Finalytics.ai powers segment-of-one digital experiences for community financial institutions. The company published today its fifth annual report on the digital experiences offered by the 100 largest credit unions in the United States. The report explores how effectively credit unions have been in providing digital experiences that can be leveraged as a competitive advantage.

The Finalytics.ai 2023 Credit Union Digital Experience report evaluates each credit union’s website and related areas such as, online account origination, digital marketing, key features and functionality, SEO optimization, web analytics, overall member experience, and security and privacy.

The credit unions who achieved the highest average scores across all categories – on a one to five scale with one being “poor” and five “most innovative” - include VyStar Credit Union (3.39), Alliant Credit Union (3.08), Community America Credit Union (2.79), Wings Financial Credit Union (2.79), and Redwood Credit Union (2.70).

Key findings from the report include:

• The average user experience score was 2.31 out of 5, indicating that many credit unions are failing to bring their high-touch approach to digital channels and successfully convert what has traditionally been a transactional environment into a relational one.

• Only 21 of the 100 credit unions exhibit some level of personalization: and just seven of these feature deeper, more enhanced personalization.

• While the majority of credit unions (91%) identify some level of segmentation, just 30% represent their defined segments very well within their website content.

• Of those using defined segmentation, 58% show two or more segments in their primary navigation – typically Personal, Business and Wealth Management.

• Only 40% of credit unions track analytics across the digital journey and even fewer integrate web analytics across front-end/back-end data sources.

The primary finding of the report is that many credit unions are not investing in the digital capabilities that meet current and prospective members’ wants and/or needs. This means that the traditional selling point for credit unions – better in-branch support and service – is not translating into a digital experience that differentiates them from competitors in the market. With the majority of financial services now being consumed via digital channels, this inability to create a relational environment in the digital space is an existential threat that must become the singular priority for credit union leadership.

As noted in the report, those consumers that are satisfied with the level of trust they have in their credit union increased in the last few years but remains well below 50%. To maintain and improve member satisfaction, credit unions will have to create segment of one digital experiences for prospective and current members that go beyond simple personalization and broad segmentation. New technologies will be required to achieve this goal and there are several products poised to help in the market.

Craig McLaughlin, CEO of Finalytics.ai, commented, “Our goal with this report is to provide a useful framework to analyze the quality of digital experiences in the industry and help credit unions build a strong digital strategy. Credit unions are working hard to meet their members’ needs, but the report indicates that these efforts are going to need to be supplemented if credit unions want to win in the marketplace. By leveraging modern technologies, credit unions can move beyond a transactional, generalized digital banking experience and deliver branch-like banking on digital channels, at scale.”

Download the Finalytics.ai 2023 here to learn more about the findings.