There’s a moment in this conversation on The Credit Union Connection where the tone subtly shifts. What starts as a discussion about member experience turns into something more existential. A realization that credit unions may be losing relevance with the very generations they are counting on for the future.
Sarah Snell Cooke sits down with Melissa Krut, Vice President of Success at Sogolytics, expecting to unpack a new research report. What emerges instead is a series of uncomfortable truths about awareness, perception, and how quickly expectations are changing. Credit unions still stand for people helping people. The question is whether anyone under 40 can see it.
By the time the data comes up, it is hard to ignore. Nearly half of Gen Z has either never heard of credit unions or does not understand what they do. Even more concerning, credit unions captured just 10% of new deposit account openings in 2023, down from 16% in 2015. As Sarah puts it later in the conversation, the data makes you “want to cry, scream, laugh… all the things.”
What makes this discussion resonate is not alarmism. It is clarity. Melissa reframes the challenge not as credit unions versus banks, but as credit unions versus expectations shaped by fintech, seamless apps, and instant gratification. Trust, she suggests, is increasingly built through ease, speed, and digital confidence, not just relationships at the branch.
There is also a candid acknowledgment that growth has a complicated identity. As credit unions expand beyond their original membership bases, their stories have become harder to tell. Values still exist, but they are often buried behind clunky experiences or outdated signals that quietly tell younger consumers this is not for you.
The most compelling insight may be the simplest. Values do not matter if people cannot see them in action. Convenience wins when values are invisible. And until credit unions make their impact as tangible as their apps and experiences, that gap is not going to close on its own.
NOTE: AI is human, so it ain’t perfect. This transcript will have errors; it will receive its punishment later.
Sarah Cooke
Hello. Welcome everybody. My name is Sarah Snell cook. I am your host here, of course, at The Credit Union Connection I have with me today. Melissa Krut , welcome,
Melissa Krut
Hello, hello, thanks for having me.
Sarah Cooke
Howdy. Melissa is the vice president of success at a company called Sogolytics. Did I say that right?
Melissa Krut
You sure did both all of those things were right. So thank you so much.
Sarah Cooke
Wow, awesome. So I’ll allow you to do a better introduction of yourself, as well as the a little bit on the company as well.
Melissa Krut
I mean, VP of Success, it’s really hard to go anywhere from there. I’m really excited to have a title like that, and I’ve been here for over a dozen years, actually working on my way up to earning that title. So it means wearing a lot of different hats, and especially in the credit union world, that means I get to go to a lot of events. I get to work with a lot of our clients in their implementations of rolling out employee experience or member experience plans like that. My background is in the world of education, and so everything that I do, I like to think about, how am I helping? What am I doing? What am I, you know, what value am I bringing to people to learn stuff so they can go out and fish themselves and all of those kinds of things. So, right? Big title, ambitious a little bit, but all the success all the time is basically my remit, little bit high level. I will say at Sogolytics, we also have some pretty high goals. So it’s definitely the idea of helping people have better access to the data that they need. So that means research. It means managing employee experience, member experience, all of those sorts of things, so we can make better decisions and provide better experiences for everyone.
Sarah Cooke
Again, more any day, not just take it all, make it better. Perfect. And so you guys put out this white paper that I was like, I my jaw kept dropping. I’m like, what? How? And I normally, I don’t pick up on white papers because I know there are a lot of times very commercial. And you know, it’s what it is. I do them myself. But yeah, this was really compelling.
Melissa Krut
If you we were talking concerned what kind of what kind of reaction you have, you were like, Oh no. Or interesting, or, yeah.
Sarah Cooke
Well, it’s not the paper itself. It’s the data that makes me want to cry, scream, laugh, I don’t know, like, all the things.
Melissa Krut
Good, perfect. That’s what we were hoping for.
