The Pocket Change Podcast is presented by Leaders Credit Union. To learn more about Leaders, visit leaderscu.com.
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Carrie:
And this is Carrie.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.
Carrie:
Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest and take control of your financial journey. So, did you know that there are generational trends in banking? Excuse me. What are you doing?
Shea:
I'm texting. I've got to respond to somebody.
Carrie:
Right now?
Shea:
Yeah.
Carrie:
So clearly, you're part of what I'm talking about, the generation that would prefer to text instead of call.
Shea:
I am a Millennial. Yep, I'm going to send a text instead of pick up that phone. So it's going to voicemail if you call me.
Carrie:
Okay, well, that's good to know. Our guest today is from Leaders, and he talks to people all day long, whether it's on the phone, by texting or calling. He's going to tell us a little bit about those trends.
Shea:
Luckily, we can engage with our members any way they'd like: through digital channels, in person, over the phone. So, glad to talk to them today.
Carrie:
I think you're getting a text right now.
Shea:
Oh, yeah. Look, there it came back.
Carrie:
We're excited to welcome our guest, Adam Clarke, AVP of Sales Development, here at Leaders. Welcome to Pocket Change, Adam.
Adam Clarke:
Thanks for having me, Carrie.
Adam Clarke:
It's a pleasure to be here.
Carrie:
Yeah. So we're excited to talk to you today. And, if you could, just tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do here at Leaders.
Adam Clarke:
Yeah, absolutely. So my name's Adam Clarke. Like you said, I'm the AVP of Sales Development. And so I manage our AmpliFI team. And what we do is manage our outbound calling efforts. And lots of people hear outbound calling or cold calling, and instantly it's like, Oh, gross. Don't do that to me. But we're only reaching out to members who have raised their hand in somewhere or another. Maybe they abandoned an application from online. Maybe they showed interest in another way. And so we're connecting with those members to meet them where they're at.
Shea:
So today we're going to talk a little bit about generational differences and how they view money. So what generation are you and your family?
Adam Clarke:
So I'm a Millennial, as are most of my siblings. My youngest sibling falls into Gen Z. And then, of course, that puts my parents in Gen X. So kinda cross three different generations there.
Carrie:
So I'm an elder Millennial, but what are you, Shea?
Shea:
So I would be a younger Millennial.
Carrie:
So Adam, in your experience, what are the differences in the generations and how they prefer to bank?
Adam Clarke:
Yeah, I would say it varies a lot from generation to generation. A lot of the trends that we notice, and what we do, is that Gen Z and the younger generations, they're all digital everything. If their bank can't meet them where they're at with the right digital tools and experiences so they can bank instantly from wherever they want to, they're not so much interested. As you move up into my age range, Millennial, a little bit older, we're kinda the in-between, where I really like the digital tools. Matter of fact, I've switched banks before because they didn't have the right digital tools for me. But also, I want to talk to a real person sometimes. When I need some actual help or some actual advice, I can read through all the articles, but I need somebody to give me something as well. And then I would say with the older generations, Gen X into Boomers, it's a lot slower of a process for how they want to transact, how they want to bank. Whereas myself and the younger generations, we want that instant access. We want to know immediately. They want to take time to think through their decisions, to maybe consult with the spouse, go back home and think about something before they're ready to move forward.
Shea:
And a lot of that has to do with the ways they communicate, obviously, digitally through chats or over the phone or emails, things like that. So what do you see as far as communication differences in those different generations?
Adam Clarke:
Gen Z texting all day long, online chat, they're not nearly as likely to pick up the phone.
Shea:
I prefer not to call somebody.
Adam Clarke:
I'm the same way, too. If you call me and text me right at the same time, I'm going to text you back. I'm not going to call you back. And that's our experience with Gen Z and the younger generations is that it's quick, it's easy. They don't have to spend time on the phone. They can exchange information while continuing to do what they're doing. As we get older, it changes a little bit, whereas my age range, still not as likely to pick up the phone, but more likely to listen to the voicemail that I leave and either give a call back or a text back. And then as we move on up into Gen X and Boomers, it goes the complete opposite end of the scale. They're not going to text back. They're way less likely to read any email that I've sent, but they're going to call me back. They're going to listen to the voicemail. And so it's more personal in one way because we're using more voice communication with the older generations.
