Revenue isn’t the goal. It’s the proof that a credit union is delivering real value to its members. But in a rapidly changing landscape, how do credit unions continue to raise the bar on member experience while staying true to their mission?
In this episode of Grow Your Credit Union, host Joshua Barclay and co-host Becky Reed welcome Stacy Armijo, Chief Experience Officer at Amplify Credit Union, to discuss how credit unions can keep raising the bar on member experience, whether AI is distracting from their biggest advantage, and why some companies are pulling back on DEI, while credit unions may need to double down.
The Push for Seamless Member Experience
Credit unions saw a 5% increase in member satisfaction in 2024, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, but banks still hold an edge. Stacy Armijo warns that while this progress is encouraging, credit unions can’t afford complacency.
The biggest challenge? Delivering a seamless, frictionless experience across all channels; branch, phone, and digital. Members don’t think in silos, so credit unions shouldn’t either.
Becky Reed points to one of the biggest hurdles: technology fragmentation. Many credit unions work with more than 100 vendors, leading to slow service, inefficiencies, and inconsistent member experiences. Employees struggling with outdated, disjointed systems ultimately create a poor experience for members.
At Amplify Credit Union, Stacy emphasizes the importance of designing each service channel with specific goals rather than simply adding new technology. Digital interactions should be seamless and fast, phone support should prioritize problem resolution and empathy, and in-branch experiences should build trust and confidence. By making intentional design choices, credit unions can improve service without unnecessary complexity.
Is AI Killing Credit Unions’ Biggest Advantage?
AI is everywhere, and financial institutions are racing to implement new technologies. But as automation takes center stage, are credit unions forgetting their biggest advantage—human relationships?
According to a Swoogo study, 52% of businesses say in-person events deliver the greatest ROI. Stacy argues that while AI is important, credit unions should never overlook community presence and face-to-face engagement.
Gen Z is leading the return to branch banking. Research from Amplify shows that Gen Z members are four times more likely to open an account in a branch than online—twice the rate of Baby Boomers. While Gen Z is digitally fluent, they are also highly aware of scams and misinformation online. When making big financial decisions, they trust in-person guidance over digital interactions.
Becky highlights that no chatbot or AI tool can replace personal trust. Financial literacy gaps, especially among younger members, make human interaction even more valuable. While AI can streamline some processes, credit unions should focus on using technology to enhance—not replace—relationship-driven banking.
DEI: A Business Strategy, Not a Trend
With some major corporations scaling back DEI initiatives, should credit unions follow suit?
Stacy’s answer is a firm no. She argues that diverse teams lead to better decision-making, and credit unions that want to serve diverse communities effectively must reflect those communities in their leadership and workforce.
In Texas, where Amplify operates, the fastest-growing demographic is Hispanic consumers. Stacy explains that for a credit union to succeed in that environment, it must ensure its employees and decision-makers have the cultural and linguistic awareness to serve those members effectively.
Becky adds that DEI has always been ingrained in the credit union philosophy—long before it became a corporate buzzword. While large corporations may adjust their approach based on political trends, credit unions were founded on the principle of serving all members equitably. Walking away from DEI efforts would mean abandoning a core part of their mission.
Top Takeaways from This Episode
- Credit unions have improved member experience, but technology fragmentation remains a major hurdle. Simplifying systems and defining service goals for each channel can drive further improvements.
- AI is a valuable tool, but in-person engagement is still a credit union’s greatest advantage. Younger members, especially Gen Z, prefer face-to-face interactions for important financial decisions.
- DEI isn’t just a trend, it’s a smart business strategy. A diverse team helps credit unions better serve their communities and build stronger relationships with members.
Listen to the full episode for insights on how credit unions can remain competitive while staying true to their core mission.
Full transcript
Joshua Barclay: Credit union community, here are your three topics for today’s show. First up, in 2024, credit unions saw a 5% boost in member satisfaction, but with fintechs and big banks pushing the envelope, how can credit unions keep raising the bar with member experience? Then, with AI dominating headlines, are credit unions overlooking their biggest competitive edge, community engagement? And then finally, as some major corporations backtrack on DEI, should credit unions follow suit or stand firm?
