72% of credit union members have a bank account! That’s right! Recent research by Cornerstone shows that 72 percent of members not only have a bank account, but of those same members, 30 percent say their largest balances are with banks and 43 percent say that a bank handles most of their financial business.
Disloyalty? Maybe. But maybe not. Sometimes members just don’t know what is actually available. We may think all members are good listeners and readers with great retention skills, but often, when performing member studies and focus groups, we discover that even the simplest messages can go unnoticed or drowned out.
How can this be? Messages bombard Members every day with confusing alternate signals. The credit union may advertise a wonderful new or used car loan rate, but all day long the member also hears other financial institutions provide auto loans too. And when the actual act of shopping for a car takes place, and the member walks onto a dealer’s lot, the sales person has a whole new set of messages. All of these messages compete for the member’s attention and typically the last one that sounds like a real good deal wins. This may explain why just slightly more than 20 percent of members have their auto loans with the credit union.
Fortunately, exceeding that national average is not difficult. As the study and white paper “Moments of Truth” points out, “three principles, applied flawlessly, led the credit unions to outperform their peers, their competitors, and the industry.”
The ground work for discovering how the credit union fits into the members financial picture is to ask them, through research surveys and focus groups. Here at Cornerstone League we can help you in that discovery. Ask how you can improve your member retention and loyalty. Rick Grady and myself are both available to help in that process.