Credit union member growth can be hard. It takes dedication to build up an institution and brand that attracts your community. You’ve invested in advertising and the other costs that come with member acquisition. So, you feel it when a member ditches you for someone else. Attrition is the enemy of growth.

How can you beat it?

The Coronavirus has changed job and income security. It’s made member retention more important for all credit unions. The circulating funds are tight across the country and your community is feeling that. You want to make sure people are comfortable sticking it out with you in these trying times.

But what if your member churn is already high?

Here are our tips about how you can bring those numbers down and reduce member attrition rates.

Survey Your Members to Increase Loyalty

First, surveys work because you’re engaging your members. You’re giving them a voice. One of the greatest attractions of credit unions is that they’re more personal than regular banks.

Livesurvey offers real-time surveys after common member interactions. We help you gather data quickly and efficiently on all fronts. With Livesurvey, you’ll have an easy way to organize and review member survey answers all in one place.

It’ll help you figure out what your members want more or less of. You’ll be able to focus your efforts into improving those characteristics. In turn, you’ll keep members happy and loyal. Lower attrition rates mean faster member growth rates!

If you want to know more about effective survey questions, check out “5 Survey Topics that Every Credit Union Should Use”

 

Build Stronger Relationships

Host events once it’s safe to gather in groups again. Send an e-mail their way about it. Have promos for things like deferred interest rates or a month of loan payments. Such considerations are especially effective during these trying times of Coronavirus, quarantining, and cautious reopening.

To reduce future attrition, you can even check in with the members you already lost. You’ll be able to pick out valuable information about how to do better next time.  

 

Stay Competitive in the Credit Union Game

Make sure that you’re keeping up on tech trends and focusing on being quick and efficient. The easier it is for a member to get what they need from you, the less likely they are to look elsewhere. Offer competitive rates and account rewards if you can. Seek out lending opportunities to small businesses.

 

Engage with Your Members

This goes along with building stronger relationships.

Members will feel much more secure about their finances when they know you value more than their accounts.

Have you noticed that a car loan is close to being paid off? Reach out and ask if they plan on upgrading their car; send them info about your current loan offers. If a member’s account activity has dropped or Reach out and make sure they’re not having any issues accessing their accounts.

 

How Surveys Improve Member Growth

Credit unions don’t have the budgets that big banks do. They can’t just hand out hundreds of dollars every time somebody makes the switch—especially not on top of existing advertising costs.

That means that holding onto members is key. All the new members in the world won’t contribute to growth if you lose them as fast as they sign on. Surveys keep in touch with your members. They give members a voice to tell you what they need, what they expect, and how they feel about your current performance.

 

Additional Reading

Growing your credit union’s membership is rarely easy. And there’s no silver bullet to ensure it happens the way you want it to. In fact, if anyone tells you that doing this one thing* is the best way to increase membership… they’re probably trying to sell you something.

The truth is, growing credit union membership requires effort across multiple departments. One of those efforts should be surveying. Surveys let your members be part of that effort.

Want to see how to get started? Book your quick demo with LiveSurvey now!

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