FRISCO, Texas - With marketing budgets tightening due to shrinking margins, leveraging CRM solutions to drive organic growth should be high among CU priorities, says technology giant Fiserv.
“Credit unions need to be very strategic with their marketing decisions with the aggressive competition in the marketplace,” said Dan Urscheler, offerings development director for Fiserv here. “Like all businesses, credit unions must manage costs and conduct smarter, more efficient marketing efforts than they have in the past.”
Urscheler believes that many CUs don’t use the right CRM tools, or don’t use the ones they have the right way.
“You know the old rule of software: A lot of times if you only use 20% you’re not getting the full value,” Urscheler said. “Or, you’re using a system that doesn’t really give you timely data or enough of it.”
Mass mailings don’t work either, Urscheler adds.
“Unless you have the ability to bring in data from multiple sources and massage it, then you’re not conducting an effective campaign. For example, if you live in an apartment and I send you something on home equity, that’s not effective. It also negatively affects members’ perception of the credit union for not understanding who they are.”
Urscheler says Fiserv’s CRM solution gives CUs a “360-degree view” of their members to understand households, and what types of services members have and how they are using them.
“It gives me a view of everything you are doing at that credit union so I can look at how I can strategically package services for you and price them.”
It’s not just the CRM tool that leads to better marketing, it’s the data itself, reminds Urscheler, who suggests that credit unions ask the right questions when new members come on board.
“Don’t just ask members to fill out a signature card,” insists Urscheler. “That’s a good time to start collecting information about what members do, who’s in their family, and their preferences. You can do on-boarding more effectively so the next message you send will be personalized, versus throwing the whole box at them and hoping something sticks.”
Fiserv’s CRM solution is designed to work with a Fiserv core system. It’s customizable and available in an ASP environment or in-house.
“The features are modular, so if you are a smaller credit union you might not want all of the bells and whistles and grow into it,” Urscheler said, citing too many variables to provide a cost figure. “These types of investments, if you use them correctly, pay for themselves quickly...a lot of credit unions I talk to are looking at margins and the spreads are getting tougher and tougher. Their marketing budgets are not growing and neither is membership. Organic growth is going to be critical.”