Adam Clarke:
But with the younger generations, that's how they want to be met. So it's finding the right medium to meet the right member.
Carrie:
So you've talked about meeting members where they're at, and I'm just curious, how does the AmpliFI team aim to do that?
Adam Clarke:
You We take members as far as they want to go digitally, and we carry them to the point where we pass them off to the branch. So whether they want to continue the whole process online or whether they're not very comfortable and would rather sit face-to-face in one of our branch offices, we get them to the right person as far as they need to go. So there's a handful of different ways that we do it. One of the big things that we do is call out on abandoned applications. And so if a member goes online or a potential member and starts an application, doesn't finish it, then we start our contact with that member. And we've got it set up to where we're ready to meet them wherever they want to be met. And so if you don't finish your application, we're going to send you a simple email. It says, hey, we saw you started an application. Do you need help finishing it, or would you like to schedule a callback? And so lots of times people just ignore that one entirely. And so we want to make sure that we're there ready for our member when they get ready.
Adam Clarke:
And so we send another follow-up email. We don't bombard them. We're not overloading you with all these communications in one day. It's over a period of time, but we'll send a second follow-up. Again, reminding you what the application started with, asking if you'd like that follow-up. And then we're going to reach out with the phone call once we get past the first couple of emails. And sometimes, somebody clicks on that first email we send, they go back online, complete their application, it's done. We never speak to somebody. Or sometimes we send them a couple, three emails over a week, and we attempt to call them one time, and we leave a voicemail, and sometimes they'll call back from the voicemail. Or sometimes it's that first text message that we send, and we've sent three emails in a call over a 7 to 10 day period with no response, but we send a text message and we get a text back within 15 seconds. And so we try to make sure that we're reaching a handout in every direction so that wherever our member reaches out for us, we're ready to grab them.
Shea:
So hear me out. I think your team really "AmpliFI's" our members' experience. So why would someone and why should someone choose Leaders?
Adam Clarke:
That's a great question. Leaders is just different. It's unlike any financial institution I've ever been a part of. It's unlike any company that I've ever worked for. From the top down, from our executive leadership all the way to our financial champions in the branch, everybody who's brought on to Leaders has a heart to serve people. That's unlike my experience has been with other banks, where it feels like if something happens in your life and you run your account overdraft, you catch a fee, and then they charge you a fee because you got a fee, and then there's the fee fee fee. And it never felt like any step of the way like, well, there's another human here on the other end who actually cares about me in my financial well-being and wants to get me out of that hole. And that's the approach that we take with our members, and that's unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else.
Carrie:
Okay, so we are a financial podcast, so I have to ask, what is your best financial advice you've ever been given?
Adam Clarke:
It's a great question. I think the best advice I ever got was from one of my first bosses. When I got my first big boy job and I had the option to invest in a company 401K, that company at the time offered a match on there, and he said, max it out. Always take the full company match, because if not, I'm giving away free money. It's literally 100% return on investment up to the percent that they're going to match. Then to put everything else that I could in there to continue adding to it when I get a pay raise or a promotion. If we could get every 18 to 20 year old in our country to take that advice, in a couple of generations, we'd be out of the poverty that we're in. It's been incredibly impactful on my life, and I haven't done perfect at it. Not been consistent here and there, but getting an early foundation on investing for my future and retirement, I don't think anything I've been told tops that.
Shea:
Yeah, that's true. Starting early is the best piece of advice that we can share to start saving early, putting money back, because that's going to make all the difference. Time is your friend when it gets down to retirement age, so that's important. So last question, if you had some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?
Adam Clarke:
I'd say it'd have to go into the down payment fund, Shea. Been looking at saving, purchasing a home, and I'd probably put the majority in there. But at this moment, I'm craving a milkshake, so McFlurry, a couple of dollars might go to that.
Shea:
There you go.
Carrie:
That sounds good. Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Adam.
Adam Clarke:
Absolutely. Thank you all for having me. It's been a pleasure.