By Ray Birch
TUKWILA, Wash.—Bury new members with too much information and they’ll soon become phantoms only rarely seen again by the credit union.
It’s far better to provide just the right amount of onboarding, advises BECU, which credits its new approach for leading 75% of new members who have joined in the past year to utilize it in their first 30 days.
BECU, which has been among the fastest-growing credit unions in the country, said it has fine-tuned and focused its new member onboarding program to produce “remarkable” results.
As Christmas and year-end approach, CUToday.info has launched a series examining the question of how well credit unions are doing in turning all those new members into profitable participants who cooperate in the cooperative.
The issue has never been more relevant, with record credit union membership growth expected to end this year above 4%. Credit unions added more than 3.964 million memberships in the first nine months of 2017, the fastest pace in credit union history, and significantly above the 3.539 million added in the similar time period of 2016, according to CUNA Mutual Group’s Trends Report.
But many of those members nationally never end up contributing to the co-op.
Targeted Messages
Lori Ho
The $17.5-billion BECU’s new approach focuses on fewer but targeted email communications that are based on who members are and how they interact with the credit union. That has led the CU to encourage three-fourths of those single-service members who joined this year to begin interacting with the credit union. BECU, however, said those results do not include indirect lending members—a much tougher membership to sell.
“We used to try to load up members early so they could be armed with everything needed to work with BECU. It used to be more like a one-time event,” she said. “Doing that overwhelmed members, we came to learn,” said Stacey Collins, director of experience and design, told CUToday.info.
Instead, in the first 30 days BECU focuses on making sure new members have what they need to interact with the credit union for daily needs.
“We want members easily transacting and utilizing us in the first 30 days,” said Collins. “Once they are able to do that, then doors open for conversations about more complex types of needs.”
BECU is using data analytics to target its messages.
“Since we launched this new approach we have had 75% of members who joined this year utilizing the credit union in the first 30 days. We find that remarkable,” said Lori Ho, senior manager of membership insights and strategy. “This program is very dynamic and is based on member behavior.”
Not Product Focused
Ho emphasized that the communications, which have now been reduced from seven touches in the first year to about four, are not product focused. She said the CU learned that initially it had gone “too wide” with the focus of its onboarding communications and that they were too many of them.
Stacey Collins
“The communications are about our services that help them do the basics,” said Ho. “They help members understand how to get money in and out of the credit union. We find that leads to an engaged member who then, down the road, takes more products and services from us. In my opinion engagement and utilization are two different things. If we get people using our core services we find they become more attached to the credit union.”
Like many credit union data reports show, the record membership growth can be attributed in part to credit unions’ rapidly increasing penetration in indirect lending. As CUToday.info reported here, CU Direct in August said CUs on its network are now the number-one auto lender in the nation.
Collins acknowledged research that shows two-thirds of new members begin using the CU quickly does not include indirect members. She said it continues to be difficult to get these members engaged with BECU.
“We don’t have the ability to communicate with them like we do our other new members because most indirect members don’t give us their email address, they don’t use our electronic services, and, in general, do not return our calls,” Collins said.
Indirect Efforts
Collins said the credit union has tried to ramp up communications with indirect members, but each time the results are poor.
“But we have conducted surveys with indirect members and received some good learnings,” added Collins. “We’ve learned how we can make their payment interactions with the credit union easier and more convenient. We hope that will open the door for higher utilization from them, and get them to take more products from BECU.”
For more in this series: