The Key to Attracting Millennials? Give Them an Experience
By Steve Jensen
While at t he GoWest Credit Union Association’s MAXX 2026 in Denver, Finopotamus sat down with Craig McLaughlin, founder and CEO of Finalytics.ai, to talk about what makes millennials tick, and what credit unions must do to attract the younger generation over the long term.
“We used to have to sell the idea that digital experience is crucial to drive growth,” said McLaughlin. “And I think that we're doing less of that today. We're able to be more focused on the conversation around how our technology can help them deliver a better digital experience for acquisition versus why they even want it.”
Factors Determining Member Needs
McLaughlin explained how it’s completely different comparing the needs of a $10 billion institution versus a $5 billion institution versus a $1 billion institution versus one with a couple hundred million in assets. “Those are all really different things, and all are trying to get to the same place, but the approach that they're taking is very different.”
Some credit unions, he said, just need something turned on, a quick problem to solve. Others may be “trying to build a special Snowflake data framework internally” or something more technical. Asked whether it matters if it’s an institution in a metro market or a rural area, or on the East Coast or here in the Mountain West, and how that changes how they should think about digital growth, McLaughlin said it's less geographical and more about segmentation-based needs. “It's more the type of user, the age of the user, the maturity of the user. They’re just different needs.”
Millennials Want an Experience
In his MAXX presentation, McLaughlin said he argued that “fintechs are selling an experience. Credit unions are selling a product. They're very different.”
McLaughlin referenced the oft-quoted stat that the average age of a credit union member in North America is 53. At that stage of life, “they don't [necessarily] need or want an experience. They just want good banking products.”
Important to them is that the person they’re dealing with knows them, trusts them, and cares to help them, McLaughlin said. But their children are the ones who want something more. “They want something cooler. Unlike their parents, they get enamored by small features. Can you get my check three days early? You have a really cool app? Millennials want the experience.”
McLaughlin shared the example of celebrities in the national spotlight currently doing advertisements for fintechs. “They’re showing people partying and having a good time,” and there’s a reason they’re hitting that target with that “fun” messaging. It’s not that millennials aren’t serious about life, “but they value experiences more than their parents did.”
Deliver the Same Experience – Digitally
It all comes down to the delivery, McLaughlin said. “And by the way, as credit unions, don't we deliver an experience? Yes, of course we do. And that's why it seems a little counterintuitive.”
Why, then, do credit unions treat digital banking – the most innovative way of delivering that experience – like it’s a product? Because that's the way they’re organized internally, McLaughlin said. “We think, oh, that's the group in charge of mortgages, or you need the group in charge of checking, and it's all this technical nonsense,” whereas the fintech vendor knows that what they’re really selling is a brand, and a brand experience. “There’s a big difference there,” he said.
One point that baffles McLaughlin is why so many credit union executives, obviously proud of the great care they take of their members in their communities (“because that’s what makes us special”), give people who visit their branches the white-glove treatment, but when they get to the digital channel, the credit union acts as if they’ve never seen them before. “It’s such a miss,” he said.
McLaughlin argues that with so much money invested by fintechs and credit unions “in making members feel like we know them, this is not so much a technical problem as it is an awareness problem, and I just think there's an opportunity to do it better.”
Still Time to Turn the Tide
McLaughlin laments the credit union industry’s current “53-year-average-age” situation, and the fact that the number of credit unions today is a fraction of what it was several decades ago – “about 20% of what we once were.” That trend is showing credit unions are going to be 15% smaller in a few years, he said. “So, we’re the last of the Mohicans. Our industry is shrinking.” But, “if we get this right – and we can,” he said, “there is so much opportunity for those who will remain.”
We should remember, McLaughlin said, the wonderfully proud history of credit unions in this country, as GoWest was illustrating at MAXX 2026 during the country’s 250th anniversary year. He pointed to the big signs in the halls showing President Harry S. Truman signing federal legislation and murals of credit unions “all about helping other people.”
“We're talking about the mission of credit unions,” he said. “It’s on the boards all around this conference, and millennials should love that stuff, right?” And yet, he said, the credit union industry is still struggling. He said the “member service is No. 1” message is still striking a chord with its current membership base. “It’s simply that we’re not doing a good job getting to the next generation.”
McLaughlin shared an example of when he was working with the brokerage firm Charles Schwab back in the day. “We told them, ‘Are you seeing what's going on with companies like Betterment? They can take on a customer and scale them really fast.’ And they told us, ‘We're not really worried about that. It's a small fraction.’” And today, many of those ‘smaller’ players are buying the bigger firms, McLaughlin said.
The Biggest Takeaway?
If a CEO walked out of MAXX with a single priority for 2027, Finopotamus asked McLaughlin, what should it be?
“We’re in hurry-up offense,” he said. “We have to think in terms of putting something up now,” and then reacting, getting feedback, and improving from there, “versus building the Mona Lisa.” Even if that means using automated agents to do some of their work? “I don’t think people are talking enough about it,” he said.
So when it comes to AI and the way of the future, it’s better to start with something – anything – versus waiting and doing it right? McLaughlin was asked.
“Yes. People are afraid of AI and these changes they have to make,” he said. “They’re terrified of it. They should be terrified NOT to use it.”
