My mother loves to sew, and she has been good at it for a long time. As a kid, she won her first sewing machine in a sewing contest. When I was a kid, she made clothes for us because we couldn’t afford the trendy stuff. I won’t lie, the three-quarter sleeve sport coat she whipped up for my first middle school dance (think Miami Vice), was a real hit with the ladies. Today, her time at the sewing machine is helping mend her heart after losing her husband of 59 years. All this to say, sewing is important to her.
Last week, like many Gen-Xers, I was fulfilling my responsibility as first-line tech support, attempting to help mom with an Android issue despite being solidly Apple in expertise. As I fumbled my way through her phone, she said, “I’ve been using that YouTube app. There are some great sewing videos, but sometimes I wonder if they make videos about anything else.”
Mom was describing personalization and tailored recommendations, pardon the pun. YouTube is pretty good at them, and they have become table stakes for consumer engagement. Like the “special” scissors she uses to cut through fabric (and that I was sternly advised never to touch as a child), personalization is what cuts through the “noise” we experience in daily life. Brands that are good at it win our attention. Those that aren’t, well, they don’t.
As credit unions, there is a lot of noise to cut through if we want our members, and potential members, to understand their financial life is better when it’s supported by People Helping People. The question is, where are our “special” scissors?” Through our partnership with Vertice AI, we have those scissors for you here at Vizo Financial.
To become skilled at personalization, we must stop making assumptions about what resonates with our members and start leveraging evidence, aka data, to be sure. Just like my mom thinks YouTube must be all about sewing, we want our members to think our credit union is exclusively about them. And, again, just like YouTube, digital channels are where our credit union needs to make that connection.
We need our disparate data turned into actionable insight; it’s no longer an option if you want to stay relevant. Thankfully, that’s exactly what our partners at Vertice AI do. Think about your credit union, and consider the following:
- Who are our most engaged members? How did they get that way?
- What products and services are most relevant to our members? What drives their participation with our credit union, and why?
- Which members are we at risk of losing, and why?
- What are we learning from member behavior that informs our strategic planning?
Evidence-based answers to these questions, and many others, are the beginning of a journey toward effective personalization. If you’re answering them based on assumptions, unfortunately, other financial institutions are ahead of you on the path.
At Vizo Financial, we want you to leverage Vertice AI to catch up, and we may even invest in the partnership to help you get started. At the risk of overusing the metaphor, we have your scissors, and for the first time in your life, you’re being encouraged to run with them. Let us help you tailor a bright future for your credit union!