A Tailored SEG Approach

$1.2 billion/65,000-member Xceed Financial Credit Union, El Segundo, Calif., has found success serving select employee groups in the office supply (including Xerox and its subsidiary companies), real estate, insurance and hospitality sectors. The credit union serves about 43,000 members at 300 SEGs who represent about 126,770 accounts, according to Chief Marketing Officer Paris Chevalier, a CUES member. It is predominantly a workplace-chartered credit union that also has an underserved-area charter, which allows it to serve individuals in nine nearby communities.

Xceed Financial CU approaches marketing to SEGs through a variety of channels, tailoring its outreach to fit each company’s needs. The CU’s tactics include offering special promotions, working with employers to market directly to employees through emails and articles in company newsletters, and hosting Lunch and Learn financial education workshops at employer workplaces, says Chevalier. Personal relationship building, email and social media are used to coordinate marketing, branding and business development efforts.

Hospitality giant Wyndham Worldwide has been a recent focus for the credit union and now accounts for more than 250 SEG members and nearly 700 accounts, according to Chevalier. Members grew by 22 percent and accounts by 37 percent between October 2013 and October 2014—growth that can be partially attributed to an auto loan promotion that offered Wyndham members lower payments in return for their business.

Xceed Financial CU also created a financial wellness campaign in connection with Wyndham Worldwide’s wellness month, which resulted in a total of $660,000 in loan business as well as credit card accounts. The credit union has a fully staffed Xceed Financial Center at Wyndham’s offices in Parsippany, N.J.

For another SEG, Global Imaging, Xceed Financial CU instituted a loan restructuring program that enabled nearly 100 Global Imaging employees to save a total of about $350,000 over 12 months, Chevalier says. The CU also leverages health savings accounts to re-engage SEG members, she adds.

The credit union uses SEG Manager software to track new memberships and accounts. Chevalier says that between October 2013 and October 2014, SEG memberships increased by 8 percent, and SEG accounts increased by 12 percent.

Xceed Financial CU’s SEG members can access their accounts and other services through SEG-specific online portals, which track traffic levels and the number of unique visitors, providing the credit union with feedback about SEG promotions and programs, trends in consumer demands, and whether SEG representatives are sharing specific promotions with the SEG’s employees.

“Our SEG portals give us an at-a-glance look at the state of our SEG relationships,” Chevalier says. “If, for example, traffic is up in most SEG portals and down in others, we’ll take a close look at our relationships with those SEGs and determine where improvements can be made.”

Ann Dee Allen is a writer and editor based in the Midwest.