Member Service in the Age of Tech Omnipresence

As the growth and ubiquity of technology tools in the financial services industry continues to rise, credit unions are quickly adapting to a wider and more varied landscape of consumer interaction and self-service. Add to that the millennial generation – likely the most studied generation to date and more than 80 million strong, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics – is technically savvy. A wired, connected world is all that millennials have ever known.

What this means for the financial services industry is that interactive technologies must, as Jake Wobbrock writing for Wired, notes, provide “the most usable, self-guided, hiccup-free, efficient user experiences in history.” Further, he notes, providing this particular demographic with efficient and intuitive user experiences isn’t just a matter of appeasing them, it’s “a necessity for the health of any … business’ bottom line. Industry research indicates that by 2017, the millennial generation will comprise the largest online audience and will have more buying power than any other generation that has come before it.”

But the kind of mindset that drives the desire and necessity for the brand of instantaneous, intuitive and engaging member-facing experience goes beyond this particular demographic. Art Papas, writing for Fortune, notes that “the so-called ‘millennial’ has become more than a demographic age group; it is a mindset. A way of looking at the world and, regardless of age, declaring, ‘there has to be a better way.’”