Building a Data-Driven Credit Union: Are You Asking the Right Questions?
You want your credit union to be data-driven, but are you asking the right questions to get there? Many credit union leaders have access to endless amounts of data but struggle to translate that into real business impact. Dashboards look great, but how do you use them to move the needle on what truly matters?
In this episode of Grow Your Credit Union, Joshua Barclay and Becky Reed welcome on sponsored guest Ben Stangland, President of Strum Platform to dive deep into the real questions your credit union should be asking to make your data work for you. Questions that go beyond vanity metrics like clicks and opens.
Plus:
Is your culture designed to truly understand your members?
How can vendors evolve into true partners, rather than just another service provider?
A HUGE thanks to our sponsor, Strum Platform
Strum Platform revolutionizes credit union marketing with hyper-targeted segmentation and campaigns that drive loans and deposits. Let us show you how to triple email open rates with campaigns that target the right member at the right time with the right message in minutes. Schedule a demo today to see the power of Strum Platform in action.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Joshua Barclay:
Here are our three topics for this episode. Every leader says they want to be data-driven, but do you even know the right questions to ask to make it happen? How do you build a culture that truly obsesses about your members? For all the credit union marketers out there, how do you figure out which marketing campaigns are delivering real results?
And lastly, what do credit unions really want from their vendor relationships?
Welcome to Grow Your Credit Union, the podcast where credit union leaders gather, learn, and grow. I am your host, Joshua Barclay, and with me is my co-host, the best person in Texas. Am I allowed to say that? Best person in Texas, Becky Reed. Becky, say hello to our lovely audience.
Becky Reed:
Howdy y’all.
Joshua Barclay:
Before we begin today's show, I want to first mention our sponsor, Strum Platform, which helps credit unions accelerate deposit, loan, and relationship growth with smarter marketing analytics. We'll talk more about Strum Platform later in the show with our sponsored guest, who we will introduce here in a minute.
Becky, I got to mention this one more time. I just got back from my road trip cross-country, and I got to tell you, this will be the second time, and the last time, that I bad-mouth Nebraska, I promise. But the one thing I did find curious, Becky, as I was driving along, I saw an exhibit—a big sign along a cornfield—and it said: Petrified Wood and Art Exhibit, Exit 282.
And what I’m wondering, Becky, was there a time where the petrified wood exhibits were just popping off? Like, was that the hot thing with the kids back in the 1950s? And then the owner said, “You know, the petrified wood thing is starting to get old.” So, Becky, please, before we start the show, can you talk to me about petrified wood? Is there anything you know about this that I should know?
Becky Reed:
So, you mentioned the ’50s, and Josh, I was not alive in the ’50s. Thank you very much. I’m not that old, so I have no idea if petrified wood was a thing. But what I can tell you is, when you drive—like, if you do a Route 66 drive, right?—every town has something weird, right, to make you want to stop by.
There’s the biggest ball of yarn, there’s the Jolly Green Giant somewhere in South Dakota, and in Nebraska, in Alliance, there’s Carhenge, which is basically Stonehenge, but with a bunch of cars that look like Stonehenge. Yeah, 50,000 people visit it every year.
Joshua Barclay:
Hey, and I can get behind that. But what I can't really get behind is, I just feel like the guy who has that exhibit I'm referring to was like, “You know what we need? Petrified wood and a fake Mona Lisa painting.”
Alright, let's kick the show off today. I want to welcome our sponsored guest, president over at Strum Platform, Mr. Ben Stangel. Ben, welcome to the show.
Ben Stangland:
Thanks for having me.
Joshua Barclay:
Many credit union leaders express a strong desire to be data-driven, but they often struggle to ask the right questions to get there. After the data is activated, nobody knows the right questions to ask that will move the needle. So, for the credit union leaders who do want to move the needle, what are the right questions they should be asking about their data, Ben?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, when credit unions go down the road of digital transformation, that means a lot of things for a lot of different credit unions. They go through these phases of trying to get all the data together because that’s a big challenge. And then, after all the data’s together and it’s cleaned, and they’re looking at it, the next step is: “Okay, how do we visualize this data?”
