“At some point, trust stopped being about keeping money safe.”
That idea surfaces early in the conversation between our founder, Sarah Snell Cooke, and Anne Legg, and it never really lets go. Because once you hear it, you start replaying every member interaction through that lens. Not rates. Not products. Trust. The kind that shows up when something breaks, when someone is frustrated, or when a system either works or very clearly doesn’t.
Anne, founder/CEO of THRIVE Strategic Services, doesn’t talk about AI or data like buzzwords. She refers to them as tools that either help or hurt real people. Her examples are disarmingly simple. A member says their card is broken. The credit union hears “dispute.” Somewhere in between, experience falls apart. That gap, Anne argues, is where most credit unions lose momentum without realizing it.
There’s a moment in the conversation where the language gets very plain, almost blunt. Members are not shopping for products. They are trying to solve problems. Shelter. Transportation. Getting through the day. That framing lands because it cuts through a lot of internal jargon credit unions are used to hearing from themselves.
Another thing that stands out is how often Anne comes back to speed. Not speed for its own sake, but speed as respect. Fixing something in weeks instead of months changes how members feel, even if they never see the work behind it. Momentum, in this context, becomes part of the experience.
Sarah subtly redirects the conversation toward expectation. Trust now includes availability. Reliability. The assumption that things will work late at night, on weekends, in moments that do not wait for business hours. That shift feels obvious once it is said out loud, which is usually a sign it has been ignored for too long.
What lingers most isn’t the talk of AI or data strategy. It’s the idea that friction is useful. That complaints, drop-offs, and confusion are not noise, but signals. And that small, confident changes tend to matter more than perfectly polished plans.
By the end, “member awesome” feels less like a catchphrase and more like a gut check. Are we actually making this clearer, easier, or faster for the person on the other side? Or are we just very busy explaining why something is complicated?
NOTE: The below AI-generated transcript to the video might not be 100% right, but are any of us really?
Sarah Cooke
Hello, everybody. My name is Sarah Snell Cooke, of course, I am your host here at The Credit Union Connection I have with me today the lovely Anne Legg, welcome.
Anne Legg
Thank you. Thank you. I’m so excited and so quite honored, actually, to be here, Sarah.
Sarah Cooke
We are the ones who are honored, for sure. So and I reached out to you Well, first talk about a little bit about your background and your company THRIVE, Strategic Services.
Anne Legg
Absolutely. So one of the there’s so much that’s going on in the world right now, and so much of it’s focused on what a and I right, and as credit unions Look at that, the biggest thing they need to do is they need to have two things to be successful in anything that’s going on, with AI, with data, with technology, they need to have capability, and they need to have strategy. And that’s what Thrive does we help build up capability, whether it is going to be education filling gaps we have our only, the only CPE accredited education course on how to activate your data, or it’s building out that strategy piece, which is saying, hey, help me and figure out holistically what we need to do for the member to be able to really Ratch up our engagement, our growth, our efficiency, our productivity. And let’s make sure we have an operational structure around that.
Sarah Cooke
Yes, that sounds like a lot of fun. No, seriously.
Anne Legg
No, actually, you know what? Let’s put a total fine point on it, and you’re right, because right then you’re like, that was a lot of words. Okay, so what exactly does nobody like? What like give me? So for example, your credit union and, and I’m gonna give an example of a credit union where they had a not desirable NPS in their call center. And they were like, wow, we’re not sure where to start with that. So great. Let’s get in there. Let’s understand what that pain point is. Turns out that in this particular credit union, as members were coming in, they were actually talking about card disputes. All right, so the member language is, my card’s broken. My card’s not working. I don’t see a thing I like. They don’t use them over dispute. So the members coming into the credit union, and the first thing they’re looking for is, who do I contact? And they don’t find cards, they find call center. So already coming in tick, then the call center has to figure out, Okay, let me quickly do somebody, and then I got to get you over to cards. So first thing we do is realize, you know what, hey, let’s figure out, how do you get in, whereas, if it’s going to come in from the call center, if it’s the website, let’s fix the language, but then let’s also find out what’s going on else with the member. Because for so long, we thought the reason the members were coming into the call center was to get balances. That wasn’t even in the top 10. It was disputes, exactly. So we started realizing, well, then here’s some stuff we can start to redirect so you come in said member, you’re going to go right to what you want, when you want it, and how you want it. Now, that was a lot. And you’re like, that’s cool. I get what you did with your data, and I get what you did with the member experience. Here’s the magic part. We made that whole change, identification, identifying the friction. That’s what we call it, when the member has an issue, doing business with the credit union, getting in and starting to build the fix, and got the whole thing locked and loaded and done and started measuring for success in six weeks.