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Welcome to Grow Your Credit Union. This is the podcast where credit union leaders gather, learn, and grow. I am your host, Joshua Barclay, and with me is the Texas Trekkie, aka the DeFi Queen, aka the talk of Texas. I’m talking about Becky Reed. Becky, how are you?
Becky Reed: I am fantastic. Live long and prosper, Joshua.
Joshua Barclay: Thank you very much. Becky, I just got back from Detroit, Michigan. I hosted a podcast at the Fuel Michigan statewide kickoff event, and I got to tell you, the young professionals were amazing, and the credit union movement is in great hands. And I know you’ve had some experience in your career, obviously, working with the young professionals. So, like, what’s your take on that development track, Becky?
Becky Reed: You know what? I love it. I had the opportunity to be a reverse crasher because the young professionals, they crash events like GAC and some other things, and I got an opportunity to be a reverse crasher. So, I’m the old person in the room, right? With a bunch of young professionals, and I got to follow them around and go to their different breakout sessions, and I was just so impressed about their enthusiasm, their grasp of our credit union roots, their dedication to the credit union industry. And also like you, I think that our future is in good hands with those guys.
Joshua Barclay: Yeah, they were super engaged. And it was later on in the day when we had the podcast, it was me, Elizabeth Osborne, and Shawn Premer on stage, and I’m thinking to myself, it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, cocktail hour’s about to begin in about 45 minutes. I’m assuming everyone’s going to be checked out. There’s going to be like kind of weak participation. But I was completely wrong. They were super engaged, asked a lot of really, really good questions. And all in all, I have to say, I’m just really impressed by the movement and just kind of how organized everybody was. So, shout out to Kyle Trondle, that whole team over there in Michigan. Thanks for having us and we’ve got a great show for you today. Today, we are welcoming Stacy Armijo, the chief experience officer at Amplify Credit Union. Welcome to Grow Your Credit Union, Stacy.
Stacy Armijo: Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here.
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Joshua Barclay: We all know there is a lot of talk about member experience. In fact, it’s probably one of the most talked about things on this show and in the industry at large. Some good news for everybody. In 2024, credit unions scored a 79 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index. And guess what? That is a 5% improvement from 2022. Now, it’s a positive trend, but with never-ending competition from fintechs and big banks, there is no time for complacency, folks. Stacy, as chief experience officer at Amplify Credit Union, what specific member experience challenges are you tackling right now and how are you addressing them?
Stacy Armijo: Our biggest member experience challenges are blending all of the ways that our members want to do business with us. So, that idea, this old-school notion of, are we doing analog service? Are we doing digital service? It wasn’t that long ago, I feel like, when our industry looked at members as if you are a branch member, so to speak, or a digital member. And the reality is, our members are humans just like us. And while I’m walking around Target, I’m looking at the Target app to see if I can figure out if they have a different color of that thing that I’m looking at. Our members are consumers just like we are, and so our biggest challenge is they want it all, just like we consumers want it all. And so, as a credit union, how do we figure out how to navigate those things?
And to give a little sense of urgency to my fellow credit union peers, I am excited that our member service is improving according to this survey, but if you look at that very same survey, and you look at banks, they are ahead of us right now. Banks are ahead of us credit unions as it relates to satisfaction. So, yes, they only increased by, on the whole, about 3% from that same metric, but they increased from a higher number. And here’s something to give us even a little more urgency when you break that down. So, the survey only looks at all credit unions, but banks are in different categories, and the category of regional and community banks scored an 82. So, if you figure who are we really competing against as credit unions, if we think of it that way, we’ve got some ground to make up. And so, as I think about what is the sense of urgency that we should have as people who are delivering what I believe to be a more financially inclusive product, what I think is important to the strength of the American economy is that we have a strong credit union system, then we need to have a really strong sense of urgency around that.
Joshua Barclay: Becky, Stacy’s talking about bringing all those experiences together. Talk to me about what makes that so difficult because it’s easier said than done, right?
