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Engage & Re-Engage: Connecting with Members Through Onboarding and Reboarding

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The late Maya Angelou was wise, articulate, and right: people will never forget how you made them feel. What you communicate to your members (and how you communicate it) influences their feeling and affinity towards your credit union. How do your members feel? Whether they are new to your credit union or loyal, long-time members, both groups benefit from being informed about the products and services available to them.

Did you know that the first 90 days of membership in an organization determines a consumer’s lifetime profitability and value? While this is true across all industries, when it comes to credit unions, this presents a very important opportunity. It’s all about relationships and onboarding is your time to establish a strong connection between new members and your credit union.

While onboarding reaches your newest members, reaching out to current, loyal members is equally as important. Especially when you consider that, this kind of ROI cannot be ignored!

Both onboarding and reboarding campaigns are proven to:

  • Improve member retention, decrease churn, and create valuable relationships
  • Increase cross-selling success, creating greater product penetration
  • Help members feel more closely connected to your credit union

Onboarding

You’ve signed up a new member, but your proper welcome doesn’t end once their initial transaction is complete. This is the time to launch an onboarding campaign aimed at increasing retention and building your new member’s affinity for your credit union.

Onboarding should occur during the first 90 days membership. Using a combination of phone calls, emails, direct mail, and social media, varied communications are used to welcome new members while informing them of products and services that best meet their needs and lifestyles. By satisfying additional financial needs for new members early in their memberships, they are dramatically less likely to leave, improving the overall retention rate.

“Onboarding and reboarding programming and automations support new member growth while reducing member churn, increasing product and service adoption, driving additional deposit accounts, and creating new lending opportunities per new member,” shared Doug MacDonald, Vice President of Synergent Marketing Services.

Reboarding

Although they may have been members of your credit union for years, established members may need to be reminded of the valuable products and services available to them.

Onboarding may be the “honeymoon” period of a new relationship with a new member, but reboarding reinvigorates and strengthens the relationship by informing members about products and services, offering relevant solutions, and making them feel even more a part of your credit union family.

Reboarding is similar to onboarding in that it is a defined, targeted campaign, but instead of focusing on new members, you are targeting longtime members to ensure they are aware of the products and services available to them. Again, by using a combination of marketing channels, your credit union communicates with its established members through a targeted campaign that feels personal, timely, and relevant. Reboarding creates a sense of belonging, fosters retention, and increases product adoption.

The Value of Onboarding and Reboarding

  • Improved member retention, decreasing churn, and creating valuable relationships
  • Increased cross-selling success and greater product adoption
  • Members feel more closely connected to the credit union

It’s All About the Data

Whether using onboarding or reboarding, targeted marketing fueled by data mining drives these types of campaigns. By targeting specific members with specific products based on their current product usage, credit unions who launch onboarding and reboarding campaigns are able to narrow their audience and have greater impact upon the target group.

“Data mining can significantly reduce membership churn, helping you to reach out to the right members at the right time with hopes to secure the primary financial institution relationship,” shared Jen Braziel, Data Mining Specialist for Synergent Marketing Services.

Learn More

Want to increase and quantify your ROI? Synergent Marketing Services is here to help as your single source for data mining, creation and distribution of marketing materials, and analysis of campaign success. Contact us today to plan your onboarding or reboarding campaign leveraging data mining!

We also invite you to download our Marketer’s Toolkit about onboarding and reboarding: Personalized Member Experience: Connect with Members to Engage and Reengage. Learn more about developing these campaigns and see how two credit unions increased their ROI through onboarding and reboarding!

Download The Marketer’s Toolkit