The benefits of SMS payments for credit unions
Over the past two years, credit unions have really been stepping up their game, accepting payments through a variety of channels and successfully engaging members for lending, collections/delinquencies, and marketing purposes. Credit unions have been pushing for new initiatives to make every aspect, from customer services to payments, more convenient. The obvious benefit has been a higher response rate for on-time payments, tightening the revenue cycle businesses.
However, there is one form of payment that stands out as a multifunctional tool that credit unions are just now starting to take advantage of using, SMS/text payments.
How SMS Payments Can Help Credit Unions
The adoption of SMS payments and SMS messaging is a testament to how far credit unions have come to catch up in the tech world. It wasn’t that long ago that much smaller CUs lacked even an online portal. SMS seems to be the next big thing in the space, becoming more normalized as contactless forms of communication have grown ever more popular since the start of the pandemic.
Engagement is becoming more and more popular, especially during a time when email providers are tightening up their security. Many industries have found it difficult to reach inboxes, even for non-advertising materials. That’s why many credit unions have started adopting SMS messaging to break through the noise and start reaching their members in a more meaningful and successful way.
In fact, according to Statista, Americans check their phones 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes. It’s hard to compete with that when the next largest channel, email, yields an average 6% open rate. So it’s easy to see why text is a rapidly growing channel for almost every industry.
Top Benefits
- Automated payment reminders
- Reduces strain on your staff
- Convenient mobile payments for a better member experience
- Initiate marketing messages through text
- Unlike email, 99% of texts get read
Takeaways
While credit unions have a ways to go to catch up to other industries like retail and tech, there seems to be a lot of upward momentum for SMS functionality because of its multipurpose nature. If you have started to consider this option for your business, it’s about time to take another look. With an overwhelming rate of engagement and the ease-of-use factor, many banks and credit unions have already started taking advantage of this powerful tool, not only to make a payment but also to drive traffic to other marketing initiatives through new incentives, programs, and more!
If you’re looking to get started with SMS payments for your credit union, reach out today to learn more.
