Business Data Incorporated (BDI) customer relationship and sales expert, Brian Orta, discusses credit union (CU) industry learnings from the industry’s adaptations and needs exposed during the 2020 coronavirus. Orta talks with Digital Banking Podcast Host, Josh DeTar about the unique challenges and opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic has generated for Credit Unions (CUs) to innovate methods for improving their customer and employee experience.

Brian provides perspective on the shared circumstance in which all industries across the global business sector are struggling to adapt during the pandemic. He provides exciting insights into specific problems and the potential range of innovative solutions in new business practices and technology applications in service environment. He examines the kinds of advancements in technology that are necessary for realizing meaningful small increases in service value as well as more extensive upgrades in systems and practices to meet rapidly changing consumer demands.

He further comments on adaptive approaches for CU professionals and external agents networking on behalf of CU support services and product vendors, during the current health and economic crisis and beyond it, as the industry continues on in the digital era. He offers observations, ideas, and recommendations for replacing traditional ways of networking during this time.

Brian encourages thinking about the role of technology to maximize opportunities for improving efficiencies of CU operations. He explains the need for CUs to optimize treatment of customer relationships in the digital sphere. He also surprisingly considers the benefits of a refreshing return to some “old-school” ways of networking and general communications online, as feasible during the pandemic and even in pre-digital-age modes, as practical again after the pandemic.

⚡ Change doesn’t have to be transformational to make a difference for CU members and staff.

“The details matter. Whether COVID has forced you to take another look from a credit perspective at what some of those pain points are, and what’s just sort of annoying. Think about how to innovate to improve the lives of your employees or your members. Because, it’s those little annoyances that, once improved, cause people to say, “Hey, that’s a lot better. I like this.” It doesn’t have to be big every time you make a change.”

⚡ Everyone is in the same boat with the business handicaps from the pandemic.

It’s not that one particular industry, or one particular credit union, or one particular vendor is dealing with this challenge on their own. We’re all trying to figure it out. “We’ve been thinking about how we can replace some of the traditions for our customers or prospective customers. We’ve got to think differently.”

⚡ Credit unions are in a very pivotal time right now.

“Across the industry, CUs are seeking to develop their technology, to rise to the challenges of the shift to digital. There are a thousand players springing up that do data analytics and the like. There are a lot of dots that need to be connected. It’s something we’ve got to catch up on.”