Sarah Cooke
So, yeah, one of the things that you all found is that, and I’m shocked this one, I’m not shocked at this one, was like, Uh huh, nearly half of Gen Z have never heard of credit unions. Don’t know what or have heard of credit unions, but don’t know what they do or why they work, how they work. Why? I know the answer? Let’s see if you know the answer. Why? Whose fault is it?
Melissa Krut
Whose fault is it? This time I would say that, yeah, looking at that, I think even going beyond that, set at 49% don’t heard of them. Don’t know how they work. Heard of them? Great. Don’t know how they work, okay, but yeah, of course, the 51 that don’t even haven’t even heard of them in the first place, I think even those that have heard of them, we saw 17% think it’s for older people. We don’t say old people, older people than me, whoever, whatever age you happen to be, right? And 17% also said, whatever they’re doing, it’s not modern enough, which is like, All right, so I don’t know what you do. I’m not really very interested. And I don’t think it’s actually for me. So I think that credit unions have, it’s not bad awareness, right? Like, that’s an okay place to start with. It’s, it’s double digit. Don’t know what it is. Is that aware? I don’t know what it is. That’s a starting point, right? So I think it’s a translation problem sometimes, of like we see over and over again, that people, younger people, if we’ll call them, that one versus older, have this idea that I should have these partners, I should support these businesses, these organizations that have cool values and do amazing things, but there’s a huge disconnect between the cool values and amazing things that credit unions do and the actual values that are shared, like all of those cooperative principles. Like, do you not want democratic Do you not want cooperation? Like, people helping people do not want those things? Like, that’s what we see over and over again, all these amazing young people led social movements, which is, like, justice for everyone. It’s like, yeah, oh, that’s the model. So, like, agree. So what is the problem? I don’t want to come and say it’s marketing, but there’s some translation, right? There’s some cool stuff is happening, but it’s somewhere hidden behind. Sometimes it’s outdated technology, like, that’s one of the things that we’ve seen is like, you come to a website and it feels clunky, or it feels even when I come to a website and it has a copyright that’s not this year, I just feel like very specific audience, right? But like, it’s stuff like that where. Like, they might have cool programs, but they’re not for prompt. They’re something like, behind we’re here for you if you are in this small category, right? And I think that’s a big challenge as well, too, is getting that idea that there are, of course, credit unions that have that charter responsibility of like, Look, you work in this building. We are literally here for you in this building, right? But there are so many more that are having a little bit of an identity problem as well, too, like we talk about, one of the things that we see from a lot of our clients is we used to be this. This was our remit right here, serving all of the firefighters in this region, for example. But now we’re this, and also we joined with some other folks. And now, okay, well, what’s your new brand? People, helping people, fighters, right? Everyone in the room will shout out something else, too, little bit of an identity problem as well, too. It’s really hard to brand when you have and it’s amazing to have growth as a problem. Growth is a really cool problem to have, but it means that you’re trying to diversify a message that used to be really, really simple, like, yay firefighters. Yes, by the way, yay firefighter. Whoever’s doing that, right?
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, no, I mean, and then that’s part of what makes caring is great, is they do have those niche membership bases. And even within that, though, like firefighters, I imagine most of them are younger, because old us old people can’t do that kind of work or nothing. Probably not as likely, so you would think. But anyway, the so one of, one of the things that grabbed my attention is that in 2023 credit unions captured 10% of new deposit account openings, 10% that is down from 16% in 2015 and That is scary. That is super scary, because that’s 66% I mean, that’s, that’s a big difference. And, you know, in part, of course, is the digital offerings covid kind of helped that along a little bit. Thank goodness. Not that covid was good, but the but the good thing I’m hearing now is that credit unions are kind of leapfrogging the to the last iteration of technology, I guess, because AI kind of kicked everybody in the bum and, and I think we’re getting through that educational phase and, and I’m hearing crannies are Even doing better than like community banks at turning on the new technologies. Are getting ready to add those new technologies. But yeah, one of the things I saw too is that the regional banks generate 30% of sales, I guess, account openings digitally, versus credit unions below 10 person so, you know, obviously there’s, there’s a disconnect there between, you know, credit unions are proud of knowing their members, but they don’t know how to deliver the services to them, maybe anymore. What do you what do you see behind that?