Becky Reed: Well, what makes it difficult is at the credit union and frankly, the regional banks as well, we share some of the same problems, that we have to overcome some of the same hurdles. And what that is is siloed systems and multiple vendors. Credit unions on average, when I go in to talk to them and do technology assessments, they have 100 different vendors for all kinds of different things. Now, some of those aren’t integrated into the member experience, but I say a lot of times that the employee experience really turns into what the members experience. Because if the employees are experiencing challenging systems, or things that block them from getting the information that they need to help the member, then ultimately, that impacts the members’ experience.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard employees tell members, “Oh, my computer’s rebooting. Oh, sorry, my system is slow. Oh, I can’t get that information.” I mean, and it’s just really frustrating. But all of those different vendors create all kinds of different experiences, whether it be the front-end experience or the back-end experience that the employees are having, and it is really, really challenging. They all have different capabilities. They all have different API endpoints. They all have different pricing structures. They all have different vendor contracts. They all have different fees. And it just creates a very siloed experience for the member, or I should say more of a spaghetti. It’s a siloed experience because they don’t ever talk to each other, right? They’re all talking to our core, but they’re not talking to each other. But it’s a spaghetti experience for the member.
Let me give you an example. We went into a credit union’s digital banking app to look at P2P payments, for example. Let’s just look at sending money from one person to another. And this one credit union, this was a $12 billion credit union, so a credit union that is big in the realm of credit unions and also as it relates to community banks. We’re not talking about a $60 billion financial institution like a Chase. So, when you go in digital banking and you say pay, there were about 10 different options of how, and it was like Zelle and bill pay and person-to-person payments and loan payments. I mean, and it was like very confusing. It’s like, well, what do I push on? I don’t know. I just want to send some money over here. Is that bill pay? I mean, I owe my friend money. It was very confusing, and I know because I’ve worked in a credit union that that’s because there’s different vendors providing each one of those experiences. And so the digital experience has to be seamless with the in-person experience, which is exactly what Stacy is talking about. Your member probably could and is looking at your digital banking product while they’re in your branch. It’s very frustrating to be like, “I can see it right here. Why can’t you see it?”
Stacy Armijo: Yep.
Joshua Barclay: Stacy, in your quest to bring the technology together to create these seamless experiences, one of the things I talked about at Future Branches was sort of the death of point solutions, and maybe that’s a little over the top to say the death of point solutions, but we’re stitching together our tech stacks in credit unions with all of these point solutions that are not talking to each other and they’re delivering disparate sort of experiences. So, I guess I say all of that to say, Stacy, how are you trying to connect all of these experiences? Like what are you pursuing?
Stacy Armijo: The first thing I would say is because it’s all under one vendor doesn’t mean it’s integrated. So, if I can just add another layer of complexity to this is not only do we have all these different vendors, but even within especially, there’s some very large vendors in our industry, and even within them, they work as if they are all different companies. And so you would expect technology to integrate from the same vendor, but you shouldn’t assume that. So, there’s already that layer of complexity. The way that we approach that is we have identified what our design targets are for each of our delivery channels. So, what we don’t do, we don’t try to be all things to all people in every channel. And I feel like that is the mistake that most institutions make is the reason you went into a branch is probably different than the reason that you went online is probably different than the reason you picked up a phone. And so if we try to optimize each of those environments to all the same factors, then we’re going to get to the middle of nowhere in all of them, we’re going to arrive in no man’s land in every one of those channels. Versus so what we’ve done is we’ve identified our experience targets for each one.
So, for us, the online channel is about availability and efficiency. You went online at 3:00 in the morning, and you wanted to find your bank account there. You need to find it at 3:00 in the morning and you want to get, whatever you’re getting done, you want to get it done fast. That’s what you’re looking for there. And so we are optimizing around that experience in that channel. Our design targets for phone are empathy and effectiveness. Empathy is first. You picked up a phone, probably not to compliment us. I mean, maybe you did, but probably you didn’t pick up a phone to compliment us. And I could rush to solve your problem before I have allowed you, to hear the frustration of the experience, but you’re going to, as a member, you’re going to end up on the other side of that. Even if you solve my problem, you’re not going to feel cared for. And so empathy is first. And then effectiveness is second. Notably absent is efficiency. We are not optimizing the phone channel for efficiency. We are not trying to get you off the phone fast enough. We’re trying to make sure you don’t have to call back. That’s what we’re really optimizing around. So, that’s why we say effectiveness and not efficiency.
