In these times of pandemic, everyone is affected to a certain level. Your Credit Union members might be worried about the current situation and the situation in the coming future. So, you need to understand the importance of building long term relations with your members and customers. To help you transform from transactions to relationships Andrew Downin presented his thoughts at the 5th Annual CULytics Summit.

Andrew is a Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at the Vantage West Credit Union. He holds expertise in covering insights in the mind of consumers and helps credit unions meet those needs through effective product design and promotion. His work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Credit Union Magazines, and Credit Union Times.

This is what he shared as part of his keynote:

A research conducted by Bain & Co. in 2016 shows that 29% of consumers would switch to Credit Union from Bank if it were easy to do. According to Andrew, we can make it easy for consumers to make up their minds to get associated with Credit Unions by following the three ways of transforming Relationships.

1. Inspire a Human Connection With your Philosophy:
   Customer is the key to survive in the market. And your business philosophy is something that can help you gain and retain customers.
   
   In an increasingly commoditized industry, it is important to boldly showcase your Credit Union’s reason for existence to win the trust of the consumers. Identity plays a major role in grabbing the attention of consumers. So, it is imperative to make your web presence distinguishable from the banks. It should reflect the potential of your Credit Union.

2. Build-in Incentives for Deeper Relationships:
   Financial institutions can use customer interactions as opportunities to discover the needs, expectations, and financial goals. Staying competitive with other players in the market can help you explore and implement things to build strong relationships with the consumers. A vital factor for the success of an organization is an effective relationship pricing model and make sure that your offerings- products and services- are unrivaled.

3. Rethink Your Hiring, Culture, and Compensation:
   Try to develop a relationship-based organizational cultural environment by working on core values, boundaries, accountability systems, and staff selection.
   
   It is important to keep an eye on the collective beliefs of the organization and amend them as per the demand. Evaluating limits placed upon employees and their operating units at regular intervals can help to improve the operations and respective outcomes. Another parameter for successful operations of a Credit Union is the measure of success and its accountability.

Finding the right talent is a tough nut to crack. So, make sure that the person you select for a certain job position is helpful to the consumer as well as participate in taking the organization to new heights of success.

Watch the Full Keynote Video along with other similar Keynotes HERE