Creating a Better Member Experience through Cross-Selling

• Mar 11, 2023
• By BBN News Desk

BY RYAL TAYLOE Still thinking of cross-selling as a pushy tactic? Your customers or members might not be in agreement. In fact, many of today?s branch customers are viewing cross-selling as very desirable proof that their needs are being anticipated. Discover why cross-sales are vitally important to your branch and how to make such efforts more effective. ?Cross-selling? is the practice of selling or suggesting complementary products. While many people consider crossselling a negative or predatory practice, if done effectively, it can actually help your branch create a better customer experience. Think about it: If you could effectively provide additional products and services that your customers want, when they want them, you would not only improve your bottom line. You would also change the whole dynamic of your relationship with each customer by showing your ability to anticipate his or her needs. Given the way your customers interact with anticipatory technology like Google, Apple and Amazon in their everyday lives, it?s not surprising more and more members expect their branch to have the ability to similarly predict their needs. Further, the best opportunity for growth often lies in a credit union?s existing membership. Driving growth organically among an existing member base is more cost effective than acquiring new members. What?s more, it fosters a culture geared toward creating great member experiences. For these reasons, the ability to cross-sell products is vitally important to credit unions. According to a 2013 Gallup Survey, which surveyed 9,000 financial services customers, one in every five individuals opened a new account or signed up for a new service from their financial institution during the previous six months. Gallup also found that those individuals who are ?fully engaged? with a financial institution were much more likely to buy an additional product than those who are just ?satisfied.? For example, while less than 45 percent of satisfied customers surveyed by Gallup said they would consider their bank or credit union the next time they needed a product or service, that consideration increased to 83 percent among customers who were both satisfied and engaged. These latter members are more likely to open a new account, add ancillary products and services, and/or obtain planning advice than those who are merely satisfied. In other words, fully engaged members are very open to the cross-sell. Once your credit union understands the importance of cross-selling and is ready to take the next step, Gallup offers the following tips to making your cross-sell marketing program more effective: 1. Identify the most engaged customers (accounts held,transactions made, etc.) and review the products already held with your institution. 2. Model the best relationships as the foundation for building similar relationships with less engaged households. 3. Make product recommendations based on event triggers, account ownership trends, market changes, etc. Increase insight gathering from members to improve this process. 4. Make sure marketing offers are customized based on the member relationship, regardless of the channel being used for marketing. Provide flexibility to employees and personalize all marketing communication. 5. Leverage analytics on previous behaviors at the member/household level to improve targeting, timing and offer selection. When it comes to identifying the most engaged users and reviewing their accounts, bank and credit unions can utilize today?s technology to help equip member service representatives (MSRs) with visibility into each member?s financial profile. Such a perspective will allow them to quickly and easily see a global view of the relationship a member has with an institution. This same technology can also help improve targeting, timing and offer selection (#5). Instead of simply processing transactions, answering questions and resetting passwords, front-line software can be increasingly valuable to tellers and MSRs. More specifically, its data can be used to prompt them to offer specific products and services to meet members? needs. This includes notifications if a member is suitable for certain products, creating lists of members who are not actively using a service and even composing scripts for employees to help make offers to members more effectively, whether they are physically in the branch, on the phone, exchanging emails or interacting via social media (#4). SAFE Credit Union, a $2.1 billion credit union headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., is one institution that has successfully used technology to enhance the experience of its more than 180,000 members. Although the credit union recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, SAFE continues to evolve by embracing modern technology and implementing online and mobile solutions. By using cloud-based technology to manage member data and relationships and to anticipate members? needs, SAFE is able to effectively target its members with the right financial products and services at the right time. As CEO Henry Wirz explains, ?When you know your member(s) well and you can anticipate what they need and actually be with them at the moment of inspiration and be responsive, that?s a great experience.? SAFE is not alone in this thinking. According to The Financial Brand, in 2014 more than 50 percent of financial institutions surveyed indicated that ?Data Analytics, Big Data? are becoming essential in successfully cross-selling and meeting members? needs. Leveraging technology that provides this ?on-demand? information enables tellers and MSRs to make informed decisions about what products could enhance a member?s banking experience or best meet his or her needs. Cross-selling lending products can prove to be extremely complex, especially as it relates to the fast-growing category of business loans, which are not as straightforward and simple to underwrite as consumer loans. For many credit unions, handling business loans can be considered as much an art as a science. The arduous process of analyzing business credit requires the completion of an incredible volume of financial information and credit checks. It is typically accompanied by a lengthy underwriting and approval process to look at a variety of indicators that can be slightly different for each credit decision. Often it is difficult to track down all the necessary information needed to make a credit decision due to manual processes and disparate software systems housing the information. As a result, credit decisions are prolonged. To effectively cross-sell the appropriate loan products at the appropriate time, particularly for member business loans, automatic decisioning tools are becoming increasingly valuable. Auto-decisioning can also help you gain and retain business when used as a preapproval method. It is critical for the institution to aggregate information to suggest products or services to members at the right time. For instance, think about a member who does not have a credit card. What if your teller handling a transaction for that member could tell her that she has already been preapproved with a specific credit limit and that completing the necessary paperwork would take her no additional time? ?Just e-sign the form right there on the spot and the transaction can be finalized.? Take that one step further. A member who also has his business account with the credit union may be a good candidate for a $100,000 line of credit (LOC). Imagine saying to that member, ?We can have that LOC available for you today and at a tenth of the rate of an alternative lender.? In today?s competitive market, cross-selling can make a huge difference to a credit union?s bottom line, and more importantly, it can transform the member experience. Credit unions that do not invest in tools to help them compete risk losing business to emerging alternative lenders that promise they can turn around a business loan decision in as little as one day. Despite more players entering the arena, credit unions are poised to become the lender of choice; most have the deposit volumes to support offering more competitive rates than any other type of lender. By accelerating the decision-making process, anticipating members? needs and offering them the right products and services at the right time, cross-selling can help your credit union create better member experiences. Are you ready to delight your members? .

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