At my ATM, a message displays: “Quinton, how will you pay foryour daughter's college education in seven years?” It gives methree choices:

1. Take out a loan
2. Pay off mortgage early
3. Use savings

Surprised they know I have a daughter graduating in7½ years, I select option 2, pay off mortgage early. Thenext day, when I log onto Internet banking, I see an ad thatdisplays, “Pay off your mortgage early. Click here to create acustom seven-year loan.”

The link takes me to a streamlined wizard that walks me throughvarious fee, point and payment options and allows me to refinancemy home with a 7½-year, 3.61% fixed rate mortgage withno points and biweekly payments. The whole process takes less than10 minutes. I'll own my home just in time to pay for my daughter'scollege education. I have just experienced a personalizedworld.

Personalized products were the norm before the industrialrevolution, when things were crafted by hand and tailored to thebuyer's requests. But handcrafting products is expensive andtime-consuming. The Industrial Age ushered in mass production ofproducts, including affordable cars sold using Henry Ford's famoustagline, “You can have it in any color as long as it's black.”

The father of mass production found that to make productsaffordable for everyone, you had to make them identical and enmasse. You could have identical and affordable or custom andexpensive, but not custom AND affordable.

Along came computers, the Internet, electronic payments andovernight shipping, paving the way for custom and affordableproducts for the masses. For example, you can now go to thesmartUSA.com website and order a smart car in not only black butany color – even plaid.

This concept of mass customization was first conceived by StanDavis in the book “Perfect Future” 10 years ago. His premisewas that in the future, consumers would have highly customizedproducts at near mass-produced prices. Mass customization is,therefore, the means to affordable personalization.

I became aware of this personalization trend several years agowhile doing research on Generation Y. In presentations, I beganusing the example of the “Veggie Tales” CD I bought for my Gen Yson, which had his name, “Jared,” embedded in the songs. Later,M&Ms and Jones Soda created websites where you couldpersonalize their products with your own words or pictures.

Now Gen Yers are obsessed with making their playlists, phonesand social networking sites different from everyone else's. I don'thave to go to dozens of stores to find the perfect sleeping bag; Igo to a site like www.phdesigns.co.uk, where I cancustomize everything in a sleeping bag, down to the fill patternand which side it zips open.

Personalization is showing up everywhere: shoes, candy, monopolyboards, clothing – everywhere except the financial servicesindustry.

Today, members must shop around thousands of financialinstitutions to find the account or loan that fits their specificneeds. The ability to personalize a checking account or create acustom loan affordably simply does not exist. We are left with themanual craftsman-type customization that is expensive and slow.

So what does this mean for credit unions and technologyproviders? We must succeed at mass customization and thepersonalization of products if we want to be competitive in the newpersonalized world. According to the “Handbook of Research in MassCustomization and Personalization” by Frank T. Piller and MitchellM. Tseng, three capabilities are required to succeed at masscustomization:

1. Solution Space Development: We must define thevariety of needs a member has in a specific product area. What isimportant to them? What possible types of options do they want in,for example, a checking account?
2. Robust Process Design: We must reconfigureexisting technology and resources to efficiently fulfill thoseneeds. How can you adapt your existing processes to meet all theoptions outlined above in a fast, cost-effective way? (That'sprobably the hardest part.)
3. Choice Navigation: We must offer the memberthe ability to highly customize (co-create) the product using theoptions defined above with an interactive, intuitive configuratoror website. The site www.milkorsugar.com is a greatresource for finding websites that allow productcustomization.

How would you go about personalizing, say, a checking account?First, you must find out what range of options members want. Whatdo they value? Is it fees, interest rate, promotional items orcontributions to social causes? Second, you must select the rangeand quantity of those options and ensure they can fit within yourfulfillment capabilities. Finally, you need to build or work with avendor to create tools to configure the options within the checkingaccount and integrate with your systems for timely delivery.

What would that tool look like to members? It might be similarto the wizard on www.chocomize.com that allows youto select from more than 60 ingredients to create your own customchocolate bar.

Credit unions and technology providers must start now to createaffordable, personalized products and services for their members.If we don't adapt, we risk being replaced by those who embrace thepersonalization revolution. As Henry Ford would say today in ourpersonalized world, “Any color you want, including plaid.”

Quinton Hamelis offerings development director at Fiserv Inc.