This week, LifeCents is continuing to dive into the pressing issues and emerging trends that impact credit unions. This blog post is the third in our credit unions series. You can read part one of the series here and part two here.

In our first post in this series, we highlighted the importance of member engagement for credit unions by demonstrating how credit unions can successfully engage their members to position their businesses for success. In short, when members believe that their financial institution looks out for their financial well-being, 84% of those people are fully engaged (attitudinally loyal and emotionally attached to the bank), while none are actively disengaged (lacking any kind of strong connection).

Engaging members successfully helps credit unions sustain growth, increase member value, strengthen member relationships, and improve long-term member retention. However, while member engagement is a priority, doing it successfully can be challenging. The key to successful engagement is having the right data on your members, but getting the right data requires engagement. It’s a paradox of sorts.

So, how can you get this data? Well-designed financial wellness programs that are implemented properly are the answer.

The right financial wellness program can provide an abundance of relevant data that your credit union needs to successfully engage your members—and even prospective members. A program that is designed correctly can help you discover who your members are—what makes them tick and what motivates them. Through this process, you will gain invaluable insights (aka data) about their needs, interests, and goals. These robust profiles represent a gold mine of opportunity that enable you to:

• Establish a personal connection with your members. A personal connection is the key to creating a lasting relationship with your new and existing members. The right data enables you to create, sustain, and strengthen your relationships because you gain much needed insights into your members’ priorities and goals, now and in the future.

• Create targeted messages and relevant communications for your member. The data and insights you gain create nearly unlimited opportunities to respond to the specific needs of your members. In fact, you will be able to fine-tune, customize, and deliver the right message to the right people at the right time. This highly-personalized approach reinforces to your members that you are not only listening to them, but you are also responding to their specific needs.

• Position the right products and services to the right members. Data can provide insights into the financial needs, priorities, and goals of your members. This creates unique opportunities to connect members to the products and services that are relevant to their specific circumstances. For example, data can tell you when your member may be looking to purchase a house, and with that insight your organization can be ready to provide them with the relevant products and services needed at the right time.

• Help your members improve their financial health and well-being. As a credit union, your goal is to help your members live a financially healthy life and to achieve financial security. Data will help you understand the current financial health of your members, where they need to go, and how to help them get there.

Data driven financial wellness programs deliver measurable value to credit unions by helping to improve member engagement and to address their financial needs. This kind of data-driven approach will also strengthen relationships with your members, extend the lifetime value of your members, and enhance your brand and market position. Equally important, data focused financial wellness programs enable you to reinforce that you put your members first and can, in fact, help them achieve financial security.

Interested in learning more about LifeCents? Contact us at info@lifecents.com to schedule a demo.