The Personalization Imperative: 5 Takeaways From the American Banker Webinar
Our recent webinar with American Banker, Dynamic Personal Experiences: The New Personalization Imperative, drew record-high registrations and engagement. It’s clear this is a priority for financial institutions in 2025.
If you couldn’t attend live, here are five takeaways from the insights-packed event, featuring real-world best practices and results from:
- Brittany Grasley, Vice President of Remote Services, United Federal Credit Union (UFCU)
- Chris Miller, Senior Director, Cornerstone Advisors
- Jaime Dominguez, Principal Product Marketer, Q2
Click here to access the full recording on demand.
Takeaway 1: Start with a strong foundation
Better experiences are built on a strong foundation. For UFCU, that meant strategic technology investments made over the last five years, including a new enterprise data warehouse, core conversion, enhanced member survey tools, and a new CRM that supports its personalization processes and goals.
Today, UFCU’s successful personalization strategy rests on a rock-solid foundation that’s driving measurable results. For example, its data warehouse provides the power to draw from 26 different data sources. Its digital banking platform leverages AI to enhance personalization and is built on the open architecture necessary to easily integrate with the systems it relies on, including more than 150 fintech solutions.
UFCU’s infrastructure and technology investments were the right choices based on its goals and resources. But the important takeaway for financial institutions beginning or strengthening their personalization strategies is this: Start by understanding the technology and partners necessary to achieve your specific goals. Then, invest strategically to build your foundation—at the pace that works for your institution and the people you serve.
Bonus tip: Cornerstone’s Miller recommends that any bank or credit union prioritizing personal experiences appoint a C-level executive fully dedicated to helping guide the vision and personally champion the organization-wide effort.
Takeaway 2: For growth, one-size-fits-all is not an option
The research is clear: According to The Harris Poll, 74% of consumers, across generations, want personal banking experiences. From Gen X to baby boomers, people want personalization, and they don’t mind if you use their data to deliver it. But what does “getting personal” look like in the digital banking channel?
If Angelica, a Gen X mother, and her daughter Maya, a Gen Z recent college graduate, are getting the same experience when they log on to your digital banking application, you’re not delivering the differentiating experience modern account holders expect. And, importantly, you're missing a critical opportunity to grow relationships and revenue.
Grasley shared ways UFCU uses data to understand its members and deliver precisely timed, relevant content to its target groups. For example: A member whose first product with the credit union is a mortgage gets a very different experience than one whose first product is an indirect auto loan. The 26 data points UFCU uses to know, serve, and grow its member relationships are applied to deliver personalization that grows trust, loyalty, and revenue.
All three experts underscored the importance of constantly monitoring, evaluating, and evolving tools, APIs, and partnerships to improve experiences based on behavior, life journeys, and personal profiles.
Takeaway 3: Think value first, not sales
While targeted marketing offers are an important part of a successful personalization strategy, stop there and you haven’t gone far enough. To capture the full growth opportunity in personalization, banks and credit unions must provide not just the next best offer, but the next best experience through dynamic, relevant content. Doing so is the tipping point from selling to providing loyalty-building value.
For a new account holder, the right content may be an in-app reminder about frictionless direct deposit enrollment. Or for someone with a goal-based savings account for a new automobile, it could be a link to a free credit score monitoring tool on the personalized digital banking home page.
In some cases, the content may not highlight a product or service at all. Instead, delivering value at certain stages of someone’s life journey may be about education. Financial literacy tools—particularly for younger generations—might be what’s most relevant and helpful. Help, at exactly the right time, is how to build trust and lifetime relationships.
Grasley points out, “It’s not just about selling a product. It’s about bringing value to our members.”
Takeaway 4: Invest in technology to know people through the lens of data
Use technology to know account holders through the lens of data. Life stages, transactional events (a large deposit or negative balance, for example), even how and when people interact with your digital banking (transaction and device type) reveal personal stories.
Grasley shared how UFCU is using technology like the Q2 Engage suite of solutions and fintech partnerships through Q2 Innovation Studio to help bring data insights together then deliver relevant, timely experiences to members.
Too many systems and reports, Miller points out, limit what you can glean from the data. He says one of the biggest hurdles to personalization is data management and integration.
It takes sophisticated data analytics and an advanced customer analytics platform to bring the insights together. You also need the right digital banking platform to provide better experiences. You want one that is powered by open banking and APIs for easy integration of solutions beyond traditional banking. Another important part of improving the experience is having a single digital banking platform that allows for one, frictionless login across applications.
The bottom line is this, according to Miller: “If you’re not investing in your digital banking platform, personalization is not going to happen.”
Takeaway 5: Empower employees for maximum impact
Digital banking is now the largest and busiest branch for most banks and credit unions. Using data to know your account holders online and serve them better is a growth accelerator. You can turn that power up even further when you make those insights accessible across all your banking channels.
Grasley pointed to UFCU’s migration to a new CRM as critical to its success because it helps front-line employees access the information they need to suggest the next best products, services, tools, and give informed financial advice. Her team is exploring integrating its next-best-offering model into its CRM to create a centralized source that connects all channels.
The goal of a successful personalization strategy should be better experiences across every channel in which you interact with people.
Q2 can help
Ready to prioritize personalization in 2025? Q2 can help.
Our new white paper, Q2 Engage: Building Lifetime Consumer Relationships With Dynamic Personal Experiences, provides more details on the powerful strategic framework to know, serve, and grow relationships—supported by the Q2 Engage suite of consumer banking solutions. The paper includes real-world personalization practices and results.
Download the white paper today.