Sarah Cooke
And that’s fast turnaround. Yeah, a lot of times it’s like you might get a paper at the end of the year says, whatever, that’s already out of date.
Anne Legg
Yeah, and they already said that it would have taken them at least six months. So the whole point here is looking at all that gorgeousness that the credit union does right now, and saying, how do we unlock more growth, more efficiency? And let’s be super technical about it. Member awesome.
Sarah Cooke
I love everything you said, but two points in particular, one I think, is speaking the members language. I mean, NSF. I don’t know if I worked in banking, if I knew what that would be, you know, but also, the member experience is more important. This has been something I’ve been driving homes more important than your rates. As long as you’re competitive, your member experience has to be superior, and that’s really what the modern consumer is tracking down for themselves. And you want to say something, it looks like I’ll let I’ll stop.
Anne Legg
Okay, so when I think about that, right? And I’m going to use language, I’m going to say, I just I will be forgiving to you said credit union, if I see that, I that you trust me and I trust you. It’s trust as a currency, so I’ll give a little more forgiveness, but it’s got to be made up in trust that you’re like, you get me, you see me, and that you understand what I’m trying to do. And let me just anchor on very simple thing here, the member only comes to the credit union to get four problems solved, and you’re like, that seems really easy. The member literally has a shelter problem. They need rent or mortgage. They have a transportation problem. They do not walk around the world and going, I need an auto loan. They need an auto they have a travel play problem. That’s going to be your credit card, your debit card. They really do. They’re like, I need to go travel. I need to play however you put that box right? And then the last one is going to be rainy day and retirement. They don’t need all those at the same time. They’re just coming in to get those things. So please understand these. This is why they’re coming to you, understand how you can speak their language, and understand how you can make trust a currency. And to do all you are really going to need capability and strategy, and it’s going to have to be around that gorgeous stuff you have a lot of, which is your data.
Sarah Cooke
Right, right, absolutely, and trust, of course. You know, you hit the nail on the head too there, because it’s it means something entirely different than it did pre covid or even before that. Really, it’s not only trust you to keep my money safe, it’s trust you to serve me in the way I want to be served. Is your technology going to work at 11pm at night when my car broke down and I need a tow truck? You know, that kind of thing.
Anne Legg
Which is funny, because that’s why, as I was been having the great joy of helping credit unions do this was when I started realizing, oh my gosh, next year is kind of a crazy year, which is why I put together the white paper. I was like, right, yes, gonna be bonkers. And I don’t mean that in a good way. I’m just gonna say economically interesting is the best way I can that’s the best way? Interesting, yes, yeah. So as we think about that, how do we help our members? And that’s when I realized, I was like, really, it just comes down to kind of, like, thinking about it, and not that you have to have, like, this massive plan for next year, because we don’t have time for that. But just understanding technology is here. What do you do with it? How are you going to drive what are you going to improve life, right? How? What are the small tweaks you’re going to do? And then, how do you make sure that that becomes something that you can ongoing measure? And I’m just going to say it, you’re going to change a little bit. It’s not going to be painful. It’s not going to be painful. Like, like, instead of reaching for the donut, I reach for the apple. And at some point I get happy, and I constantly reach for the apple. It’s that type of stuff, right? And that’s and that’s the stuff that I want to that’s why I put the white paper together. I was like, that’s the stuff you guys need to be chatting about.
Sarah Cooke
Exactly the white paper is on data and AI, priorities. I’m shocked. I’m shocked data and AI, who knew? Who knew those were important things? No. But seriously, there, there. And there are six themes, six kind of principles you built from the paper. So talk a little bit about those.
