Credit unions need to connect data that will breakdown silos and create a member experience that is beyond anything that currently exists.
But how and who is accomplishing this effectively?
Look no future than the fitness app loaded on your smartphone.
Fitness/health apps have become masterful at creating impactful user experiences that provide detailed and precise information to the company. The end result is predictive and prescriptive product offerings that create personalized user experience that includes trust, retention and advocacy.
Here is an example to demonstrate.
A user selects a fitness app to achieve a specific goal. For the purpose of this example, it will be to achieve the goal of finishing a 15K race. The information collected on the app includes: street address and zip, age, weight, goal, running route data, running shoe (make, model and purchase date) and music.
The app manufacturer will gather the following insight on the user, including but not limited to; demographic and psychographic profiles associated to the zip, age and possibly music selection. The age, weight and goal are attributed to health indication and improvement. The route data, running, shoe, and purchase date give incredible product use information that may be for a competitor as well as their own product.
After sixth months of using the app, the user is sent a free pair of $12 running-specific socks produced by the fitness company that owns the app. Included is a note that informs the user that based on the amount they have run, it is time for new socks. The socks are the lowest entry point into the fitness company’s product line, so the company includes a coupon for $25 off my next purchase and free shipping available on purchases $49 or more.
The app becomes the conduit of the data collected. The fitness company engaged with a product after looking at my profile, propensity to buy as well as engage with the brand. The personalization in messaging and low entry to the product line, make the adoption flight risk relatively low. And the brand experience with the socks was positive to encourage purchase of more as well as engage in other items in the product line.
Simply put, the fitness company provided valuable item to the user before the user even knew they needed it.
Let’s deconstruct how this was accomplished a bit further. The user engages in the app in three many functions.
1) Tracking activity. This is collected automatically from a wearable or from the user entering it manually, or a combination of both.
2) Engagement. These apps use push notifications, gamifications, and connect to social community to actively engage the user in the app.
3) Purchase. This is usually subtle but incredibly precise
Taking it one step further, the app is part of a larger member engagement process TM shown below:
First Phase: Buying
Fitness firm develops app to gather valuable information on their current and prospective customers. The fitness firm understands that the ultimate value was to provide information to user. In a way, the app was a tool to the user to achieving a fitness goal/accomplishment, or dream. The app connected a combination of data that was user-generated and automatically uploaded from a device. As the fitness firm learned more about their target, they developed profiles about learned intimate information about how the app user consumed product.
Second Phase: Own
With very precise details about their target, it is simple for fitness firm to create product recommendations based on predictive analytics. As the app user collects more and more data about their performance, brand trust is established and product recommendations are valued.
The community feature attached to social media provides an easy way for the advocacy to occur and lead to future purchase and brand loyalty.
What would an auto loan look like if it were an fitness app?
Applying the insights from the fitness app example we know that an app is just an incredible engagement conduit between a company and its customers. And this does many things.
First, it engages the user with push notifications, gamification and user/automatic data entry. Second, it helps the company track the user and how they interact with the product, their life and how it achieves goal. Third, it helps create improved process and build better products and services to achieve user goals faster. This being said, this is what would member engagement with a credit union auto loan look like if it were a fitness app.
The engagement is more than just making a monthly payment; it is about experiencing the full ownership of a car, and just every so slyly being reminded that it is credit union that is helping to bring this car ownership experience to the member.
How can credit unions achieve this?
To create free socks experiences, credit unions need to collect/combine/analyze data and break down silos so they can provide member experience that is simple, clear and offers the following:
Easy and enjoyable engagement
Products and services that members want before they know they want them (free socks)
Achieves their goals and invests in their well being (trust)
Encourages advocacy