From that step itself, we have disparate systems from different areas, and we have disparate groups deciding what they want to look at and see. The issue we run into is you have these beautiful dashboards, but what do we do with them?
A good example would be looking at maybe loan production. It’s very important to look at loan production and see what we’re doing, but the real question might be: “How can we help members with loans? Who are the members that need loans right now, and how do I activate that?” Instead of just visually looking at how we are actually doing on our loans, it’s about how we move that needle.
So, asking those questions is really important within the team and having that alignment. I think it goes down to having a data-driven culture, which is really hard to actually have while moving that needle because you need everyone on the same page. We’re not just looking at the data; we need to actualize it.
And then, taking it even further from there, it’s not only about actualizing the data, but also tracking on the backside: “How is it performing after we’ve sent out this information and marketed these loans? Are we actually getting people, beyond vanity metrics like clicks and opens? Are these people actually funding? Are we seeing them convert, are they coming into the branches?”
And that’s extremely important and powerful to get more momentum going culturally. Because when you start seeing movement of actual results, it catches like wildfire for other folks within the organization.
Joshua Barclay:
Becky, data-driven is your middle name. They call you Becky “Data-Driven” Reed. You know all about this. How did you build a culture around asking the right questions? Because, as Ben states, there’s data everywhere, but how do we ask the right questions about it so that it actually creates a business impact?
It’s not just fluffy seven million clicks, but what revenue did that produce? What impact is that driving? So, how did you build that culture around asking the right questions?
Becky Reed:
Well, I think that for most people, the whole data journey is really scary and very overwhelming. And Ben mentioned earlier having to homogenize the data, getting it all in one place. That in itself can be a daunting task, especially for a midsize or a small financial institution.
So, a lot of times they resort to just doing reports because they think they can’t have a robust data analytics tool that doesn’t include a data warehouse. I can tell you that for most credit unions, everything they need to know is already in their core. So, all they really need to do is start pulling some of that data out.
Even if you have to start from a remedial place like spreadsheets, because a lot of software solutions, I’ll be honest, like to sell you dashboards. They show you really cool dashboards. It’s interesting, and the CEO goes, “Oh wow, this is really cool.” And then after you’ve looked at it for three months, you find out there’s really not much else it can do, and it gets boring again.
Then you find out that in order to build a new dashboard, it’s going to cost X or take X amount of time. It’s very frustrating. So, what we did at Lone Star is we started with a question. You both talked about asking the right questions, but it's about continuing to drill down until you get to an answer that you might have to find a solution for.
So, for example, we just did a loan campaign, and we noticed we didn’t get as good results as expected. Well, why is that? Then you start looking at the data: how many loans did we get from the last campaign? What did the demographics look like of the people who applied for loans? What were the credit scores?
And you continue down the rabbit hole until you find something where you say, “Okay, wow, there’s the difference. Now, what do we do about that?” Starting with the question was the mantra we used at Lone Star to start that data journey.
Joshua Barclay:
I like that. And I want to pass it over to you, Ben. When thinking about the right questions, I don’t know if this is a chicken-or-egg question, but do we unify the data and think about the technology first, and then think about asking the questions? Or do we need to think about these questions way before the technology picture even comes into the scene?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, Becky brings up a good point. I think people get too hung up on the technology and the shiny object. You really need to start with the questions: What am I trying to answer here, and what does success mean to the credit union itself? Defining that is going to help drive your technology stack, whatever that is—whether you’re a midsize or smaller credit union, and where you’re actually going to go.
That’s so important. We can run into problems when a CIO or CEO says, “Hey, I love this. We’re going to implement it.” But if it’s a big, monstrous system—let’s say Salesforce—and you don’t have the team in place to support it, you’re setting yourself up for failure right from the start. And I think too many credit unions fall down that rabbit hole, looking at the product before thinking about what they’re trying to answer.
