Post-COVID Member Habits

 

It feels like no matter what, COVID-19 isn’t done with us. Schools, small businesses, healthcare providers, credit unions – we are all scrambling to find the best ways to keep our livelihoods intact and our families safe. And as such, this has affected how we do things, from day-to-day activities all the way up to prominent life events and important company decisions. And member habits are not immune to the pandemic, just like credit unions and leadership and innovation practices weren’t.

We’ve recently seen statistics and reports laying out post-COVID member habits look like. And most of these reports say the shift in habits is here to stay. Let’s talk about it.

Digital Trends Are Dominating

The gigantic shift from in-person to digital member services was due, in part, to the pandemic. While it’s true that each generation is more and more tech-savvy, older credit union member habits were rooted in just that – habits. While check fraud has been on the rise for decades, older members seemed to still place more inherent trust in their paper checks than in an online account. When many of the face-to-face member options were suspended, older members had to adjust their approach to include more digital options.

In 2020, international credit union membership grew by more than 14 million members. Digital banking solutions will continue to be the most important trend that affects your credit union’s future and should be the basis for continuity and growth planning.

According to Aux, 60% of 2021 survey respondents said they believe member usage of branches will never return to pre-COVID levels.

Women and Young Members Are Biggest Growth Opportunities

The World Council of Credit Unions released a 2020 Statistical Report that showed North America as having the oldest average age for members, at 53 years of age. Worldwide, credit union members are over the age of 45. There is a lot to be said about creating more Gen Z-centered marketing programs and modernizing your credit union’s digital presence.

This report also underscored the importance of creating more opportunities and campaigns to increase the number of women as members and in leadership roles. In Africa, Latin America, and North America, men hold more than 60% of leadership positions. This could hurt future expansion if your credit union hopes to attract more women to become members.

Financial Habits Are Shifting Towards Savings

A recent survey from Aux done from May to June of 2021 highlights areas of change and focus as it pertains to post-COVID member habits and feelings.

When participants were asked what areas they felt consumers will spend more on, the most popular answers were home improvement and travel. And many credit unions have noticed that lending is much less popular than saving right now, which means future loan campaigns and marketing efforts will be successful when they focus on these popular spending categories.

Elevate Your Credit Union to Match Member Habits Post-COVID

When Aux respondents were asked, “how they felt their members’ needs and values have changed…common themes were faster access to money and more digital tools.”

Digital transformation isn’t an abstract idea, it’s a global movement, and your members are depending on you and your credit union to offer the best online solutions to help them navigate this new normal with less friction and wasted time. Online account opening, Skip a Pay, and web loan applications are some of IMS Integration’s greatest assets that help credit unions meet and exceed their members’ expectations.

Check out our website for more information, or contact us today.


Tips for Streamlining Credit Union Operations

 

As credit unions become successful, they grow in size and complexity. And streamlining credit union operations sometimes gets put on the back burner, especially when your leadership has other things to worry about – like a global pandemic.

So let’s go through some top tips for streamlining credit union operations.

When To Start Streamlining Credit Union Operations

Business growth and substantial industry or environment changes are all primary catalysts for investing time and money into streamlining credit union operations.

The first step in a successful streamlining process is to recognize opportunities. Good leaders are not people who know everything, they’re more often people who know when to delegate tasks or defer programs and services to experts in other fields. Here are some ways to capitalize on those experts and opportunities.

Outsourcing Isn’t a Bad Thing

As a whole, the word “outsourcing” conjures images of entire factories and businesses moving their operations to other countries, typically in the pursuit of lower production costs. But your credit union doesn’t need that drastic of a change.

With the digital transformation that has arisen from the coronavirus pandemic also comes a huge shift, for many professionals, to gig work. There are so many more industries and professions being represented by freelancers than ever before, and this is often a great solution when your credit union is focused on streamlining. Are there duties or roles that have once-a-month, quarterly, or yearly tasks? These tasks, especially if they are in highly regulated fields like IT and accounting, can be easily outsourced to ease the burden on your teams without battling staffing issues or spending loads of time interviewing and hiring new full-time employees.

Consolidate Data Systems and Digital Tools

Do you remember the iPhone commercials about how smartphones offer seemingly endless solutions for anything and everything you could need in a day? The ones where every situation or problem was met with the phrase, “There’s an app for that.” This is more true now than it has ever been – there are dozens of tools, apps, and other digital solutions for any problem or request you’ll ever have.

But not all solutions are created equal. In fact, having too many solutions present in your credit union operations offers a great opportunity to pare down and focus on only the most effective tools. For example, Keystone is a popular digital solution with lots of built-in tools that can make your credit union’s online presence more accessible and more desirable for your members and employees. IMS Integration offers a line of Keystone solutions that include web loan applications, correlation solutions, online account opening, Skip a Pay, and more.

Look for Automation Opportunities

When looking for opportunities in streamlining credit union operations, automation is a powerful tool, if chosen wisely.

Repetitive, redundant, and tedious tasks are great candidates for automation.

Kickstart Your Streamlining Initiatives with IMSI: Keystone Infuzion

Oftentimes, streamlining your credit union operations means finding digital tools to help increase efficiency while keeping costs and employee hours down. IMS Integration offers comprehensive services and solutions from credit union experts. Our latest Keystone tool, Infuzion, was developed to streamline complex functions without the need to develop scripts or understand or build Java.

Request a consultation today for more information about our Keystone solutions, professional services, and credit union solutions.