Anne Legg
So I think the hard part is, if I’m a credit union, and this is what I was kind of, you know, listening and hearing a lot of was, I’m not exactly sure where to start, because I feel like every I feel like the chaos has just somebody lit the fire in the chaos machine, and it’s just spewing, and I don’t know how to focus. So I was like, Okay, let’s think about it in just like, two buckets of three. So technology, what are you doing? Where do you want to go? Right? AI is not going to fix your problems, and it’s definitely not going to fix your data problem, but activated data is going to unlock your AI potential. Okay? So like, let’s think, okay, there’s a member problem I have. You know, I’m a member auto loans, right? I have a transportation problem. How am I helping with that? Let’s pick out shelter. There’s conversation now of having a 50 year mortgage. Okay, so there’s a lot of pieces in here, so let’s think about what those are, what’s the data I need, and then what’s the technology I need. Notice how I went member first to build out that strategy. Okay, so that goes So number one, technology, it’s there. What are you thinking about and how are you thinking about it? Two, then, as you think about it, how are you going to move efficiency and growth that is very much tied to how you’re going to operationalize that data and that technology? So I’m good now I’m good now I’m thinking, and I’m like, I want to help the members problem here. I gotta have the right technology that’s going to start. I want to see, is it going to help me with FTE? I want to see if it’s going to help me with whatever my K other KPIs are. But the third on that first bucket is member centric innovation. All of this goes around. Where am I right? Where’s that member? How am I trying to, like you said, How do I understand them to the best that I can with what I have? What is my technology? And then, how is that driving overall KPIs? Because I’m if I improve the member’s life, I’m going to improve our life. But I got to be firm about that. So those are like, bucket one, okay, bucket two. Then says, Okay, now let’s start thinking a little bit around. What is that engagement and community, right? How do members see this? How does this work? Your members give you friction. They will tell you why something’s not working. For example, cart abandonment. They apply for a loan and they drop away. They will tell you when the friction is that friction is. Fuel, and we want to use that to leverage the data. Okay, so let’s be clear about this. So breaking point, I see that there’s app drop off. Okay? Why? Why is it drop so let’s not just grab that data, because I think it’s kind of fun. Let’s put it together and make it something bigger than a dashboard. Let’s make it a data story, right? Your members are telling you something very important, right? Like you said earlier, Hey, it’s 11 o’clock at night. I’m not gonna wait till eight o’clock in the morning sitting outside in my room with my car broken. I want to have the ability to talk to somebody right now, or have the plan to start moving right away. So engagement and community. How’s it looking? What’s the friction, feedback? How do I get my story around that? How am I going to improve the members lives with that gorgeous data. And then that brings us back to the final point here, number six, change and adaptability, like as mentioned, apples versus, you know, donuts, but credit unions, who can act small and impactfully, are the ones who win the member, who are waiting for the perfect conditions. You might as well just Bye, bye. But we cannot no longer standing still as an option. It hasn’t been for a long time, but the future belongs to those credit unions who act now in small increment ways that are very measurable. And going back to defending, why are you doing this? Are the ones who are going to win the members? So that’s kind of those six again. Let me just kind of bring those back into the circle, back up. So your first three are going to be your technology, your you know, your efficiency and growth and member centricity. Like, why? Right? Then the next piece is going to be that community engagement, using the data for data stories, so that you can change and become more awesome.
Sarah Cooke
More awesome. I think that’s the way we need to phrase it. Absolutely no. I was totally going to make that point too, that the data is showing you a story, and you just have to be ready to receive it too. Because I feel like, you know, all these things are huge words, you know, efficiency and growth and technology, technological transformation, it’s, it’s all could be so overwhelming, but I like your point about doing incrementally, too.
