Member experience is at the pinnacle of everything credit unions and their industry partners do. When considering which products or services to provide or how to best enhance offerings, the member experience is always at the forefront. At PSCU, the nation’s premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO), member experience is defined and governed by four key areas: ease of use, convenience, personalization, and security. Working in tandem, these allow Owner credit unions to provide their members with seamless, connected experiences which are not only what today’s members want, but what they expect from their trusted credit union partner.
In order to keep pace with the rapidly changing needs of members, what should credit unions do to ensure they consistently meet expectations? Here are four paths to consider:
1. Adopt aDigital-First Strategy
More and more members are taking to digital channels to conduct transactions and interact with their credit unions. This trend was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and shows no signs of waning any time soon. If your credit union does not already have a digital strategy in place, now is the time to establish a plan of action. Take inventory of current offerings, prioritize investments, and build a strategy that is constantly and continuously taking digital innovations into account.
2. Offer Enticing Card and Loyalty Programs
Top-of-wallet status should always be top of mind. Encourage members to choose their credit union-issued card by running attractive card and loyalty programs across all of your credit union’s payments channels. Promote incentives and special offers to encourage members to add their credit union-issued cards to mobile wallets, subscriptions, streaming services, and other payments options over competing bank- or fintech-issued cards. With digital payment methods on the rise and continuing to trend upward, members choosing their credit union-issued card will become even more important as each purchase made through a specific channel represents a revenue opportunity for both debit and credit accounts.
3. Find the Right Partners
Leveraging third-party partners can be hugely beneficial once credit unions have established their priorities. When looking for the ideal partner, it is important to select a provider who can deliver technology that integrates with multiple systems and channels with scale. Depending on your members’ wants and needs, it could be a partnership with a CUSO, fintech, or both. Establishing these partnerships will allow your credit union to provide cutting-edge, advanced technology and tools, as well as focus your efforts on what matters most to members.
4. Map the Member Journey
Journey mapping is an effective exercise when you need to identify areas of opportunity from the cardholder’s perspective. Its purpose is to identify the tasks, thoughts, and feelings of members when they engage with a particular process, tool, or service. Done successfully, journey mapping reveals pain points and process disparities, as well as areas of opportunity to deliver a better experience for the member, all while providing a visualization of a cardholder’s experience that can be used to share their story and encourage change.
By implementing these strategies, credit unions can ensure they not only meet but exceed member expectations through their tools and offerings. And no matter the solution whether contactless cards, mobile wallets, fraud tools, card programs, or others the member experience is always top priority.
Brian Scott is Chief Growth Officer at PSCU. He partners with industry leaders in payments and community financial institutions to create competitive payments programs. Brian helps credit unions position themselves competitively in their own communities and maintain profitability throughout their payments programs. He spent 23 years in the highly competitive consumer payments marketplace and is a recognized leader in payments solutions and innovative technologies. He is a frequent speaker on the future of payments, new payments trends, mobile banking, alternative payments, and how new payments technologies will transform the current banking space.