And then lastly, in-person service, we optimize for confidence and connectedness. So, confidence as in you might have walked into our branch, not because you didn’t know how to do a certain thing online, or because we don’t offer you the ability. For example, we have an all-digital mortgage application. You can do everything soup to nuts from your phone to apply for a mortgage with our institution. But we have people who walk in because maybe they’ve never bought a house before. And they are looking for some guidance. And even something that you would say is quote/unquote simple, like opening a bank account, we’ve learned quite a bit about who walks into a branch to open a bank account, and the spoiler alert is it has nothing to do with comfort level with technology. And so as we think about each of our delivery channels, we’ve identified what we’re optimizing it for, and then that helps us make decisions about trade-offs with system integration.
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Joshua Barclay: With all of this AI buzz stealing headlines, it’s pretty easy for credit unions to lose sight of their in-person community presence. And that’s something we don’t want to lose because according to Swoogo, 52% of businesses say events deliver the greatest ROI compared to other marketing channels. Stacy, do you think credit union leaders are overlooking in-person community engagement as their most valuable differentiator in favor of chasing the AI trend?
Stacy Armijo: Yes, and. So, to speak to a same trend here – yes, we have to lean all the way into AI because if we don’t, we will get left behind. And whatever it is that we do from an AI point of view today won’t actually play out meaningfully in our business for years to come. So, we better start now to understand what it is and how we can do that. Also, we can’t leave behind the tactics that are working today and might even continue to work better in an AI-enabled world. So, what I believe about that is AI is fantastic at helping us with things that are predictable. It is not fantastic at helping to create human relationships and delivering empathy and all of those pieces. And if we can’t live that value proposition as credit unions, then who else can?
And so in our business, we learned something over this past year. So, we, like I think every other credit union I’ve ever known or met, has learned a lot about deposit gathering over the course of the last handful of years, and so the liquidity crunch is teaching us a lot. And we took a very close and hard look about what were people doing when they were making new decisions to bring us new money. So, brand-new memberships that we earned over the course of a year, where did they go to open those memberships? We’ve been a digital-first credit union for at least 15 years. We’ve been digital forward for a long time, and so we’ve had online account opening for at least 10 years. So, you can do business with us digitally in pretty much every way, but what we found was, when people are making new decisions about opening new accounts, they are far more likely to walk into one of our branches. And specifically, what we found was the Gen Z demographic. So, let’s bear in mind, they’re up to say 27 years old-ish, something like that, they are four to one more likely to walk into one of our branches to open an account than they are to do it online. So, that is twice as likely as a baby boomer. So, baby boomers in our environment were two to one preferred the branches over online. Gen Z preferred it four to one. And so that really, for us, reinforced the idea of that idea of confidence.
So, if you’re Gen Z, this might be the first time you’ve established your own bank account separate from your parents, and that can be a stressful thing. That can be a thing you’re not familiar with. You actually wanted to walk into a place to do it. So, it’s not that you couldn’t do it from your phone. It’s that you wanted to have a level of human interaction. So, as I think about translating that all the way to a marketing tactic like events, well, if that’s what we’re trying to do is create confidence and connectedness for in-person service that earns business, events sure seem like a pretty good way to do it.
Joshua Barclay: Becky, I saw you perking up at a few different things. I just want to ask your take because something is brewing in your mind. What are you thinking?
Becky Reed: [Laughter] Well, the Gen Z comment is intriguing to me because she threw out some numbers. Stacy, you threw out some really interesting data that I would have said was true but wouldn’t have been able to back it up with data. I happen to have a Gen Z son who is around the upper end of that spectrum from an age perspective, and I would say that he is a digitally native nomad, right? He is somebody who interacts with people and creates relationships with people online all the time and has for most of his life; however, in-person creates a trust environment that online does not. Because he is very knowledgeable and savvy about the fact that sometimes when you do things in a digital way, you can’t trust the person behind the digital identity, right? And you can Google things, you can read things, you can ask ChatGPT how to open an account, but it’s not the same as walking in and sitting down with a person to help understand that process.
