At Money 20/20 USA in 2019, thousands of financial professionals gathered to discuss the future of money. CO-OP was onsite to help represent the credit union industry and measure our movement’s progress relative to the rest of the financial services industry.
Here were five takeaways for credit unions we gathered from Money 20/20:
1. 4 in 10 users will leave your mobile site with 3+ second load time
While there is no one channel, device or category-leader dominating financial services it has become clear that eliminating friction for the end-user must be a top priority.
A study presented by Facebook revealed that consumers are increasingly lowering their threshold for what they consider to be a slow or unsatisfying experience: 4 in 10 users will leave your mobile site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load! Facebook estimates that nearly $213 billion in annual transaction volume is lost due to friction.
Takeaway: Understanding points of friction in your members’ experience (and addressing them) is critical to achieving long-term loyalty. That’s why journey mapping can help give you full transparency into how you’re performing, whether it’s onboarding a new member or resolving a fraud dispute.
Read our Member Journey Research report analyzing over 2,000 individual member journeys and how credit unions can drive superior member experiences.
2. 50% of customer attrition is due to lack of personalization
Over 50% of customer attrition in financial services is due to lack of personalization, according to John Thomas, Head of Enterprise at TD Bank. Members expect you to know who they are and be able to anticipate their needs. At the same time, members want to hear directly from you. Over 70% of people over the age of 35 would be open to receiving text messages from their banking provider, Facebook revealed.
Takeaway: Data has unlocked a tremendous opportunity to understand and engage your members. That data can and should be used to engage with them on a more human level, potentially through new digital channels.
Discover how to leverage your existing member data to create targeted campaigns that increase card penetration, activation, and usage.
3. Humanizing Technology is the Key to Making it Sticky
Consumers are exposed to new products, apps and services every day; but even the most relevant and useful technology doesn’t always resonate with them. One big reason technology fails to be sticky: it doesn’t connect with them on a human level.
To address that, fintechs are focusing on technology like voice-enablement because it mimics a human-like interaction with a machine. According to Juniper Research, 2.5 billion consumers are already using voice-powered devices or digital assistants and that number is expected to increase 3X over the next five years. At Money 20/20, Amazon announced their latest investment in voice-enablement: voice-activated bill payments through Alexa. The goal, according to Patrick Gauthier, VP of Amazon Pay, is not simply to make it easier to pay bills, but to make the experience feel more human to the end-user: voice enables devices to speak the language of humans, rather than the other way around.
It is also important to make sure your existing technology feels human to the user, said CO-OP President & CEO Todd Clark at the Underground Collision panel. He pointed out that when introducing a new product or feature to your members, it is vital to bring it down to a human level, helping them understand how it impacts them as a person: “technology is a powerful tool, but we still need to humanize it for our members.”
Takeaway: As you invest in your digital strategy, don’t neglect the human element of technology. Think about how you can promote new products and services within the context of your members’ daily lives.
For example: how to position card controls and alerts as a tool for generating peace of mind with parents sending their kids back to school.
4. Half of Millennials Say Access to Financial Literacy Tools Was a Big Factor in Choosing a Checking Account
Unsurprisingly, a big part of the conversation at Money 20/20 was around millennials and young consumers, specifically what they’re looking for from financial providers. As the generation with the most student loan and credit card debt, young consumers are craving tools and insights that help them better manage their finances. Jason Wilk, CEO of financial wellness startup Dave, revealed that 4 in 10 young consumers have never created or used a budget.
Takeaway: Promoting financial literacy is a big opportunity for credit unions. In fact, Patelco Credit Union President/CEO Erin Mendez shared how “financial health” has become central to the redesigning of both Patelco’s products and their overall brand.
Read our latest whitepaper “What’s in the Cards for the Millennial Market” to learn how to build a credit card program that appeals to millennials and Gen Z’ers.
5. Uber Money is proving Big Tech is here (in the financial services industry) to stay
Innovation was on display from banks, credit unions, fintechs and startups. Even Uber made their entry into the payments space with launch of Uber Money, which will start with digital wallets for drivers and eventually expand to consumer credit and debit products.
The pace of innovation is faster than it has ever been, which means that even the biggest financial industry players can’t keep up on their own. Instead, more businesses are turning to strategic partnerships to help them solve their customers’ pain points faster without significantly increasingly infrastructure and operational costs.
Takeaway: As the competitive landscape for credit unions continues to grow, partnerships and a cooperative spirit will be the key to long-term growth. Together, CO-OP represents 60 million members worldwide and remain a steady force for promoting financial wellbeing and mission-driven financial services.
Now is the time to double down on being a financial provider of the future. Join hundreds of other credit union professionals at THINK 20 – August 17-20, 2020 in Dallas, Texas. Register before March 20th and save $300 off the regular registration rate:
The original article 5 Counterintuitive Take-a-ways for Credit Unions from Money 20/20 can be found on Insight Vault.
