One of the greatest pitfalls for any organization is assuming something is true when it isn’t. That’s especially accurate for a credit union brand in the current market. Many brands assume they are outperforming competitors, that consumers are happy, that people know who they are and that the service journey is seamless.
But doing a little research typically tells a different story.
ReconMR is a full-service marketing research company that conducts marketing and experience surveys for a variety of industries, including community financial institutions. Senior VP of Insights & Analytics Chris Riepe recently sat down with us to discuss the importance of knowing your gaps rather than assuming they don’t exist. Here are three takeaways from the interview.
1. Stop Neglecting the Persuasion Funnel
The persuasion funnel is an important indicator of how your credit union brand performs throughout the consumer decision-making process, all the way from unaided awareness to loyalty. ReconMR employs what Riepe calls a “persuasion monitor” to measure your brand across the persuasion funnel and identify gaps.
“If you have good awareness but bad familiarity, you may need to step up reach and frequency of messaging,” Riepe said. “Or if there’s a gap between consideration and usage, you need to question if your message lets people know about you but doesn’t drive behavior.”
Neglecting your persuasion funnel for too long impacts consumer acquisition and relationship building. You never get loyal consumers if you never attract them in the first place. You never partner with local businesses if they have no clue who you are.
2. Go Deep to Prioritize Service-Related Fixes
It’s easy to assume your service is excellent. And even if you know it isn’t, it’s hard to discern where it’s falling apart. ReconMR uses surveys to dig deeper into what exact operational points are dragging your consumer experience down. At each critical event in your service journey, the survey asks someone if the event happened or not. A simple yes or no.
For example: Did the teller greet you when you walked in? Yes or no?
The “no” results translate into a failure rate that allows you to prioritize what parts of the experience need attention. “Even a small institution could see five or six things they have a high failure rate on,” Riepe stated. “What has a 20% failure rate? You can prioritize fixing those major operational flaws.”
Having a clear view of where your experience breaks down allows you to plan and prioritize what you want to fix over the next year. And if you don’t dig into problems, the consequences are dramatic.
Riepe notes that people don’t like switching financial services but will do it if they reach a breaking point. That’s why it’s important to consistently assess your experience – you can stop that crisis from ever happening.
“A bad transaction is the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Riepe noted. “But unless you’ve known that poor camel has been struggling for years, there’s no way to fix it.”
3. It’s Time to Capture Gen Z With Your Credit Union Brand
Time and again, Riepe reiterated the importance of not letting Gen Z get away from community financial institutions. Capturing this crowd can be a major differentiator if you manage to do it.
“Long term, you need to be looking at the demographic shift. You must know how to replace the Baby Boomer money and attract Gen Z,” Riepe said. “Some of that secret formula is understanding life stage differences, but there are also a lot of different generational priorities.”
Surveys are a tool that helps with testing different messages and assessing what works best on younger demographics. But whether you survey with them or not, Riepe urged financial leaders “to get a message and stop assuming people know what you do.”
Use these tips to kick off 2026 with more knowing and less assuming when it comes to your credit union brand. And if you’re interested in exploring a research partnership with ReconMR, you can contact them here. Or if you’re interested in an assessment that focuses more on marketing collateral and strategy, book a free consultation with us.
