By Frank J. Diekmann
Perhaps it really did lead to some looks of astonishment and a few WTFs and we just didn’t notice behind all the medical masks, but one recently released survey meets all the requirements of a scary Halloween for credit unions. Or perhaps the survey is just a scary mask and behind it things aren't so frightening.
The survey found 40% of credit union members with adult children say they do not want those children to have an account at the same CU at which they belong.
Not that people seem to have matched their opinions with research, as the same survey further found nearly half have no idea with which institution their adult children do their banking, and more than half say the reason those same adult children aren’t members of the parents’ credit union is they moved.
I’d be interested in hearing what you think of the reasons why? Some intergenerational thing? Or maybe it was the survey methodology itself and the way questions were asked?
The survey is the second with related findings and was conducted and released by Access Softek, Inc., a digital banking platform provider. As CUToday.info reported here in June, the company released an earlier survey that found a majority of children of credit union members had not joined their parents’ credit union.
Doesn’t Smell Right
Are parents just not creating accounts for their kids anymore? I recognize many CUs have moved away from formal children’s accounts, but that doesn’t smell right. And it doesn’t add up either that members drive to another financial institution to open accounts for the offspring rather than just doing so in the lobby (or app) they are already in.
The new survey, conducted by Google Surveys between July 9, 2020 and July 13, 2020, found 42% of respondents had no idea where their adult children chose to bank, which is probably the least of the things they know about their kids.
When asked why a majority of adult children chose not to bank at their parents’ credit union, most respondents – 55% – cited moving away as the reason why they chose to bank at a different institution. Additionally, nearly 28% cited there was no reason for their children to bank at the same institution as them, Access Softek said.
I think the above is the key here and why the topline findings may be a bit misleading. This isn’t some intentional shunning of the parents’ credit union or, and it’s almost implied at first blush, shunning credit unions in general. The kids moved out and moved on.
The more important data point that needs to be uncovered here is missing: was a credit union in the adult child’s consideration set when looking for a new FI? Was the “credit union” brand burnished so strongly in the young person’s mind while growing up that he/she didn’t know where they would be opening an account in their new locale, they just knew it would be at a credit union.
Dad’s Oldsmobile?
Or, did the CU do such an average job of building a relationship with the child all the years they were growing up that he/she thought of a credit union as something akin to dad’s Oldsmobile, and they wanted something they perceived as new/fresh so they walked into a branch of a bank convenient to them (remember most of the findings would be based on behavior prior to the pandemic).
If the latter is the case, suddenly those kids’ accounts take on new importance, perhaps not for your CU, but for all CUs.
“This highlights a unique opportunity to improve digital offerings in order to better serve remote members,” the company said in its analysis. “If location is the biggest issue, making the credit union’s services – everything from account opening, to lending, to investing – available digitally is key to keep serving families across generations.”
Or maybe the survey just included the kinds of folks most often seen on an episode of Dr. Phil. Access Softek reported that when survey respondents were asked if they would like their children to have an account at the same credit union as them, nearly 90% said they were either neutral or to some degree actively wanted separation from their children’s financial institution.
The Shocker
“Shockingly, 38.2% of respondents stated that they do not want their kids to have an account at the same credit union as them,” the company said, adding it will be a challenge on the part of credit unions to turn the tide on this neutrality, especially those that lean toward the negative side.
That last finding makes me think of the so-called Friends & Family offerings many CUs have, which mistakenly assume family are friends.
What do you think?
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of the new book, ‘501 Name Tags: Everything You Need to Know About Business Can be Learned at a Conference & Forgotten in the Trade Show.” For info: www.501nametags.com.