CUES Podcast
CUES Podcast
Sep 24, 2020
CUES 101: How Can You Meet Members’ Needs With Your Data ‘Power Drill’?—An Interview With Patrick Donohue
Play • 32 min

In this show, Patrick Donohue tells the story about going to Home Depot to buy a power drill. He emphasizes that he didn’t really want a power drill. But rather he wanted to make a hole in his wall. And actually, his purpose wasn’t truly the hole. Instead it was to install his family’s new Ring doorbell. At bottom, it wasn’t that Donohue wanted to buy a power drill. It was his wife who wanted a better system for making sure delivered groceries got brought inside in a timely manner.

Product manager, Data Solutions Group at CUES Supplier member FIS, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and the sponsor of this show, Donohue tells this story to underscore the idea that behind every data point is an intention, an intrinsic desire of an individual member. 

 “The more we can use data to understand our customers’ stories—what’s going on in their life and what’s likely to happen next for them—the greater the chance we have to delight them and retain our members,” he explains.

During the show, Donohue also talks about key trends impacting credit unions’ use of data today, including fintechs—both startups and big tech companies—and the uncertainty associated with the coronavirus pandemic and what that means for members’ transaction patterns. 

Next, Donohue provides specific tips on how to better use data that’s currently “left behind” and not leveraged to credit unions’ advantages. He suggests looking to the transaction ledger for the rich information contained there about members. 

He describes an example transaction that credit unions could mine. 

“We can spot that a user has made a purchase—let’s say at a golf shop,” he says. “The merchant name is a little bit cryptic. We think it’s a golf shop but we can use a merchant name database and know that it’s Golf Mart. Then we can look at the whole landscape. Is this a one-time purchase? Is it a present for his cousin Larry? No, this is someone that also has a subscription to a green fee app. We can also see that their college tuition expenses are increasing. We might be seeing some signals in the data that his life is changing a bit. He wants to keep his golf going but he also has some additional expenses he has to pay.

“You begin to layer on data to better understand that unique customer’s story,” he adds. “It allows everyone in the value chain for that member to customize that experience from the personal banker who’s standing in front of John inside the branch to the digital experience that’s serving up insights in mobile banking … all the way to the customer service rep who’s talking to them via phone. We know more about John and what’s important to him.”

The show also gets into:

  • The backstory behind Donohue’s professional mantra: “Move the authority to where the information is”
  • What is meant by “single-threaded” apps created by fintechs, and how credit unions’ more holistic strategy can be a competitive advantage
  • The top tough questions that credit unions should be asking themselves when it comes to making the most of their data to serve members on a personal level
  • How FIS helps its clients with their data efforts
More episodes
Search
Clear search
Close search
Google apps
Main menu