One of the core industries Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) focuses on is financial services – particularly, banks and credit unions.  Often times we speak with credit unions who have never used market research before in the past but need it.  This need is usually driven by a problem they incurred, whether it is stagnant member growth, issues with member services or lack of awareness in the community.  Whatever your issue may be, RMS Analytics has experience with credit union consulting and we can help.  We’ve designed some FAQs to help you understand market research and how RMS can partner with your credit union to get you solutions.

We have a strict budget. Can we afford market research? Yes. There are many different forms of market research and various scopes to fit your budget needs. Perhaps the better question is, what is the cost of not doing market research? Disloyal members, poor service from your reps, the inability to capitalize on a new market, and improvements from your competitors can all have lasting, negative impacts on the growth of your credit union. These negative impacts will far outweigh the cost to do market research. In many cases, market research will not only reverse negative effects, but it will allow your credit union to capitalize on its strengths.

We do our own market research in-house; why should we outsource it? In many cases, the in-house approach represents false savings and carries with it a lot of unforeseen pitfalls. Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you are doing/thinking about doing market research in-house: What are the total costs of managing the project internally including staff time and software? Does the organization have the internal resources and expertise available to do the job properly? Can we be objective enough (or perceived to be objective enough) to do the research internally? Will your members give you honest answers if they know you will be reviewing their data? What are the costs of making a wrong decision that is informed by faulty research? If any of those questions are a concern to your credit union, you should consult with a third-party.

Our credit union is doing very well, why do we need to do market research? Efforts and resources need to be focused on your truly loyal members. Find out what they like, what they dislike, what you do well, and what you need to fix. The worst thing to do is to not measure this loyal audience in order to limit customer churn to another bank or credit union. Businesses spend a lot of time and effort trying to develop new customers/members rather than strengthening the relationship with their existing members. Loyal customers out-perform others by 16:1 in retail, 13:1 in restaurants, 12:1 in airlines, and 5:1 in hotels.

Interested in discussing credit union consulting services with our team in Syracuse NY?  Contact Sandy Baker at SandyB@RMSresults.com or call us at 1-866-567-5422.