Credit unions are naturally human-centred organisations and their products and services always work best when the principles of human-centred design are applied.

I’m head of design services for SPARCK US and earlier this week I was fortunate to be on the panel at UNDERGROUND Collision in Washington DC.

This is a recurring event for thought leaders in the credit union industry and the theme of the most recent session was “cancelling the spin... with real-life examples and fact-checking”.

The discussion was about how to build trust in a challenging financial services environment, and the risk of staying an echo chamber listening only to other credit unions (CUs).

I shared my thoughts on how design thinking and the considered use of data and AI can help CUs build and retain the trust of their members.

My advice for CU leaders, and those delivering CU products and services, is to ensure you’re looking at things from your members point of view – rather than putting your business requirements first.

I appreciate that can seem easier to say than to do but it’s something designers are wired to do. Our role in the design and delivery of services is often to challenge our clients, and champion their service users.

If you weren’t in the room on the day, don’t worry – I’ve recapped the key points I made below.

Start with ‘Why?’

The reason people trust one service provider over another is not to be found in what they do (the product) or how they deliver it (the how). It’s in the ‘Why?’

You need to be very clear on which problems you’re solving for people, and which needs your service meets.

Once you’ve got clarity on that, you can start to invest in transformation programmes to address them.

Get out of the echo chamber

In line with the theme of the echo chamber, it’s all too easy to forget that your products are only a small part of the world customers live in.

They not only compare your products to other financial services including FinTech challengers but to all kinds of services they use and interact with every day.

That’s why for a long time, businesses in many different sectors looked to Apple as a model of customer experience, or perhaps nowadays to Amazon.

As a result, customers know what good and bad services look like, and why they trust them, or distrust them.

And it only takes one bad experience to ruin the relationship for good.

Understand the fourth industrial revolution

We’re all navigating a cyber-human revolution that’s keeping us in a perpetual cycle of ‘storming, forming, norming and performing’.

Right now, our ability to trust data and technology, and the organisations that use them, is being tested. People are scared by data breaches, deepfakes, and ever more sophisticated scams.

This makes us more hesitant and sceptical than ever.

From ongoing and collective research, we do at SPARCK, I’ve created some board categories of peoples’ relationship with this cyber-human world. I see them as ‘Data scared, data sceptic, data so-so and data savvy’.

And they all have different levels of trust and expectations when being asked to share information or answer questions that are designed to gather data.

Only by empathising with your customers and potential customers, and accepting this new reality, can you start to earn their trust.

Always start with user research

You need to listen to your users and keep listening to them. You cannot rely on gut feelings, old data, or guesswork.

Qualitative research, creating personas, mapping user journeys and creating service blueprints will ensure you understand your service from their perspective.

I speak from experience when I say that user research always throws up surprises. Real service users express ideas or wishes you’d never have guessed. And they react to prototypes and product designs in ways you’d never predict.

Do not be tempted to skip it!

Service design is a powerful concept

Service designers understand and map services (a) as they are now and (b) as we want them to be.

They create maps and plans that help us develop good services that are satisfying, easy to use, and help users meet their needs and goals.

They’re brilliant at finding all those hidden touchpoints, and at looking outside the bubble.

What are the pain points that frustrate your customers? What expectations and ideas do they bring to your service from elsewhere? And what journey have they been on before they ever think of looking at your website or app?

Focus on building trust

Look at your services and ask yourself if it is really transparent. Does it inspire trust?

Credit union members especially need to know and understand what you’re doing and why.

For example, if you’re asking them for data, it needs to be evident how sharing it will benefit them.

Increasingly, we’re having the same conversations about AI. If you’re going to use it, it’s important to do so safely and ethically, and be honest about it.

Trace the unhappy paths

It’s easy to focus on the ideal journeys you want customer, or CU members, to take. But we designers are expert at helping clients weed out dead ends and identify disasters, too.

Because every interaction can build or damage trust. And some of those interactions are more critical than others, such as the fulfilment stages of financial transactions, when users might be anxious or stressed.

An example of an ‘unhappy path’ you need to explore might be a chatbot that leaves users with no onward journey to get their problem solved.

By trying to break it, and exposing its flaws, we can make it better – and retain or build trust.

Data and AI

Data may be king, but we want it to be a kind and wise one.

Apply data governance and look where these processes can send the right signals to members to build trust.

For example, if data can help you predict members at risk of defaulting, you can step in and support them before that happens. In this context, data is their friend.

Make your services accessible and inclusive

Finally, make sure you provide access for all.

Of course, you want to optimise your digital products to compete with the slickest fintech providers – but don’t exclude those who can’t access or engage with digital services.

Again, travel the unhappy paths, and imagine your least digitally capable user trying to complete a simple task. What’s their journey? And what are their pain points? And how are you serving them?

Let’s talk about human-centred design

If you want to know how human-centred design could help your credit union create better services for members, reach out. I’d love to hear from you via our contact form or through LinkedIn.

Written by Leonie Collier - Head of Design Services for SPARCK in the US