Melissa Krut
Yeah, I think that’s, you know, writ large. I think that’s that is true in some cases. That’s the perception. And I think technology that I mentioned, I think that’s one of the things that is an opportunity for not equalizing, but like you said, leapfrogging, I think is a great phrase to use there, because in many cases, people are not searching, okay, do I want? People don’t always know what is the difference between a regional bank or a community bank, or, some cases, or a credit union, right? They’re looking for somebody to meet their needs, and increasingly, those are digital needs, right? Oh my gosh, I’m standing next to my friend at a restaurant. I need to just give them money, right? Like, we have this, like we have very high standards these days, of, like, what should be possible? Like, I should be able to snap my fingers and I split the check with my friend, and it’s all magically done digitally. And by the way, there should be no fees that’s made. We have a lot of big dreams. Or, like, oh yeah, I didn’t pay my loan this month. Can I just gonna pass on that. Like, is that a thing, like loan forgiveness, that people are looking for, that kind of thing? And sometimes those aren’t the like, in person, I know the teller who I go in to see every day, where it has been in the past, right? And so that, like, that’s the kind of stuff, actually, it seems like a surface level thing. Like, is it fast tech? Is it cool? Is it easy? But that’s how we build trust with people, right? If I ask you to do something and you say, Oh, sure, actually, no problem. And by the way, no fees, whatever magical bonus you can put on there, then I start to build a relationship with you, even though you’ll never see you. And so increasingly, I think that competition is not credit. Union versus banks of many flavors. It’s credit unions versus fintech. And so I go to tons of events and learn from, I want to say hack fests, right? But like, my gosh, we thought these folks are doing this thing. You can do it too, right? That’s not limited to, you know, from technology is expensive and it requires some investment, and sometimes just identifying what is the real need. And if you have the real need to feel that like we are delivering on our mission, we are people helping people. Knowing what people helping people looks like is very different for different groups of people. In some cases, it is. I know the lady I talked to, she’s amazing. I know all about her kids. She knows all about my family. And in some cases, for people who are can’t remember the last time they ever went into a branch, for example, that doesn’t have to be the same thing. So knowing what the needs are and understanding those from your current members before they potentially leave, right? So I think that gets into like that acquisition versus retention.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, sorry, there was one that was, one of the things you found in the data too, was that millennials are leaving. They, I mean, what’s scary is they’re not a lot of Gen Z’s that know about credit unions. But also, millennials are leaving. They’ve already had your experience, and they’re leaving because it’s not good enough. So what’s that gonna lead gen Z’s to think, you know, scary?
Melissa Krut
Yeah, let’s just say it’s scary because we know who’s coming in behind them. Sorry, baby boomers are not coming in behind them. They’re going out the door, right? And so that amount of revenue, we see all these studies of like, what amount of revenue is coming from Baby Boomers these days? How soon is that going to be? You know, retiring down the road, as it were, and who’s coming from behind? I think some of the bright spots that we did see is, though, that people, people who are credit union members, are nearly half of them satisfied with their digital experience. So, like, there is something that’s to build on there, and knowing that, like, however people who aren’t members, 12% of them pay so once you’re on the inside, you have a, like, a sweeter chance of understanding. So when we have those conversations, it’s the same thing that we talk about with employee experience. We talk about, yes, an exit survey is a painful conversation, right? For whatever reason we’re splitting up in this situation, but we want to learn from you. What could we have done before you go out the door? I would rather have the stay interview like, Okay, this person’s leaving. That’s what it is. What about these people who are still here, and I think the same thing is true for members, being able to engage with them. Like, obviously, that’s a lot of what we do before they leave. Because once they’re gone and they’ve made that point, it’s like, what could we have done already that conditional past not happening, not to get to English teacher?
