DELIVERING EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE Using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, credit unions can respond to customer issues and questions in real time. Issues resolved over social media channels provide a great opportunity to assure prospects and customers that a credit union is committed to keeping its customers happy. A positive tweet, mention or post from a happy or satisfied customer goes a long way. Studies have shown that quickly resolving issues related to checking and savings accounts have led to better conversion on successfully cross selling other banking products. These channels also reduce the cost of maintaining expensive call centers by identifying dissatisfied customers quickly and empowering credit unions to deliver more personalized services to them.
ANALYZING CUSTOMER DEMANDS Social media enables credit unions to capture customer suggestions and then analyze them to develop more tailored products and services. For example, establishing and nurturing customer communities to share insights on topics like retirement products to gain invaluable insight into customer behavior and develop future products as well as fine-tune products to align them with customer requirements.
IMPROVING TOPLINE More and more credit unions are tapping into their customers’ preferred social networking channels to deliver targeted offers and promotions. They are also encouraging customers to rate products over social media. Access to data about customers’ shopping patterns, spending preferences and demographics can provide great insight into opportunities to sell additional products. For example, through social networking channels, credit unions can easily find out when a customer gets engaged or married, opening the doors for targeted sales pitches for mortgages, lines of credit or family insurance. In short, social media helps credit unions remain in touch with their customers and provide a more personalized service.
IT’S NOT GOING AWAY Social media is already driving dramatic changes in the way customers interact with their credit unions. The credit unions and financial institutions that recognize this opportunity and invest in social media can reap great rewards. However, the success of social media will largely depend on a credit union’s ability to harness its existing IT systems’ for customer information and make the connection with their customers’ social networks. Also, instead of a siloed approach, credit unions need to unify disparate systems that store customer information to gain an enterprise view of the relationship. Given the swift pace of social media channels, credit unions will need to adapt quickly to develop appropriate frameworks that not only comply with existing regulations, but also provide a level of flexibility to accommodate the evolving nature of social media. In the long run, being prepared and ready for the customer will determine the success of social media projects. n SMART SOLUTIONS 2013 | 7