Discovery Presentation
Posted by Matt Dean on June 23rd, 2007
Thank you again for coming to our presentation on Generation Y: The Future of Credit Unions. Bryan and I both appreciated the opportunity to share our thoughts with you and hope that you walked away with a better understanding of your Gen Y members and some ideas about how you can be relevant to an increasingly-important generation.
Any questions?
Are there any questions about Generation Y that we didn’t cover? We’d love to hear them in the comments, or you can contact me at matt@trabian.com.
Here is the experiment we conducted during the session: http://www.opensourcecu.com/articles/2007/6/22/conducting-an-experiment.
You asked for comments about serving Gen Y.
SAFE Credit Union once served the employees of McClellan Air Force Base. The base was closed as part of the base closure process. By 2000 the base employees were gone. SAFE made the decision to open the field of membership and become a community credit union.
The change was a good for SAFE and it was our first step in the right direction to increase our Gen Y membership.
Our prior field of membership was workplace oriented. Our new members heard about the credit union at work. Because our sponsor was not hiring we did not have a good source of young members. Our branches were mainly in the workplace or near the workplace so we didn’t cater to family members but instead catered to the workers on the base.
We have now built a 20 branch network with branches located in neighborhoods where there are a lot of single family residences. The branches attract home owners who have families. The first step in building our Gen Y membership was to sign up the entire family; mom, dad and the kids.
We have recognized that by about age 16 our young members want a checking account and a debit card. They get their first job and want a place to deposit their money and have easy access to their money.
SAFE offers checking and debit cards to 16 year old members. Some of the banks in our area won’t open an account until age 18.
We also offer a young member account for the very young members. It includes a youth oriented newsletter. Parents love to introduce the savings habit to their young children. The kids love having their own statement and the newsletter is written to appeal to them. It includes games and articles that they enjoy.
SAFE offers an auto loan for first time buyers that makes it easier for someone with no prior credit to qualify for an auto loan. We also offer young people access to our AutoSmart Web site that has a lot of tools to help buyers get the best deal. A nice feature is an on-line inventory of used cars at local dealerships. Young members usually buy a used car and the web site includes photos and descriptons of all the used vehicles that are in stock. It also has an on-line blue book and a suggested plan for how to research, buy and negotiate a car deal.
Our 2006 Raddon Member survey shows that our membership has 31% of our members in the age group 18 to 34 compared with an average of about 23% for other credit unions.
We are happy with that but we are going to increase our efforts and recruit more young members. We know that once a young person opens an account they will remain a loyal member as long as we provide a high level of member service.
We have used our credit union branches in local high schools as one way to engage high school students. The branches are part of the high school curriculum. The students learn how to run a credit union. As part of their work they market the credit union to the other students.
We would be pleased to share what we are doing with other credit unions.
Henry