Access looks different for each individual

Do your members have the access they need?

With how laser-focused we are on credit union marketing and websites, our blog will often touch on topics such as SEO and creating a marketing flow. But today I’m not thinking about topics such as website accessibility, but about actual human access.

And by “access” I mean, can people get to where they need to be to accomplish the things they need to do?

Doesn’t everyone have “access?”

This topic has lodged itself in my brain for two reasons: The community college where I teach in the evenings has recently started a new semester, and Labor Day just happened.

In my classroom this semester, I have already encountered the same problem multiple times: Students who have trouble acquiring the textbook. My students mostly work 9am-5pm, and the bookstore closes at 4pm. They can’t physically get to the bookstore while it’s open, so I have to work with them to find individual solutions… You get the idea. There’s a glaring lack of access.

As for Labor Day, well that’s a familiar problem for many adults. We want to make plans to see friends on our extra day off, but then we are reminded that not all of us have cushy jobs that give us Labor Day off. In fact if you work in food service or retail, you’re often working when your friends are free, and vice-versa.

How do you get to a doctor’s appointment if you can’t take time off work? How do you see your friends and family if you’re working every weekend and holiday?

A lack of access can look different for each individual.

What does good access look like at a credit union?

This might seem pretty straightforward, at first. After all, members show up to their credit union branches every day, and digital services like online banking tend to show good usage rates. 

Unfortunately, a lack of access isn’t as visible as we’d like it to be. It’s like the survivorship bias meme:

In war time, planes that returned from combat often had taken damage where you see the red dots, so you might think to reinforce those areas. The issue is, planes that took damage elsewhere (i.e. the engines and cockpit) weren’t returning at all. This shows how perspective can be skewed toward the survivors, and away from those who might need even more help.

You can’t get the full picture by looking at the people who do show up. At your credit union, you really need to look for the people who don’t access the branches or online banking regularly. There might be a reason why they can’t, and you might be able to help.

Some ideas for how to improve member access

Here are some (completely free!) ideas that could help you improve your members’ access to credit union services:

  1. Evening and weekend hours. I know, no one wants to be the evenings and weekends person. But chances are you have some members that would really appreciate it. Maybe hire some folks who are used to working service-industry hours already…
  2. Mobile branches:  What if branches could be well… anywhere? We pitched the mobile branches idea a while back, and we still think there’s a lot of cool concepts here.
  3. Branches for branch haters: Our own Brian Wringer is a self-admitted branch hater. What would a branch look like for a curmudgeon like him?
  4. Access for second language learners: Take it from an ESL teacher, it’s really tough for non-native English speakers out there.
  5. Don’t let something as simple as an unclaimed Google Business Profile keep your members away.

With the way our society is set up, it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll ever be able to say that everyone has 100% equal access to everything they need. But that’s a huge, maybe unfixable problem. What your credit union can do is make sure you’re constantly on the lookout for ways to improve member access.

Sam Dicken
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