Anne Legg
And let’s talk about starting points. Like, we highlight these areas, six areas, right? But when you boil it down, it’s a conversation, and that conversation really has to be, where are we today? What are we measuring? What are the gaps? Like? Let’s just today. We know today. Okay, then how will we measure our impact? What does success look like? What does more member awesome look like? What does that look like? Where do we want to be, right? Because that’s going to help us get there. And then finally, Hey, okay, if I know where I am today and where I want to be, then what are my gaps? And many are going to be capability. And let’s This is where we can get really focused. All right, is it a data capability? Is it technology capability? Is it maybe data literacy, like, how do we take that data and do good stuff with it? Maybe it’s just kind of part of our culture, and we’re, like, a little resistant, it happens. So those are the three things to be having the conversation, the focus conversation, where are we today? Where do we want to be, especially member focused. Then what would we need? And again, like you said, just use it down to things that you can feel confident about, because you can’t make change if you don’t feel confident about what you’re doing.
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely 100% Love it. Love it. So why do you do you what are the you hearing from credit unions about this? About like, what has been the feedback? As far as you said, you’ve talked with a lot of board members as we were talking ahead of time. What are you hearing from them? As far as the biggest questions, concerns?
Anne Legg
I think this year, it has been, I know I want, I know I want more, right? There’s just been this push of I want more. And many times we’re looking at it and we’re like, I want more from Ai, because we see these amazing productivity pieces. But then we think, oh my gosh, we’re a highly regulated space. I can’t just like, what if something freaky happens and PII gets out, and it shouldn’t, right? So what I am hearing around data and AI is I’m not sure. I know I want it, but I’m not sure why that real tightly. If you have no why you have no ROI, please do not buy something because it’s cool. We don’t got time for that. Member doesn’t have time for that. And what we want is we want something that that member friction, that pain point, where you’re like, oh, for example, talking about the NPS, talking about disputes, hey, wow. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a chatbot that could just handle that the member says, I have this issue, and they just start right away going to solve because they know exactly those are the keywords. They’ve listened they’ve done sentiment analysis, because they have all the recordings, and they can think about and go, Ah, this is exactly where I take you. And if not circle back out, in fact, there’s a credit union in California. This is so cool. They are education based, and so they made their chat bot in the personality of one of their. Very founding members, who’s her name was, like, Dora or something, just so awesome and like, so educator, that she’s so good out there that they have to remind their members that she’s actually not real.
Sarah Cooke
Wow. That’s impressive, right.
Anne Legg
And that’s where we want to be, like, that’s a really good anchor moment to look at that and go, I want my relationship to be with you, so that it’s just an extension of what we do, and that you begin to go, oh, okay, and be like, let me get you to an actual human door. Is awesome. Dora is fabulous. But yeah, that’s so that’s like, that’s how we need to start thinking about it and not be scared about it, but just give ourselves the confidence points. We did this, we made this change. I mean, a super like I gave I love how you can use call center data, because it’s so awesome. You got sentiment. It’s rich. You can tie back to the member. You can see what the relationship is. All that is. But let’s go super easy, super easy. Let’s just say I have all those standard operating procedures, job aids, whichever, and I’m hoping that the lowest paid person in my organization knows all 900 of them, or knows where to find them. So why don’t I put that in a knowledge base, in a chatbot, so I can use natural language? And of course, this is me using natural language, because I’m piping to find out. Hey, how do I do that? Check, hold, what is the La, la, la, great. And then, why don’t I just have those documents, those Word documents, then be cleaned up, and so I’m constantly using the most current version. That’s awesome. That’s not that’s not something scary, that’s something you have tons of data already. There are great tools out there that will get you feeling so much better about what you’re doing and helping you save time and improving member experience.
Sarah Cooke
Exactly, yeah, for sure. And you’re testing and doing it, you know, and make improving the emergency at the same time awesome. So we’re coming to the end here, and I’m gonna miss you. I always allow my guest to have the final thoughts. What would you like to leave our credit union professional audience with?
Anne Legg
Well, I guess, like I said, you know, those three questions are really, really quite important, but I would like them to be thinking about, what do at the end of 2026 What do I want to make more clear for my member and for my team member? How do I want to have more momentum, and how do I want to literally measure more member awesomeness.
Sarah Cooke
Awesome, awesome, awesome, cool. Thank you so much and for your time and your insights and appreciate it. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you Anne.