Attracting, serving, and retaining Millennial members is not just a good idea, it’s critical to the future success of credit unions.
Consider the following:
- Millennial members (those between 17 and 35 years old) account for 25% of the American population. That’s a generation larger even than Baby Boomers.
- It may be hard to believe, but 71% of Millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to a banker!
- Three-fourths of Millennials are more excited about financial service offerings from Apple, Google and Amazon than from the banks.
- According to the Brookings Institute, four of the top ten most despised corporate brands belong to big banks! Bank of America, CitiBank, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase have been served notice — and so have credit unions, who have a tremendous opportunity to serve these same consumers who are thirsty to do business with organizations that share their values.
- Millennials are ten times as likely to use peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders than the average consumer, and companies such as The Lending Club have driven the P2P lending industry to grow to more than $1 billion.
- According to FICO research, Millennial consumers prefer to receive information from their financial institution in the following ways, ranked by popularity: 1) Email, 2) Text, 3) Bank Website and 4) Mobile.
- Nearly half of Millennials claim they receive too many irrelevant offers from their credit union, yet at the same time, 75% of them say they don’t receive too much information. The lesson? To be most effective and reach this important demographic, credit unions must send personally relevant information to its members.
- While it may be surprising, Millennials prefer mobile websites to mobile apps 2 to 1. FICO reports that 30% of Millennials with smartphones use no banking apps, and 45% of those don’t bank through their phones at all.
- Once Millennials have identified “a need” they have to fulfill, they follow a road map in their decision making process by seeking advice, doing research, making inquiries and judging responses.
- Credit unions can build membership amongst the Millennial demographic by generating organic growth. But creating “promoters” who lead their friends, family and colleagues to the credit union’s front door (or online portal), is easier said than done!
Success in serving Millennials stretches far beyond technology and social media. Your credit union needs a specific Millennial Strategy that includes the following:
- Product design
- Deep Knowledge About Your Market
- Pricing
- Effective Business Development Strategies
- Enhanced Consumer Insights
- Objective-Based Sales Programs
As the founding CEO of Darden Employees Federal Credit Union, which served Darden Restaurants, Inc. (which employs more than 125,000 Millennials), Jim Kasch has developed and deployed a proven success strategy that resulted in rapid growth and loyalty among this sought-after segment.
If your credit union needs to get younger, contact us for a complimentary consultation.