Sarah Cooke
One of the things that, or many of the things that tie together, is when the millennials, then Gen Z’s say they want to support brands that support their values, but they don’t. I mean, they really, I mean, obviously finances are a factor. My daughter in law, I know, said she got a car loan from the credit union, but she’s not their app was so bad, she wasn’t going to use it again. And that’s, you know, first impressions are so important, and only 35% believe that their primary financial institution actually reflects those values, and it looks like a lot of them are going to big banks. I mean, that was like the largest section of consumers above fintechs and neobanks even is the big banks, and it’s like, why? If you have any integrity about your values, you’re not going to Wells Fargo.
Melissa Krut
Integrity is a big word to use. I would say I agree, but I think it’s that like, what are those values look like? Because values, when you talk to me about my values, like, I have a lot to say. It’s very core. It’s very personal to me and that sort of thing, but on a daily basis, and we’ve done other studies on this as well, too, on a daily basis, how often do consumers perform according to their values? Okay, you’ve got that Die Hard section that are like, Yes, I only I drink green, I eat green, I sleep green, whatever the thing is. And there are people who are like, I just green. Washing isn’t so bad. I just put a layer on. Like, okay, they’re all flavors of people who live their values, but on a daily basis, it’s convenience. It’s what you’ve said. It’s the. Impression that created. And if you want to say values are our core identity in some way, you need to give me a way where I can see that what are you actually doing. That shows why education is a top principle for you. What are you doing? Are you forcing, forcing down my throat, financial literacy, or else, or are you promoting this in a way that’s uninterrupted, supportive of me? I think we see the prevalence of the of the word dashboard, I think is cannot be overstated. Show me a dashboard that demonstrates how this credit union is living the values I’m giving you my money. What are you doing with it? How are you supporting these we see a lot of a lot of small businesses in general, right, who are very engaged in the community. One of my favorite local coffee shops, they are always doing things, and they are always talking about the things that they’re doing. And it’s not just showing up, it’s donating, it’s contributing, it’s volunteering, all of those things. And if there was a way for me to see, how am I going to choose this versus this? The big guys over here doing this thing are not worried about that kind of a story. They’re worried about convenience and scale. I’m obviously just a number of not so rich that anyone is courting me in this area, but I think to be able to tell that story, you have to give visibility to it. And measures, not just like measures, not mush. I think will be my tag. I love that.
Sarah Cooke
I love that measure is not mush. I think we’ll title it. But yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of people up in arms that these credit unions are branding the pro NFL, NHL, whatever, stadium, rink, whatever. Why not do the little league baseball team or like the toddler soccer players, whatever it is. I mean, it’s not as at scale, but it’s probably a hell of lot more business friendly pricing, as well as actually effective awareness.
Melissa Krut
Having recently attended a soccer game, I call it swarm ball, is what I call it. Yeah, there are a lot of people there. There are a lot of people hanging out, having a good time, and if there had been, you know, some booth, some table, like, snacks, drinks, whatever it is that people that’s a super easy win, and no one on your team who is like, Oh, I hate children and sports, like, gosh, like, you’re going to be able to find somebody who’s going to come out and spend, you know, an hour or two on a Saturday just hanging out and being able to talk to people. And I think like, yeah, we want the convenience on the end, but we don’t want to lose that. I think that’s so special. It’s very precious. That idea, anytime you meet credit union people, you’re like, Yeah, I see how you got here. I see how you got into this group. And you feel very welcome to that, that sense of belonging. We hear it over and over again, above and beyond any DEI related conversations, right? We know DEI related conversations are sort of tricky for some folks, but nobody doesn’t want to belong, right? Everyone wants that sense. And though we have sort of this membership is here, you know, if you’re if you fit in here, you can be a member. But I think opening up that conversation is you already qualified to be a member. You already live here, and you are welcome with us, like we are, you know, here we want to learn from you, grow with you, all of that sort of stuff. So I think that, you know, we can’t just sharpen the tech side. We need to also deepen, sort of the warmth of the movie, right?
