Eligible Nonmembers’ Low Awareness of Credit Unions a Major Challenge to Membership Growth

By Jon Haller
Director of Market Research,
Credit Union National Association

There is a general lack of awareness among SEG nonmembers regarding what credit unions are and the types of services they offer. Moreover, a fairly sizeable proportion of nonmembers have not even heard of the credit union they are eligible to join. This, according to a study sponsored by the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF), conducted by CUNA Research, and featured in CUNA’s most recent National Member Survey Report.

The NCUF study, which was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, cites that half of eligible nonmembers say they are either "not very familiar" or "not at all familiar" with what credit unions are, what services they offer or, it follows, what rate-, service charge-, financial assistance- and other advantages credit unions provide (See figure). The percentages shoot up to over 60% among eligible nonmembers with household incomes of under $20,000 and those age 18 to 34.

The study goes on to point out that one in four eligible SEG nonmembers (25%) have not even heard of the credit union they are eligible to join through their employer.

Nonmembers who actually knew they were eligible to join their credit union point to the credit union’s (inconvenient) location, the aforementioned lack of familiarity with the credit union, and perceived hassles with switching financial institutions as their primary reasons for not becoming a member. One ray of hope: About 25% of eligible nonmembers in the study say they were actually considering joining the credit union.

While multiple-SEG credit unions are succeeding in many aspects of their relationships with their SEGs, awareness building is clearly one area in which improvements can be made to building membership growth and increasing members’ use of credit union services.

To this end, developing stronger relationships with the companies’ SEG liaisons—thereby gaining greater workplace poster/flyer, newsletter, face to face and other awareness-building exposure to employees—can play a key role in attracting more employees to your credit union.

Conducting surveys of your SEG liaisons to identify how they promote your credit union, measure their satisfaction with your products and service provided by your SEG-development staff, and find out how they feel you could strengthen the existing relationship can also go a long way in helping you build stronger ties with your liaisons.

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