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Full-fledged omnichannel delivery has arrived at a few credit unions. For others, it is just around the bend. For still others, it remains a distant vision. For all credit unions that aim to serve members seamlessly across remote and person-to-person touchpoints, marketers are working alongside technology and operations colleagues to develop and implement supporting strategies.
At $943 million/65,000-member Xceed Financial Credit Union, for example, Chief Marketing Officer Paris Chevalier says, “Marketing plays a key role in every aspect of the member experience, beginning at the conceptual stage all the way through to design and strategy, and then member outreach and education when we roll out new capabilities or features. We also lead the ongoing process of gathering and sharing member feedback about how we’re doing and what we can do better.”
Collaboration among marketing, IT, e-strategy, and member engagement professionals has been instrumental “in bringing multichannel innovations to our members quickly and efficiently,” says Chevalier, a CUES member, of the El Segundo, Calif., credit union.
What is Omnichannel?
Defining what omnichannel delivery means for your credit union may be the first in a long line of challenges in developing and implementing this strategy. Sam Kilmer, senior director with CUES Supplier member and strategic partner Cornerstone Advisors, Scottsdale, Ariz., notes that this term has reached buzzword status, touted by vendors and research firms oriented toward banking giants. Because omni means “all,” the term may default to “go focus on everything,” which is not all that useful or doable.
“I think the new focus might be ‘How do we recognize that people move across these channels?’” Kilmer suggests. “People might start their interaction with the credit union using their mobile phone, searching ‘Where is the nearest branch?’ or ‘Where is a good place to get a loan?’ Then they may start a mobile or online conversation and complete that conversation in a branch, or vice versa.”
Developing and implementing an omnichannel approach requires all hands on deck.
“Historically, you wouldn’t have both the person who is driving a lot of mobile and online expertise and the person overseeing marketing expertise in the same conversations,” Kilmer says. “The industry has figured out how to transact across multiple channels—by branch, by ATM, by online and mobile banking solutions. The struggle that many credit unions and banks have right now is how to converse and market across multiple channels.”
The end goal is a “tailored experience within a multichannel world,” says Steve Shaw, VP/strategic marketing for digital channels and electronic payments with CUES Supplier member Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis. “Consumers’ expectations change based on the task they are doing and on the way they want to interact with their CU.
“Trying to deliver the exact same type of experience and same content across all these different channels may actually confuse members,” Shaw says. “They don’t want all kinds of details on their mobile device. They just want to get in, make a transaction, and get on with their lives. They expect an entirely different experience when they’re conducting research on their tablet, using an ATM, or interacting with the CU in person.”
In short, a central challenge is about “the optimization of the member experience based on method of engagement,” suggests Tim Daley, a director with Cornerstone Advisors. “How do I make these engagements positive regardless of how you choose to engage with me?”
It’s not just about making sure usability and navigation are right for each device, but designing the verification process and level of information requested for each channel. As just one example, member service reps taking a loan application may ask more and different questions than a smartphone application would require, Daley notes.
At Xceed Financial CU, a central aim of the omnichannel approach “is broadening member access to their accounts at all touchpoints,” Chevalier says. Toward that end, the credit union launched its Xperience Center—the option to initiate a video chat—as a means for members to connect quickly with an associate via mobile, online or other remote access. “We’re adding Xperience Centers, along with ATMs, onsite at some key SEG locations,” she notes. (Read more about this in “Mobile Movers and Shakers”)
The Medium and the Message
For marketers, omnichannel delivery is the latest evolutionary step in using data “to drive the right message about the right product through the right channel at the right time,” says Kevin O’Connor, SVP/chief financial officer with CUES Supplier member CU Solutions Group, Livonia, Mich.
Many marketers already rely on technology to identify members’ product and channel preferences through demographic, geographic and psychographic data analytics. The next level is applying that business intelligence across all the channels members may select.
“We need to use data to be the medium, the seer into the future, on how they want to engage with us, where they want to engage with us, and when they want to engage with us,” O’Connor suggests.
A crucial tool to accomplish that aim is a system for tracking member interactions across channels so, for instance, branch employees can suggest a product or offer assistance on completing an application based on an inquiry or transaction a member has made via a remote channel, says Mike Eckstein, director of business insights for FocusIQ, a targeted marketing/data program from CU Solutions Group. Thus, optimizing omnichannel delivery entails not only providing superior service across channels but also the ability to track and support those interactions.
