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LEVERAGE is excited to introduce a new, complimentary educational series sure to help your credit union remain ahead of the most pressing topics trending in the financial services operating space today. New this year we will host a bi-weekly webinar series where leaders from many of LEVERAGE’s partners will facilitate a discussion on issues and potential solutions for your credit union. So, plan on spending 60 minutes with LEVERAGE at 11:00 a.m. ET every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month in 2023 to keep abreast of the latest industry trends and solutions. The first Learning with LEVERAGE event will cover Tokenization and Mobile Wallets on January 10, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. EST. We can’t wait to see you there! |
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By Abbie Rodriguez, Senior Vice President of Lending Experience for CUNA Mutual Group Over the past, we’ve seen how technology has changed traditional distribution channels. This change increased significantly during the pandemic when members were forced to use digital channels for nearly everything in their lives. This presented new challenges that tested our strategies for meeting members where they are and best serving their needs. Key challenges moving forward in a digital-first, post-pandemic world. As we move into a post-pandemic environment, members live in a crowded digital marketplace. As a result, member expectations are higher, creating a new standard for digital touchpoints in their product purchase journey. Now more than ever, they want a convenient, simple, and intuitive experience. But, as industry insiders know, lending, insurance, auto applications, and claims may be confusing for members. So, how do we take on their changing needs? After observing some changes to the member journey, we found a couple of factors that we took into consideration when building products and experiences for our members. First, we seek to understand the member journey at a deeper level. We know that the member journey often starts digitally but doesn’t necessarily end digitally. Where there are multiple points of interaction, it gives us the opportunity to meet members on their preferred channel and provide them with relevant information that supports their decisions during their purchase journey. Second, we must improve their in-person experience, which must be highly personalized. Yes, we can leverage technology and streamline the early stages of the member experience, but the face-to-face experience also needs to be top-of-mind. There will continue to be times when your members want to connect with credit union staff, one-on-one. Some of those interactions might happen through a computer screen or over the phone, but at least in the near term, it’s unlikely your members will want to rely entirely on a digital experience. It’s critical for us to focus on digital-first, but not digital only. By understanding the types of interactions members are having with our products throughout their purchase journey – both digitally and face-to-face – we are better equipped to evolve and simplify our product solutions to increase member satisfaction, adoption, and awareness. A great example of this is our member claims experience. As member service expectations change, we look for ways to evolve our service model to continuously improve how we show up for our members. When a member is filing a claim, it may be a challenging or traumatic time in their life. They may be working through something that’s emotionally or mentally difficult. We can make the digital experience simple and efficient, but only people can deliver empathy and care in times of stress and hardship. So, we take that into consideration to create the right balance between digital and human touchpoints for the member journey. Designing products that could meet members’ digital expectations. Most members may say that insurance, lending, or filing a claim is confusing, and they may rely on actual people for help. When we think about a digital-first user, we know there are different expectations for each member. They may not have the same attention span without a loan officer or insurance agent sitting in front of them. However, at the heart of this experience, members still want to understand the value and the cost. This means we have to streamline the experience for the members and think about it through our product design as well. The key is leveraging data to enable highly personalized experiences that were previously delivered by humans. Within our organization, our culture around data – how we use it to drive insights, instrument our experiences, and fuel a test-and-learn strategy – is the biggest change in how we design new and innovative solutions. Technology and data help us create, for example, a great claims experience that is fast, streamlined, and able to pay claims as quickly as possible. Our culture of continuous testing and learning to meet changing expectations allows us to stay agile in a digital environment that’s always evolving. Our strategy of designing experiences and products that meet the “Member in the Middle” comes down to understanding the member journey at a deep level. This understanding is built on technology and data that compliments any in-person touchpoint following that first digital experience. Remember, digital-first doesn’t mean digital only. Abbie Rodriguez is the Senior Vice President of Lending Experience for CUNA Mutual Group. She can be reached at Abbie.Rodriguez@cunamutual.com. To learn more about how LEVERAGE and CUNA Mutual Group can assist your credit union, email consult@myleverage.com. |
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Credit Union Financial Services (CUFS), a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), specializes in mortgages for credit union members. Whether you’re looking for a full-service mortgage financial partner or a-la-carte services, CUFS can customize the partnership your credit union needs. CUFS provides a full suite of mortgage products and services to credit unions and their members throughout the southeast. Credit unions can partner with the CUSO to implement and/or grow their mortgage lending programs while also offering a new benefit to their membership. CUFS partnerships also include staff training, member counseling and training, mortgage marketing materials, and bi-monthly performance reporting – all at zero cost to the credit union. To learn more about how LEVERAGE and CUFS can assist your credit union, visit https://myleverage.com/solutions/cufs.php or contact us at consult@myleverage.com. |
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Glia, available from LEVERAGE, breaks down the walls of traditional member support by combining all communication means into one unified, digital member service experience that is always on-screen and starts wherever the person is. Regardless of where it begins, each interaction can easily and seamlessly move between channels, without losing continuity and context or having to restart the conversation – gone are the days of “Please re-enter your...” Reducing Member Effort Credit unions thrive on the high-touch, personalized one-to-one service they offer. Glia reduces member efforts by offering:
Enterprise Reliability and Security Glia’s platform was architected from the ground up to exceed the security, reliability, and compliance needs of the most demanding financial enterprises. Glia masks out sensitive form fields on-screen and encrypts interactions to ensure privacy, security, and peace of mind for customers and agents. Glia runs on a hardened Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, using the latest encryption technologies and independently deployable microservices to ensure scalability and high availability. Dedicated GSEC-certified security staff and SOC-2 audited controls provide end-to-end security validated by independent experts and major financial institution security/compliance teams. To learn more about Glia, visit https://myleverage.com/solutions/glia.php or contact us at consult@myleverage.com. |
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In a world in which Cyber Security can never be taken for granted, organizations must be positioned to handle the unexpected. To support the ever-increasing Cyber Security needs of credit unions, LEVERAGE has teamed with PIVOT Group to focus on effective solutions for auditing, assessments, and compliance services. PIVOT Group has a 17-year history of providing Cyber Security solutions in order to protect data and systems, and comply with Information Security and Data Privacy regulations. The PIVOT Group is dedicated to protecting today’s credit unions from the multitude of current and emerging security threats and has developed compliance offerings that incorporate analysis and execution of the following elements:
PIVOT Group is the only neutral firm that solely focuses on Information Security services. Rather than selling or reselling technology, our unique organization redefines Information Security by tailoring solutions. We take the fear out of Information Security and help Credit Unions make it a business enabler and competitive advantage. Our international consultant practice delivers the complete life cycle of security services that meet the business, resource, and regulatory requirements of our clients through working with our clients on the following elements:
To keep your credit union protected, visit https://myleverage.com/solutions/pivotgroup.php or contact a LEVERAGE Business Development Consultant at consult@myleverage.com. |