Because frankly, writing checks, filling out a deposit slip, understanding what your routing and account number is for direct deposit, those things sometimes are not something that they’re familiar with because it’s not something that they’ve dealt with in their life generally, and they pull out a debit card and they use it. And they don’t really think about what happens beyond that. Understanding that you have to have the money in the account in order for your debit card to work [Laughter] is something that they need to understand. And so it’s not surprising to me that Gen Z in particular appreciates the in-person experience. I think that’s very interesting. Baby Boomers, on the other hand, don’t have that mistrust necessarily built in that somebody who grew up in a digital environment has because older people tend to trust technology more, frankly.
Stacy Armijo: Well, and also that they are far less likely to make a new decision about their deposit accounts.
Becky Reed: True.
Stacy Armijo: So, if you’re trying to go to where the money is, you need to go to people who are in a life moment where they’re ready to go to the disruption of changing their checking account, for example.
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Joshua Barclay: All right. We’ve got a pretty controversial segment here. I’m not sure how you navigate it. Our guest, Stacy, was really good about not emailing me and saying, “Hey, I don’t want to address this,” and I really love when guests come on and they’re willing to tackle tough questions and not shy away from them. So, with that being said, the DEI movement gained enthusiastic support across industries a few years ago, but now we’re starting to see some major corporations backtracking. Meta, for example, recently disbanded its DEI team and shifted its focus to, and I quote, “fair and consistent practices,” end quote, that reduce bias for everyone, according to a memo obtained by Axios. Stacy, if large corporations are scaling back on DEI efforts, do you think credit unions should rethink their approach, or is this a moment to double down on these initiatives?
Stacy Armijo: Absolutely. Double down all day long. So, I was thrilled to see this question that was going to be something that we were talking about because in our credit union, the biggest conversation we’re having is, how can we make sure that our employees understand nothing has changed for us about what we refer to as our culture of welcome? We talk about having a culture of welcome at Amplify Credit Union, and nothing has changed about that. So, we cultivate a culture of welcome that is rooted in the idea that diverse teams make the best decisions. The research has been clear on that for decades and so we’re selfish about it. We want to be the strongest, best performing organization that there is. So, the shorthand that we talk about is good culture equals good business, period. It’s not a complicated issue. And I find it interesting that the returning to fair and equitable practices, if you thought implementing DEI meant unfair practices, you were doing it wrong. [Laughter] I’m just going to say that flat out. And what I find unfortunate about the current environment is most of those who are suddenly walking back all of these initiatives are those who woke up a few years ago and decided to start them when it was politically convenient. And so now it’s politically inconvenient, and we’re surprised that they’re changing practices.
So, my message to our industry was, I sure hope this isn’t something that we’ve been talking about because it makes a good talking point. I sure hope that when you think about what does diversity, equity, and inclusion look like in your business, you are looking at it from a strategic lens. So, the thing that we talk about is nothing for me without me. So, if we’d like to serve a diverse base of members, we are based in Austin, Texas, we have a field of membership that is across the state of Texas, and guess what the second fastest growing demographic in Texas is? It’s not white people. It is Hispanic consumers, fastest growing demographic that there is. If we believe we have the right to serve that consumer, don’t we think we need somebody who has life experience similar to those that we want to serve, helping us create the tools and products and deliver the service?
So, we look at it in a really practical way, which is if we’d like to succeed in serving the consumer of the future, our employee base needs to reflect the life experiences of the consumers we want to serve because they’re going to guide us toward different design choices. They’re going to make our products better. That’s how it works. So, I would just encourage our industry to rise above the rhetoric and understand why this is just a good business strategy, and you don’t walk away from good business strategies just because it’s become politically inconvenient.
Joshua Barclay: Stacy just dropped the bomb. I caught it before it hit the ground and exploded. Becky, I’m going to pass this over to you. Corporations backtracking on DEI, but the credit union movement really is about those foundational principles. So, where do we go from here?
Becky Reed: Well, I’m going to talk a little bit about what happened when, in the credit union space, when a lot of the leagues and our regulators and a lot of people were saying that we needed to create this DEI initiative that our board needed to sign. And I remember thinking at the time, and Stacy, just like you, it was kind of it felt like a flavor of the month to me.
Stacy Armijo: Mm-hmm.
