OK, I’ll admit it.
I love Amazon.com and have since my very first purchase.
The reasons are myriad: they deliver on their promises, they anticipate my needs, they help me find the stuff I want, they make it easy to order, they recommend things that I haven’t thought of without being intrusive, they allow me to return things I don’t want, and along the way they make me feel valued. In short, they focus on my needs, not theirs!
But wait, it gets better.
Last year they created a membership program that makes it even simpler and faster to get the things I order, including many products that are not even being shipped from Amazon.com.
It’s called Amazon Prime. Once I pay an annual membership fee of $79, all of my shipping is free. And if I need something in a hurry, they ship it to me overnight for only $3.99.
So what can credit unions learn from the Amazon.com approach?
1. There is power in making it easy for members to understand how to get the products and services they want whether they come into the branch or visit your e-branch.
2. Being a member is valuable when all of the member touch points are set up to make the member feel special and to help them get what they are looking for with the least effort on their part possible.
3. Suggesting additional products and services works when it is not intrusive and when it is targeted so that the offer is easy to understand and easy to accept or refuse.
4. Frequent use members are willing to pay fees for service when the service has a real or perceived value.
5. Delivering on your promises reinforces and strengthens relationships, making it easier to increase the share of wallet that comes to you from each member.
ACTION ADVICE: If you’re not familiar with Amazon.com, take a look at how it works. Make a purchase and watch what happens, spend some time wandering around the website to see how it is set up to meet the needs of their customers, read some product reviews to grasp the power of feedback from those who have used the things being sold. Then conduct a serious review of your website and all of the materials your members see that promote products and services, asking the question: How does this compare to the powerful processes that work so well for Amazon.com and what can we do to improve it? Finally, take action to make those improvements.
IT’S YOUR TURN: Have you had similar experiences with other businesses? Do you have a story that shows how sometimes even Amazon.com misses the mark? Please share them in the comments section below so we can all learn more and make our credit unions better!
Great post–both extremely well written and thought provoking. I would also recommend credit unions study REI (www.rei.com). REI has members, is a co-op, gives membership card, offers special promotions just for members, is competing in a retail environment, etc. Sound like any financial institution you know? Credit unions can learn a lot by studying Amazon and REI.
Thanks for the kind words Mark. Taking a look at REI is a great idea…lots of parallels, a solid success story from which to learn, and great example of a co-op that is doing it right.
Have had numerous conversations with FI marketers about using some of the Amazon approach to segmentation and marketing. Specifically, I’m a huge fan of the “other people who purchased this also liked…” – what a great way to segment customers/members. If you’ve got a good feel for a segment of your base that likes a particular product mix from you, why would you not focus marketing efforts on other customers/members that “look like” them with the same type of message: “other customers/members like you also liked…”.
Thanks Mike…that is an excellent insight and something that needs to be given more and more serious consideration by every FI moving forward. We live in a world where recommendations rule and trust is gained by your willingness to let your customers/members speak for you. Well said.