Delight your members.

The first two stages set the stage for this moment. Equipped with insightful member data analytics, you’re now ready to start producing results.

Each member story will go through a series of stages—opening their first checking account, signing up for direct deposit, getting a debit card, applying for their first credit card, buying a home, saving, investing, buying a car—and each of these represents opportunities for your credit union.

According to the 2023 Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report, 72% of consumers want immediate service, 70% expect anyone they interact with to have full context, 62% think experiences should flow naturally between physical and digital spaces, and 62% agree that personalized recommendations are better than general ones. Additionally, Accenture’s global study cites that by taking steps to build more meaningful personal relationships, financial institutions can boost revenue from primary accountholders by up to 20%.

Directing members to more efficient solutions that include a personalized touch is vital to building lasting relationships. Consider placing relevant campaigns in qualified applicants’ preferred channels. Leveraging individual URLs allows those applicants to review a pre-filled application, minimizing barriers in the experience and encouraging application completion.

The way in which your credit union elevates basic banking transactions can make for a bingeworthy experience. In fact, credit unions that have integrated data-driven business intelligence and personalized marketing into their lending initiatives have increased their return on investments in a campaign by almost 2,000%.

Finding the right production partner

For many credit unions, the challenge is not accepting these ideals and their impact, but successfully transforming the complex processes across operations.

MeridianLink® is there to help, committed to partnering with credit unions to solve these complex problems with powerful, practical solutions.

• MeridianLink® Insight allows credit unions to easily and efficiently tap into the power of business intelligence. With dynamic dashboards and intuitive reporting, your credit union can make better, faster, and more profitable business decisions—all while unlocking more opportunities to optimize the member experience.
• MeridianLink® Engage, the marketing automation solution of MeridianLink’s multi-product digital platform, helps credit unions easily create member profiles so they know what their members need, and when. Credit unions can efficiently target audiences with products and services tailored to their unique needs—all while monitoring the results of these revenue-driving campaigns.

Integrating these data-driven solutions into one powerful member engagement platform can help credit unions build bingeworthy experiences and secure their primary financial institution position.

Register for the Nov. 2 webinar, “Legacy Systems Holding Your Success Hostage?,” to learn how MeridianLink can help you optimize engagement, maximize cross-sell yield, and drive deeper, more profitable relationships.