Joshua Barclay:
And Ben, do you think if we ask the right questions, even if the staff doesn’t consist of five-star data scientists with super high data acumen, there’s still value? I feel like even a regular, everyday Joe like myself, who’s not a data scientist, can produce value within the credit union. Have you seen that in your experience when dealing with financial institutions?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, it’s hard to get talent in the data analytics field right now for many credit unions. We run into that all the time. Anybody can ask certain questions. If the tool is easy enough to use to get the answers you need, then you’ll have success. Where you run into problems is when the tool is complex, hard to use, and you're trying to ask questions but just can’t get the answers out of the system you have. That’s the challenge credit unions run into.
Joshua Barclay:
Becky, I’m sure, as a credit union leader, to Ben’s point, you’re not flooded with five-star data scientists from prestigious schools. So, I’m wondering—there’s a need for speed. We need to ask the right questions, get the right answers, and do so at the right time. How did you deal with the limitations of data talent to get the right answers quickly enough to make them actionable?
Becky Reed:
Well, to Ben’s point, if you have tools that are easy to use, it makes it much easier. You don’t need a team of 25 people who understand data analytics. You might not be able to do predictive analytics, but look, if you’ve been in the industry for any amount of time, you understand what the data is telling you. You understand member behavior.
The problem with certain software is that they give you too many choices. Then, you’re sitting there wondering, Should I choose this, or that? And you don’t really have the time, to your point, Josh, to test it out and see. So, the best solutions are the simplest and as real-time as possible.
Segment 2
Joshua Barclay:
Jeff Bezos famously said, "Obsess over your customers." Ben, I'm not trying to compare you to Bezos, but you mentioned something similar. You said you have to have the right culture around understanding your members better. What do you mean when you say that?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, so I'm going to pick up on something Amazon did, or Jeff did with his team. So, I’m out of Seattle, and I could probably throw a rock and hit someone who works at Amazon here. When Amazon started off and went public in 1997, their market cap was around 450 million or something like that.
Around 2004, they had a product called Super Saver Shipping—I think that’s what it was called. It involved buying certain things and getting free shipping, but it wasn’t two-day shipping like Prime is today, right? One of the head engineers, Charlie Ward, brainstormed, “Wouldn’t it be great if someone paid us a certain amount at the beginning of the year, and we would just ship them items, instead of bundling different shipping options?”
He wasn’t thinking about today—he was just thinking about offering free shipping as part of that membership at the beginning. And it turned into Prime. Jeff, of course, took this, and while everyone else thought, “This is crazy. We can't make this work. We’re going to lose a lot of money,” on the backside, they realized they were taking down red tape.
People would shop more and use Amazon more because it was more convenient. Now, I can buy something, and it’s at my door on the same day. I'm in Seattle, so I can get anything delivered in two hours.
If you think back to understanding your customers and relating this to a credit union, the question becomes: How can we bring down the red tape? How can we make it easier to get money, send money, and figure out how to invest money? A lot of fintechs have done a great job in this area.
The opportunity for credit unions is whether we partner or build, and how we actually make this work is extremely important for the overall survival of the industry. We’ve seen fewer and fewer cranes every year, so how do we make this work? The key, as Jeff Bezos demonstrated, is paying attention to your customer and identifying those pain points.
Joshua Barclay:
Becky, I know some stories about things you’ve done that speak to what Ben is referring to, but tell us how you build a culture around understanding the member better.
Becky Reed:
Well, something I often hear in credit union land is, “If our members want something, they’ll tell us.” But that’s not true. What I can tell you is that members want the experience Ben just talked about. They want to be able to push a button and have something delivered to their door in two hours.
Unfortunately, what they get with their credit union app is they can’t even send $5 in five minutes. Members want the experiences they’re already having out there in the digital world. Are they going to call the call center and say, “I want you to be like Amazon?” No. Do you call your credit union and say you want them to be like Amazon?
No.
But what you do expect is that your best digital experience is now the bar. That’s what everyone else has to live up to. What we did at Lone Star was that we didn’t do surveys, we didn’t do focus groups, and we didn’t ask the frontline what the members wanted. We looked at what they were doing. And that gets back to the data Ben is talking about.
