What Drives the Decisions of Credit Union Members?

The Valuegraphics database is a powerful tool that allows organizations to identify the values that matter most to their customers. By analyzing data from over 750,000 surveys worldwide, the database provides insights into the values that drive decision-making for people everywhere on Earth. Recently, Valuegraphics Founder David Allison used the database to extrapolate values for a keynote speech about credit union members. His speech identified the values that matter most to credit union members and how credit unions can use these values to strengthen their relationships with their members. Here are three that over-indexed when credit union members were compared to bank customers.

The Value of Personal Growth: Pursuing Life Goals

One of the key values that emerged from the analysis was Personal Growth. Furthermore, the database identified that credit union members are driven by a specific kind of Personal Growth that comes from pursuing large life goals. To strengthen relationships with members, credit unions might help by connecting them with others who have similar goals, or by offering goal-setting workshops that are about life and not just financial planning. Trying to be of assistance for all aspects of their members' lives, not just the financial ones, shows how committed credit unions are to relationships. Credit unions can become a valuable resource for helping members achieve their dreams.

The Value of Experiences: Possessions as Experiences

Another important value for credit union members is Experiences. Interestingly, the pursuit of possessions can be seen as experiences; in other words, the journey towards a significant possession is the kind of experience that credit union members desire. This insight suggests that credit unions can help members find values-alignment and feel more connected by highlighting and celebrating the small victories on the path to a larger end result.

The Value of Possessions: Tools for Living the Life They Want

At the same time, credit union members over-index in the data for the value of Possessions, specifically possessions that help them live the life they want to live. They are not interested in possessions for status or other reasons, but rather as a means of achieving their life goals.

Where these three values are combined, credit union members are driven by Personal Growth, Experiences, and Possessions in a unique way. They will gravitate to anything or anyone who helps them acquire significant lifestyle-altering possessions and enjoy the journey as much as the destination. If credit unions can find strategies and tactics to highlight, help, and celebrate that journey, the power of shared human values will build stronger relationships than ever before.

By identifying the values that matter most to their members, credit unions will have a north star to guide their marketing and sales activities, and the overall strategic direction of the organization. This is just a short excerpt from a much longer keynote speech about the valuegraphics of credit unions, but nevertheless, we hope it helps!