Leverage Culture & Strategy to Satisfy Member Needs

Technology provides new and creative ways to connect with members.

Technology is moving at an ever-increasing speed and so is its impact on society. It’s not just your members who are affected – your employees are as well. Credit union leaders, including the board, must be ready. Leadership has a responsibility to stay on top of short-term and longer-term trends. Organizational culture must take societal changes into account, including technology’s growing impact. This ever-present change carries with it both threats and opportunities and your organization’s culture will determine the results.

As many futurists observe, humans have become somewhat cyborg-like with a smartphone glued to their hand and bluetooth buds in their ears. One study described how 25% of millennials glance at their phone every five minutes without an alert to prompt them. There is constant competition for “mindshare” – the level of awareness in the member’s mind that a particular product commands. Ever-increasing information flows continually bombard the member and organizations need to break through the noise to motivate members to act.

Technology is causing structural changes in member behavior, with market power shifting from organizations to consumers. Credit unions must take a hard look at these effects and trends that change member behavior. It is important to analyze and make sense of the increasing competition for attention, time and money, not just for today, but for where they will be in the future.