We pulled data on how many of our members were using Amazon and how much they were spending every single month. We looked at Cash App and Venmo. What were they doing? And what we found at my credit union was that $5 million a month was going out to Venmo and Cash App. Four million was coming in, so we were losing a net $1 million every single month to apps that were doing things our app couldn’t.
Joshua Barclay:
You know, that’s interesting, Becky. I heard someone say recently—this was a fintech guy—and he said to me, “Josh, it’s not about the products, you dummy. It’s about the experiences around the products.” Ben, would you agree with that sentiment?
Ben Stangland:
100%. I think it’s about making that experience seamless. It’s an ongoing challenge, and you’re never done. It’s an ongoing journey, like a lot of things in life. You’re always trying to make it better, and we’re always looking for ways to make the experience for our members easier, better, and more seamless to get what they need, because that’s how we stay competitive.
Becky Reed:
I want to double down on what he just said about always trying to improve the member experience. Think about the apps you have on your phone. How often do they get updated?
Joshua Barclay:
Pretty often.
Becky Reed:
They might get updated once a week, once a month, or once an hour. One day, you just open up your Facebook app, and it has a completely different look than it did a week ago. We accept that as part of the constant experience. Think about Amazon—what it looked like 10 or 15 years ago. It’s not even the same, not even close.
Now think about your digital banking app. How often does that get updated with a different look and feel?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, and I think some people are afraid of making big updates, right? Facebook has a huge audience—they can make tweaks, they can make big changes, and people won’t leave forever. But there’s a fear within the credit union industry that if we make too many changes, we’ll lose members. And yet, taking these risks is necessary.
To go back to Amazon, I mentioned Prime—that was a success. But does anyone remember the Fire Phone Amazon put out? That was a flop, a horrible idea. Jeff Bezos was trying to connect it back to Amazon shopping, but the user interface was terrible. He gave them away, and I think they wrote off the entire thing. Some ideas are good, and some are not, but he risked it to learn and understand.
I think we need more of that risk-taking in this industry.
Sponsor – Strum Platform
Joshua Barclay:
Before we go on, I first want to mention this episode’s sponsor, Strum Platform. Strum Platform is a cutting-edge member data solution designed to empower credit unions with the tools they need to thrive in a competitive digital landscape. They specialize in hyper-targeted marketing through advanced automation capabilities, ensuring every member interaction is tailored to enhance engagement and drive growth.
The platform integrates seamlessly with existing systems, streamlining workflows and maximizing efficiency across marketing campaigns. From targeted messaging to comprehensive analytics, Strum Platform enables credit unions to optimize their marketing strategies and deliver impactful results.
Statewide Federal Credit Union used Strum Platform to attract more than $12 million in new deposits in less than a year. Their platform allowed Statewide Federal Credit Union to profile the lifestyles of their members and create precise marketing segments, ready to connect with members with the right message at the right time.
There it is. Discover the power of Strum Platform by contacting Strum to schedule a demo and see firsthand how they can revolutionize your marketing at strumplatform.com. That’s S-T-R-U-M platform dot com.
Segment 3
Joshua Barclay:
Marketers, we have a trust problem. According to Forrester's 2024 marketing survey, only 64 percent of B2B marketing leaders trust their organization's marketing measurement for decision-making. This raises a key issue with marketing attribution. Becky, during your time as a credit union leader, did you trust your marketing attribution data?
Becky Reed:
Well, the poor marketers out there that work with me are like, "Oh my gosh, don't ask Becky this question." No, no, yes and no. I think that, um, where data analytics lives oftentimes really isn't marketing, especially in the credit unions on the smaller end of the spectrum. Data analytics and analyzing a marketing campaign kind of lived in IT.
And it was because those are the people that pull the reports, right? Those are the people that have the data. A lot of times, credit unions are not using the tools on the marketing side of things to give them that data—data that doesn't live in the core. So we have click-throughs, open rates—we usually have those kinds of things—but to get much more granular than that requires some sophistication that a lot of smaller credit unions just don't have the tools for.
