Adopting the Peloton Ride in Credit Unions

Few can compete with the excitement and urgency the indoor bike, Peloton has molded over the past few years. It has become a leader in connected fitness offerings, but it isn’t the technology that helps the machine stand apart. Instead, it’s the virtual trainers and community it supports via the workouts that keeps riders coming back, logging on and paying a premium monthly membership to do so.

Peloton relies on these trainers to showcase the value of physical fitness every single day. Riders then connect with these trainers on social media or other outlets, strengthening their workout routines. It becomes an intoxicating bond since potentially hundreds of thousands of other people are also following the same trainer.

Banks and credit unions have a lot to learn from this style of connection. While financial wellness may never reach the everyday height of excitement that a physical wellness tool does, it can become just as important to someone’s long-term well-being. Providing ways to show the value of financial wellness and introducing tools to encourage customers to reengage as their journey progresses is a fad worth pursuing.

In order to do so, banks should follow the Peloton path in three important ways.

Building Everyday Engagement

Peloton users have a myriad of outlets to stay engaged with their favorite trainers and routines. Since the screen allows users to see and hear their trainer during the workout, riders develop a connection with the coaches. It’s almost as if they’re in the same room when a trainer calls for everyone to “dig deep” during a simulated ride up a mountain. Meanwhile, hundreds to thousands of other users hear the same words, providing a sense of community.

After the training session ends, that same user can connect with the trainer on social media, remaining engaged even when they’re not working out. What does all this connection do? It encourages that user to get back to the bike.

As a bank, you may not engender the same level of fanaticism, but you can create ways to keep your clients engaged and willing to return. Simply hosting a virtual seminar over many different nights, providing the steps one should take to get their financial house in order, gives customers a reason to connect and view your representatives beyond simply bank employees. You want your agents to serve as helpful guide.

“It’s no longer enough to offer accounts. We need to engage in a digital dialogue and be proactive in helping customers achieve financial well-being.”

—Ernst Young

This tactic also requires understanding about your customer’s life, so you can engage them with content and strategies that matches their needs. If you understand that the customer just finished paying off student loans, then you know it’s time to discuss the value and tactics of buying a home, for example. In this case, you’re not selling to them. You’re providing information that they’ve already started looking for. Except, now you’re their guide. It builds trust, when you return with more suggestions.

Finding Your Relevancy

Peloton certainly benefits by operating in the physical fitness space. It’s easy to provide the message that improving your health will improve yourself. But, by homing in on this message, their trainers create relevancy every day.

Banks and credit unions have the same opportunity to create relevancy every day with financial wellness. This isn’t a difficult sell. The National Financial Educators Council recently surveyed 2,000 people, finding that 55% said they would be happier with their salary if their finances were in better shape and 53% said they would be more productive at work.

This highlights not only the importance of financial wellness, but also the fact it goes beyond just having money in a vault. It permeates through one’s entire life. It’s not only important for banks and credit unions to understand these issues, but then provide ways for customers or members to learn and grow from the information.

Maybe it’s a marketing campaign that highlights how to take the next step in your financial life. Or, instead, a social media push to provide new homeowners with a toolbox to take the next leap towards wealth. Whatever the approach, linking it to the relevancy of your individual customer will engender far more excitement than a standard financial discussion.

Motivate, Motivate, Motivate

During a Peloton class, an instructor can call you out by name, giving you a virtual high-five. They can provide stretch goals for you to reach, either on the platform or on social media, encouraging you to come back to the bike. Or, for some, the power of the group can keep people coming back as well. Seeing others succeed, makes you want to as well. And with many ways to motivate, riders experience positive reinforcements to keep them coming back.

Banks and credit unions must provide similar motivation and become a customer’s cheerleader. This doesn’t mean just waiting for winners to emerge, but aiding people during the struggles as they build financial wellness. Showcasing how others have solved the issue a customer currently deals with, offers real life examples of those that made it to the other side. It gives customers a step-by-step approach to follow. It connects them with others dealing with the same problems. And it challenges them to continue reaching higher.

Financial wellness, just like one’s fitness, is a life-long pursuit. Making financial wellness more current, manageable and exciting now will help mold a customer for life – no matter what stage of their financial journey they’re currently riding in.

Ignite Sales is the leader in digital customer engagement, using artificial intelligence for engaging analytics to facilitate growth, deeper product penetration and increase satisfaction levels of bankers and customers.