Sarah Cooke
Instead of a mile wide and an inch deep,
Melissa Krut
something like that.
Sarah Cooke
Don’t do that, but do the yeah, do the opposite. Build those roots and so sorry. Getting back to the member experience and things like that. So you mentioned you go to a lot of shows. I just got back from money 2020, and venture tech, and not that long ago, the true stage FinTech Summit. So I’ve been to a lot of tech shows lately for credit unions, and the big theme, I think, across all of them, is that your experience is more important than your rates. I mean, obviously you got to be competitive, but credit union and credit unions have always been big on the in person experience, as you’ve mentioned. But really like accepting and adapting that other people see that experience differently is super important as well. So like, how do we adapt? How do we change, how we get moving on this? Because there’s certainly quite a few credits that are behind.
Melissa Krut
I think that that shift that you’re talking about, that’s a lot of the conversations that we have with our clients, because they are, you know, at various stages of ready. This and various stages of awareness of you know, this has always worked for us, but what the world has changed around you, even though these things, a lot of those core things, are still happening, I think that’s really important. It’s the shift that we see from people who say, I want to do a once a year member survey to actually, let’s look at this differently. Actually, people have like journey mapping is such an important piece, because, like I said, you’re learning from people at different segments. Yes, they just came in the door. If that first reaction is, wow, that door was really sticky. Okay, well, maybe we can fix the door. But obviously things a little bit more metaphorical than that, right, right? Those sort of step along the way that something happens. Let’s find out about it now, instead of using the, you know, just like you go for your annual wellness visit or dental check and they say, How has your year been? And you’re like, I have no idea. It’s been a it’s been a year. I guess it’s existed. Yes, it had happened. And so when you ask people once a year, how has your experience been as a member, people remember like, yeah, either something amazingly bad, good happened, amazingly bad happened, or they have no idea, yeah, because it just happened. And so I think bringing awareness in your data to figure out, like, what are those phases, being able to check in at those different touch points using different methods of understanding, like, learning from reviews, learning from an ATM QR code. So I can always people can always say, like, by the way, I don’t like your new logo. Like, okay, whatever it is.
Sarah Cooke
Okay, Cracker Barrel, Credit Union.
Melissa Krut
I mean, all right. No, no names here from my end, but yeah, exactly like there’s people have feedback to give, whether you’re asking them or not, and the more that you make that part of the like, normal conversations, instead of like, it has been a year now, I care what you think. Please proceed, right? Like that can’t be it has to be a more dynamic conversation. You have to collect feedback in the app. You have to do all of those things in real time and get the data back. We, unfortunately, work, work with people sometimes who are like, You know what we do, collect a bunch of data, and it goes over here to this magical warehouse, and then at the end of the quarter, those people send the data back to us, like, it’s your data, like free your data, right? You have that because you can’t be expected to act on it if you don’t have it yourself, right? I think that evolution of technology is enabling a lot of people to get more into the day to day member experience and find out real stuff in real time, right?
Sarah Cooke
And I think too, it goes beyond just the data, but the analysis of it too, how you can actually use it in business hence, business intelligence, amazing, right? All comes together. So what are you what do you talk to credit unions about? What do you hear from them when it comes to the actual business intelligence?