So it's not that you don't trust what the marketing folks are telling you; it's that they just don't have the right tools to be able to give you the best data.
Joshua Barclay:
Ben, Strum platform—one of the things that I really love about it, and it's like one of those key differentiators to me, among other things, right—is the attribution component, that kind of profitability that you guys deliver, where I can see the results, like the clicks, 700 email opens on that last campaign.
I can't run a credit union on 700 email opens in a campaign. So talk to me about Strum platform and how you are solving this attribution problem within credit unions.
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, what we saw was great marketing automation systems out there. They're very powerful in sending out marketing messages, but not necessarily linked to the core. As Becky mentioned, a lot of the data is in the core, obviously, in understanding your own membership, but seeing what is actually happening.
We built a product that takes not only core data but also other ancillary data systems and combines them, along with third-party information into your member sets. You have some demographic information that maybe you didn't have within your core set that we're able to target. We send those to existing marketing automation systems that other credit unions have set up.
We have our own as well, but we also integrate with a lot of different systems. Then we track it on the backend. So we're looking at who's opened, who's actually engaged in the campaign, and then if they've actually gone into the branch or funded anything, we're tracking that to see what's actually happening.
While the marketer that sets up the campaign is saying, "This is the cost associated with that campaign, and this is the duration that we want to look at," we're providing more transparency. So everyone on the team knows what's working and what's not working on a daily basis, versus having to ask at the end of a campaign that maybe lasted for several months. You don't have much chance to make course corrections to that particular campaign at the very end, whereas our system checks every day.
Joshua Barclay:
I love what you're telling me about the platform, but the first question that I have to ask is about integrations—like, what cores? What limitations from these old Frogger-era systems do we have? What cores are you working with?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, we're working with quite a few cores—Pfizer, Jack Henry, Jack Henry VIP, obviously a lot of FinTechs use VIP. Correlation is a darling core right now. We've done several integrations with theirs, as well as with some smaller cores like CU Answers.
So, quite a few different cores, and everyone is set up a little bit differently—even within the same cores. This is not a new subject, but even within the cores, everybody has their own setup that they've customized. So even if someone says, "Hey, I've worked with this core," there are nuances in everyone's setup. If you've been in this industry for any amount of time and dealt with IT, this is what you deal with.
Joshua Barclay:
And then in terms of asset sizes—because I'm sure some people are listening to this and thinking, "Cool, man, but do I need to be $5 billion in assets to utilize this tool?" What are the different asset sizes you're working with?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, it's funny—actually, we signed our first $80 million, so sub-$100 million asset credit union a couple of weeks ago. We're excited to get them on board. Statewide, we mentioned earlier, I think they're at like $150 million. We also work with billion-dollar credit unions, but most of our clients are around $500 million in assets—that's pretty common.
To be honest, we don't target or talk about only going after a particular asset size. It's more about whether the credit union is looking for overall growth. Again, it's about that goal of, "What do you want to do with your existing stack?" One of the things we ran into at the beginning was saying, "Hey, we want to work with what you have."
We have some wonderful partners that do full integrations and full data warehouse solutions. I've worked with Architecture on multiple installations, and Prisma Campaigns on a lot of installations, and we complement each other well. It's a wonderful collaboration within the FinTech and credit union space.
Joshua Barclay:
And then in terms of integration time—uptime—how long does this take to get going? You mentioned Salesforce earlier, and my joke is, "Yeah, they'll implement you in 2050," right? And then you still won’t get what you want.
So if I'm interested and listening, thinking, "What you're saying sounds great—being able to understand what actions are driving growth in my credit union"—but then my next question is, I don’t want to wait until 2030 to get this going. So, what should someone expect from you in terms of implementation time?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, like everything, there are always caveats to this, but on average, I would expect 90 days from when you actually sign to get started. You'll actually be sending out campaigns and looking at everything connected on a daily basis. That's pretty common. I have a very good onboarding team.