Becky Reed: Because when I looked at what they were encouraging our board to sign, I was like, “This is something we already do, and we’ve been doing it for decades.” We serve our community. Our staff and our board needs to be reflective of the communities that we serve. That’s always been something that’s been at the forefront of what we do as credit unions, right? Our members are our owners, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure we’re offering products and services that meet their needs. We can’t do that if we don’t understand what their needs are, and the best way to understand what their needs are is to have people working at the credit union and serving the credit union as a volunteer that understand those unique needs of the community. And so I recommended to our board as the CEO of the credit union that we not sign that initiative because I felt like it was flying in the face of what we were already doing.
I think what we’re seeing in the big corporations, unfortunately, is yes, it was a flavor of the month thing, but they also allocated funds and resources to making sure they were doing some of those things that might not have been in the best interest of the organization as a whole. Maybe it went down the wrong path, whatever the case may be, but what they found, I think, is, man, we’re spending a lot of money on some stuff that we really probably should just be doing anyway and incorporate that into our larger goals from a culture perspective in our organization. And so I think that people tend to go where they think it’s convenient, but as an industry, I would say we never strayed away from it. So, it was just something we always did.
Joshua Barclay: Great response by the both of you. I really enjoy that both of you stood up for what you believed in and did not give a sort of chintzy politician-like answer. Kudos to the both of you. This brings us to the end of the show. Stacy, if someone’s listening and they like what you’re putting down and they want to get ahold of you, like, what is the best way to reach you?
Stacy Armijo: So, I’m old school in this way. You actually have to email me. Like, I realize I have all the socials and whatnot, but it’s a lot to keep track of. Certainly LinkedIn. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. That’s one of the easiest. You’ll find me at Stacy Armijo on LinkedIn. But really, if you want to get a hold of me, email me, and I highly encourage it. So, for anybody who cares, I’ll just say my email address, SArmijo, and no one can spell Armijo, so I’ll spell it, S-A-R-M-I-J-O@GoAmplify.com. Reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you.
Joshua Barclay: And is there anything that you’d like to plug, any shout outs, anything, any parting words, Stacy?
Stacy Armijo: Absolutely. My parting words would be related to one of the topics here, which is let’s not lose sight of the reason that we’re here as credit unions. So, one thing that we say in our organization is revenue is not the reason, but it is the evidence of mission well delivered. And so if we can’t make our businesses strong and profitable, then we don’t get to live that mission. And so we need to double down on why we’re here, who we’re serving, and what we’re trying to accomplish. That has been true up to now. It is especially true today. And so if you can’t articulate what is your unique value proposition, why would somebody choose you? Because you have the best product, not because they believe it is a good deed. What do you really have the best product at? And how are you going to do that? Because we have the opportunity to grow our market share and bring the benefits of credit union to lots of other consumers. We just got to double down on getting there.
Joshua Barclay: Thank you for that, Stacy. Becky, I know how people can reach you. I may just come in and say it. The best way to reach Becky Reed is on LinkedIn. And Becky, parting words, I cannot speak those for you. What are your parting words?
[Laughter]
Becky Reed: Well, oh my gosh, I don’t think I can follow what Stacy said. My goodness, she’s just been on fire this whole episode. The only thing I would say is I have a series every year. I’m out and about traveling all the time, talking to credit unions all across the country about innovation and emerging technology, and I will be on the road this summer. So, watch on LinkedIn, follow me, and find out where I’m going to be. And Stacy, I will be in Austin sometime, so I’ll be reaching out.
Stacy Armijo: Excellent. Let’s connect. I would love that.
Joshua Barclay: Stacy Armijo, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming on the Grow Your Credit Union podcast.
Stacy Armijo: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Joshua Barclay: And I want to give a special thanks to Becky Reed, as always, for being one of the most amazing co-hosts in the entire game. Super thankful for you, Becky. And I am also super thankful for our listeners who continue to support and listen to Grow Your Credit Union. Remember, if you like the show, please follow us on your podcast player of choice and share an episode with someone who would benefit from listening. If you want to be a guest or you would like to talk about sponsorship opportunities, head to GrowYourCreditUnion.com to learn more. That’s GrowYourCreditUnion.com. Thank you for listening and we will see you next time. Take care. Bye-bye.
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