Melissa Krut
I think there are, I mean, there are a lot of folks who are trying to figure out what their core metrics are. I think, you know, I just had a conversation about this today as well. Is, NPS the greatest thing that could ever happen to the universe? Or are there other things to think about? And I think that that’s, that’s a really interesting one. I think the automation of, you know the additional information that we can include in response. Like, even you as a member, give me one answer. You give me a B sad, you give me an NPS, whatever it is, you give me some key drivers underneath there, you give me the open ended. Now we’re seeing, yeah, it’s okay to ask people open ended, because you can do sentiment analysis, you can do natural language processing and stuff like that, where it wasn’t possible at scale before, right? And so even though we always say your voice counts like we want to hear from you, we literally cannot read 1000s of them, you know, in an hour, that we need some help there. So I think that, like I said, as the tools evolve, the opportunities that you have and the more dynamic approaches you can take. I don’t need to ask the same person the same questions at different stages in their journey with me. Like I have cool logic or different flows or different automations that I want to have because you said this happened. I’m going to follow up with you, and I think that that for the analysis, it’s really about like, how are you using that data, like you said, in real time, to take action, to solve something, and how are you using it in terms of reporting, for action planning? Because, like, little bits of follow up is quick action, but the action planning that’s at the strategic level, that’s what we want to get to. We want to be able to see more of that, because the data silos that are out there now, you know, strewn across the landscape, never connecting with each other. Sometimes they the data junkyard. It used to be that you would print out a report and put it in a binder and, you know, in a file and just close it, hope for the best and come back next year with the next phase. But it’s impossible, right? You. Have to learn or you’re not gonna right.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, now that makes so much sense. And I’m assuming you mean AI is making this possible. I mean, there’s a little bit of that, at least, yeah, what else is going on in there?
Melissa Krut
I think there’s a lot of AI. I think one of the things that’s exciting about AI is that technology has always been a partner, right? Okay, all sci fi aside, where robots come and take over the world like, let’s just set that apart. But in general, we use technology as a tool, right? And always like this, and then this happens, but now this interactive mode of learning from my data, I think that’s transformative, and that’s one of the things we’re really excited about in our platform, as well as to be able to say, yep, we collected all this data. I always feel like I should lean in, but like, show me what’s happening at branch a right like, I’m just speaking into some microphone or something like this. But like, I want to know what’s going there, because people don’t know how to, like, what buttons do I click like we have a really intuitive platform. I’m proud of it. I’m excited about it, but we know that sometimes any clicking or setting filters or segments is too much to ask for people. Sometimes they just need to know what they want to know, and they don’t have the time to scroll through pages and pages they want to be able to say, what is this information? How is it better at this branch, or is that branch? You know, what are the drivers that are most likely to impact because that’s where I need to spend my time, because I have limited time and resources. Shocker, so does everyone out right? That’s not exclusive. But then what are the next steps for me? So that planning, experience, navigation of what’s coming next. That’s the biggest, most exciting thing, and that is a lot of that is powered by AI, because I need, it needs to be responsive and receptive in a way that the click, click or programming, you know, is not at the top.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. And that helps to make the strategic decisions of where we’re going to spend on our technology if we, you know, have a limited budget, which everybody does? I was gonna say, who does I’ve got unlimited technology budget. Totally fine. Yeah. So I always want my guests final thoughts. What would you like to leave our credit union audience with today?
Melissa Krut
Wow, I would like to say more optimism than we started this conversation with I think there’s a lot of opportunity, right? So it is scary to see. It’s a big world of competitors out there, but I think at the core, the credit union movement is very powerful, because it’s powered by powerful people. And I think sometimes it’s a little bit of a marketing problem of branding, getting your identity out there, being able to tell your story and show how you stand up. That’s how you stand out. The visibility of those values as well. And sometimes it’s, yeah, a little bit of polish on what does that technology look like? What are we learning from? And overall, listening and learning from your community, I think is the most important thing that you can do, because you can look at I’m very proud of this report. I think it’s very cool. But as you said earlier, there are lots of papers out there. There’s lots of research, but the most important research that you can do is in your own community and find out what you need to know in order to be.
Sarah Cooke
Awesome, and that helps them build a brand. Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much for your time. Melissa, today I appreciate
Melissa Krut
Its been a pleasure.