We've also started professional services. As we were talking earlier, it's tough to hire folks that are analytical and have worked with credit unions for years. I have a great team of folks who have been in the industry, working with credit unions for over 20 years, specifically in analytics and marketing. They get leaned on for the right questions to ask—how to present the data to the executive team and the board, and how to move the credit union forward. That's pretty exciting. We stood that up just under a year ago, last October.
Joshua Barclay:
And then before we end this interrogation here—how many credit union customers do you have right now?
Ben Stangland:
I think we're at 31. It's a good-sized group, and we have a credit union advisory group as well that helps us with the direction of our product. As Becky mentioned earlier, sometimes there are too many choices, and that's a tough challenge for a FinTech—to not try to do everything. So, we lean on that team for what we should really focus on, and they help guide us. I really appreciate that within the community.
Segment 4
Joshua Barclay:
Every year, credit union leaders evaluate countless software vendors, and one thing I keep hearing is: "We're looking for partners, not just vendors." April Clobes mentioned that credit unions need to be seen as financial partners, not just transactional accounts. Similarly, vendors should be viewed as partners, not merely suppliers. But here's the challenge, right? Every single vendor claims, "Look, we're not a vendor, we're a partner." And so, we've lost sight of what it truly means to be a partner.
Joshua Barclay:
So, Ben, I'm going to put you on the hot seat here. How do you genuinely become a partner and not just a vendor?
Ben Stangland:
Well, I think it's about looking at the needs of the credit union itself. It's tough as a fintech to survive while making sure you're still innovating. You have to be scrappy and understand where to spend your energy. It gets tough sometimes with credit unions because you want to support them as much as you can, but you realize you can't do everything—just like existing credit unions with members.
You can't be everything to everyone, right? We have to focus our energy. And I think coming in and being open with the credit union you're working with—saying, "I'd love to support you in this area, but our product's not going that way," or "This is the direction of our product"—is really important. Too many people go out with ambitious roadmaps of their product that haven't been built yet.
Credit unions get burned because they're not buying the product necessarily as it exists today, but the product of the future that hasn't been built yet. And there are challenges there. So, I think being as transparent as you can be—about your resources, what you're focusing on, and the true deliverables—and then demonstrating the constant evolution of the product, without staying stagnant, is extremely important.
There are lots of challenges with contracts, too, of course, that you're working on with credit unions. We run into credit unions that are stuck in certain contracts and can't move over because they're bound by those contracts. That can feel disheartening for a vendor—or partner—trying to come in to help them. You might end up saying, "Hey, I'm going to take a bullet and work with you on lowering this cost or making it so you don’t have to pay as much," or whatever it ends up being. As long as everything is put out on the table, I think that's part of being a true partner.
Joshua Barclay:
You can’t be a partner with hidden fees. You can’t say, "Becky, I know you didn’t know about those costs. Hey, I’m a partner, I’m coming over for lunch later on."
Becky, you've had time as a leader, and now you've moved into your own new journey in the technology space. So, what are your expectations of what a partner means? What does it truly mean to be a vendor partner?
Becky Reed:
Well, one of the things we did at the credit union—so I’ll kind of have my credit union hat on and then turn it over to the fintech side of things—was when we were looking at new vendors, and all credit unions have a hundred-plus vendors doing all kinds of different things, it’s really a bear to manage. When you’re choosing a new vendor or partner relationship—whatever you want to call it—we felt that culture fit was something that needed to be considered.
Yes, there are the standard things—like doing due diligence, ensuring they have security and insurance, all that stuff you have to do regardless. But if there’s no culture fit, if that company doesn’t align with the ethos of your organization, it’s just not going to work. It just isn’t going to work. And so, even if it's the best price or the best product out there, if they don’t fit what your credit union is trying to do, it isn’t going to work.
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with long-term contracts where the vendor won’t budge, you see this a lot with core vendors. They impose termination fees or long notice periods before you can exit—sometimes as long as five years. That’s a culture we don’t want to partner with.