“Orchestrating the data, the messaging, and the delivery systems is no small task, and I would say most CUs don’t have the resources or expertise to execute across all these strategies,” O’Connor says. “Managing all the data on how members prefer to do business and developing strategies based on that information is a pretty big task.”
A tandem challenge for marketers is applying brand consistency and aligning key messaging across channels so members receive personalized communications without feeling under siege from repetitive offers, he adds.
Eckstein concurs. “Omnichannel marketing, by definition, is a very responsive endeavor,” he says. “If members are interested in a certain product or service, we need to communicate through the best channels to assist them in their decision-making process. From a marketing standpoint, the messaging and communications opportunities via omnichannel can enable a much more effective way to close the loop on sales.”
Leveraging data and technology to understand how individual members prefer to interact with the CU and which products and services to offer via their preferred channels has the potential to be more efficient than mass marketing, Shaw says.
“Members don’t want to see a banner ad on their mobile device that gets in the way when they’re checking their balance,” he notes. “But if they’re paying a bill on their smartphone, they may appreciate a relevant offer from a merchant available through the mobile channel. If they’re making a loan payment to another institution, they may want an offer for a better rate. Understanding where members want to get those offers and how they want them presented is very much a marketing responsibility.”
Daley agrees. “Marketing has a key role to play in building the omnichannel experience because it can provide that brand value and member experience filter for the rest of the organization.”
Better Together
Technology systems and partners are available to help credit unions collect and analyze the data and develop the content, timing and delivery of marketing messages across channels. However, “fully integrating and implementing to the fullest extent of what omnichannel could be poses a considerable technological challenge in terms of integrating the front-end and back-end systems for a credit union,” Eckstein cautions. “There are some things you can implement for front-end marketing, but full integration of the back-end systems tends to be the more difficult piece of the puzzle.”
Optimally, omnichannel access is delivered through a single uniform platform, which simultaneously provides seamless access for members and allows the credit union “to track, report, and measure any member interactions in any channel,” says Tiffani Montez, VP/operations with Terafina, San Francisco.
Putting that infrastructure in place may require extensive planning to consolidate back-end systems and processes and to communicate with members via channels and offers that reflect their preferences.
But the return on that investment in consolidating systems and streamlining member-facing processes can be significant, Montez says. For example, one CU Terafina worked with found that 17 percent of its members added a second product to their shopping cart, such as a credit card or auto loan refinance in addition to a checking account, when given the opportunity to complete multiple transactions with a single application.
More Than Technology
Integration is tough at CUs that have “bolted on” different delivery systems for products and services, such as credit card processing and online and mobile banking through the years, O’Connor cautions. Marketing, operations and IT specialists need to collaborate on systems and data analytics integration across channels.
In 2013, $300 million/46,000-member SunWest Federal Credit Union’s management team took a long look at organizational philosophy in the light of members’ evolving preferences for remote access. While acknowledging that technology would play a larger role in member service, “we still wanted to remain a people-first CU,” says Jeff Morrow, director of marketing at the Phoenix CU. “We looked for partners to make banking easier and simpler, while keeping the member relationship top and center.”
To accomplish those intertwined goals, SunWest FCU decided to consolidate its website and online banking and launch a mobile app through a single provider, Fiserv. Planning and implementation was led by a cross-functional work group of marketing, IT, operations, call center and training specialists. At the same time, the credit union also expanded its ATM network and remodeled branches to underscore its omnichannel commitment.
Even after the new online and mobile channels were introduced in June 2014, the group has stayed in business, continuing to spearhead new initiatives, including an overhaul of the website planned for this year.
Omnichannel conversations “almost always start with ‘What technology do I need to buy?’” Kilmer says. “Generally speaking, for every amount of effort or resource you put into a new technology, several multiples of more effort are required to figure out all the processes that work across them to connect systems and get people working better together.”
As one step toward integration, Kilmer suggests eliminating from your vocabulary the word “department,” which implies a separation and segmentation of responsibilities.
“The people who do marketing—which is a lot of people in the credit union, not just people in the marketing department—work throughout the organization,” he insists. “Sales, service and delivery are converging into an integrated user experience.”
Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Middleton, Wis.
