We recently ran a webinar series where we asked innovative credit unions to share how they were using technology to make a difference at their credit union. The final credit union in our series was Members 1st Federal Credit Union, who is using the power of predictive analytics to drive increased member engagement.
Members 1st believes in a BIG approach – Build, Implement and Grow. This is similar to a crawl, walk run model. Following this model, they have built up their data and implemented predictive models – now it’s time to grow.
Analytics in the Cloud
Members 1st uses a cloud-based system for their analytics programs – and they’ve got some pretty good reasons to do so.
- Security. The cloud provides enhanced security that is easier to configure than on prem servers. Data encryption can be done with just a few clicks on the cloud, as opposed to the high effort process it would take on prem.
- Access. The cloud provides better access to data and allows your credit union to integrate different services.
- Cost Effective. Members 1st revealed that it costs them a little under $200.00 a month to run processes in the cloud.
- Flexibility. In addition to the different services your credit union can integrate in the cloud, you can also use different coding languages as needed.
- Execution. The cloud makes it easy to run models as needed and track drift as things change.
- Processing Time. Running their processing models on prem used to take Members 1st over a day – now it takes under seven hours.
While migrating to the cloud will take some effort, investing in a partner that will be with your credit union every step of the way and help with the heavy lifting can ease the process.
The Power of Predictive Analytics
Members 1st prioritized predictive analytics and the insights it can provide; they update their models once a month and have team members assigned to review the scores and identify drift. From there, they can decide how to take action.
One way they made predictive analytics work for them was by applying it to their personal loan campaign, which they ran every year in February and March. As shown in the image above, the mean number of new loans Members 1st achieved was 598, with a mean balance of $6.7 million. In 2023, by using predictive analytics to identify the members that had a personal loan in the number one slot of the Next Best Product score, Members 1st was able to increase their new loans by 61%.
Members 1st plans to continue to use predictive analytics to drive growth in other portfolios, including credit cards, mortgages and auto loans. Top of their list, however, is increasing their checking and savings accounts. They will again use the Next Best Product score to identify those members most likely to open a checking account.
Predictive analytics is helping Members 1st to grow their business and provide needed products to their members. The results speak for themselves – identifying members most likely to respond positively to a campaign has already led to tremendous growth in one of their annual campaigns. To learn more about predictive analytics and how Members 1st Federal Credit Union is using them, watch the on-demand webinar here.
Aaron Grossman is Vice President of Sales at Trellance.