Now, putting my fintech hat on—it’s about solving the pain points that credit unions are feeling, not just selling them a product. Let’s help solve a problem. If you can truly partner with them and have them help you build it, that’s the key. Ben just talked about how credit unions are buying the future. They’re buying what’s on the roadmap, but it hasn’t been built yet. On the fintech side, if you don’t have someone who wants that future solution, you shouldn’t be building it.
It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. If you have a customer who comes to you and says, "I really need this solution," we’ve had that at BankSocial. One of our clients was experiencing a pain point—there was no integration to their core available in the short term. It was going to take two years and cost an unaffordable amount. They needed a solution now because their members were feeling the pain, and they were getting complaints.
So, they sat down with us, and we presented them with something we could build. They said, "That sounds good, let’s do it." And now we’re building it. If they hadn’t expressed that pain point, it might not have been something we built. Being a partner means having input, having a say, and being able to express your desires and needs for that member journey.
As we continue to move forward as financial technology institutions, this type of relationship is going to become even more important in the future.
Joshua Barclay:
I want to double down on something you said, Ben, about transparency—transparency around the roadmap, transparency around the contracts. How do you deal with transparency in a world where—let’s say I’m a credit union leader—someone is selling me a dream, and I don’t know they’re lying? They come to you and say, "Ben, what you said sounds good, but so-and-so said they can do X, Y, Z."
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, I think the best way to deal with that situation is to have them talk to other people that have worked with you. I mean, that’s the honest truth. We get that all the time: "Give us somebody with the same asset size, in an urban or rural area, whatever." That’s pretty common. Just have them ask whatever questions they want because they’ll quickly find out whether the company can deliver or not—whether it's the company that starts with an "S" or us.
It’s all about delivering on reputation. This is a small community. Everybody knows each other, so your reputation means a lot.
Closing
Joshua Barclay:
That brings us to the end of the show. Ben, I want to ask you for your final thoughts.
Ben Stangland:
Thank you so much for having me on the show. It was a lot of fun. It was great talking to both of you. I think credit unions have a wonderful opportunity to grow. The overall theme here is that we need to take calculated risks. We have to look at ways to help our members, reduce red tape, and make things easier that we’ve made harder to do.
To do that, we need to make the experience better—better than good—because, as Becky mentioned earlier, your best online or digital experience is now your expectation going forward. How do we make that happen?
Joshua Barclay:
And if any of our listeners are thinking, "I’d like to talk to Ben about the product or maybe something he discussed on the show," how can they get ahold of you?
Ben Stangland:
Yeah, they can reach out via email at ben.stangland@strumplatform.com. That’s probably the easiest way. I’m also on LinkedIn. Feel free to message me there, and I’ll respond. I’m happy to talk about any topic. I’ve been helping credit unions for over 20 years, so I’d love to share my stories.
Joshua Barclay:
Becky, after everything we talked about today, what are your final thoughts?
Becky Reed:
I think credit unions often get stuck in the way things are. Look, we all do, as humans. We get very used to how things are, and when we get introduced to something new and cool, we adapt pretty quickly. But generally, when we're doing our day-to-day, coming into the credit union every day, doing our job, we’re not really thinking about what might be happening outside our doors. Technology is moving at the speed of light. There are so many things available now that just weren’t possible a year or two ago.
One of the things I often talk about is how sometimes I wait. I'm like, "No, I don't want to buy that yet because in a year it’s going to be even better." I think we need to start having that mentality in credit unions—that next year we’re going to be better. We’re going to move faster, provide better service to our members, and grow. Whatever it is, but next year, we’re going to be better. So, think like a software company, credit unions.
Joshua Barclay:
If you want to reach Becky Reed, you can message her on LinkedIn and tell her Josh sent you. No, I am not part of Becky Reed’s affiliate program, but just let her know Josh sent you. LinkedIn is the way to reach her.
I want to thank Strum Platform. Remember, if you’re looking for smarter analytics to help your credit union grow, you should be looking into Strum Platform. Go to strumplatform.com to learn more.
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Thank you for listening. See you next time. Take care. Adios.