Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / Changing the Direction of Banking: A Q&A with LendingClub® on Personalization and Delivering Customer-Centric Benefits
Transcript
- 0:05Mark Johnson: Good afternoon and good morning.
- 0:06Mark Johnson: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360.
- 0:08Mark Johnson: I hope everyone's happy, safe and well.
- 0:09Mark Johnson: But I welcome you back to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series.
- 0:14Mark Johnson: In this series, we have the privilege of speaking with leading brands about what they are seeing in here on the front lines of Customer Channel and Brand Loyalty.
- 0:20Mark Johnson: Today we have the pleasure to speak with Amber Carroll.
- 0:23Mark Johnson: She's the Senior Vice President of Membership and Life Cycle Marketing for Lending Club.
- 0:28Mark Johnson: How are you today, amber?
- 0:30Amber Carroll: I'm doing well, Mark.
- 0:30Amber Carroll: Thanks for having me.
- 0:32Mark Johnson: Absolutely.
- 0:32Mark Johnson: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.
- 0:34Mark Johnson: We'd like to start these on a more personal note, to get to know the individual we're speaking with.
- 0:38Mark Johnson: So we'd love to know a little bit more about you, your background, what you do at Lending Club and maybe even a fun fact or a passion you have outside of work.
- 0:47Amber Carroll: Perfect.
- 0:49Amber Carroll: So I lead all of marketing, which includes brand product marketing, owned and paid marketing, social and marketing analytics.
- 0:57Amber Carroll: I joined Lending Club about two years ago.
- 1:00Amber Carroll: Actually, it's my anniversary this month.
- 1:02Amber Carroll: I was really inspired by the company's commitment to its members and its desire to challenge the way banking is done.
- 1:09Amber Carroll: Prior to Lending Club, I spent 20 years in financial services, working across a variety of roles and functions for some of the biggest brands.
- 1:19Amber Carroll: My experience also included a six-year tour overseas, working in an international capacity in the protection and credit card businesses.
- 1:29Amber Carroll: In terms of fun fact, I am a creative person and I definitely need creative outlets.
- 1:34Amber Carroll: I often refer to myself as a failed Pinterest mom.
- 1:38Amber Carroll: I mean, I love Pinterest, always scrolling, and I get inspired by the projects that I see on the platform, and then I try to create my own version.
- 1:48Amber Carroll: One year, I combined my love of Pinterest with Halloween.
- 1:53Amber Carroll: I created this slimer costume for my son Mikey.
- 1:57Amber Carroll: He was five or six at the time.
- 2:00Amber Carroll: This costume included using a pasta strainer to craft this giant head.
- 2:05Amber Carroll: It was made with love, but terrible, really, really terrible.
- 2:09Amber Carroll: Luckily, my son Mikey he has a really big heart and he sure loves his mama, so he actually wore it and he didn't complain and he marched around the kindergarten Halloween parade with pride.
- 2:22Mark Johnson: Well, that's good then.
- 2:23Mark Johnson: I've never been on Pinterest, but I hear it's very creative and a great way to get all kinds of ideas.
- 2:30Mark Johnson: I just I just redid my daughter's bathroom.
- 2:34Mark Johnson: So I'm doing a basement now, so I probably should stay away from it because I already have people wanting me to do their next bathroom.
- 2:40Mark Johnson: I'm like I didn't do it, I just designed it.
- 2:42Mark Johnson: But so I'll stay away from Pinterest just for that reason.
- 2:46Amber Carroll: A little side hustle.
- 2:48Mark Johnson: Yeah, it could be so.
- 2:49Mark Johnson: Lending Club, fintech.
- 2:52Mark Johnson: Obviously you said you want to kind of change how banking is done.
- 2:55Mark Johnson: Very passionate about that.
- 2:56Mark Johnson: Can you give us a brief history of the Lending Club, what you guys do, how you do it, where you do it?
- 3:02Amber Carroll: You bet Lending Club has been in business for about 15 years.
- 3:06Amber Carroll: Our company is no stranger to challenging environments.
- 3:10Amber Carroll: It was actually started in 2007, during the Great Recession.
- 3:14Amber Carroll: At that time, credit was being pulled back from everyone, but consumers still really needed some help.
- 3:21Amber Carroll: Lending Club, believe it or not, was originally a Facebook app that allowed borrowers to post requests for money with personal stories.
- 3:28Amber Carroll: Investors could read those stories and invest in a person.
- 3:33Amber Carroll: Investment amounts could be as low as $25.
- 3:36Amber Carroll: Investors would then earn interest on the loans they funded.
- 3:40Amber Carroll: So at that time, lending Club provided a very innovative solution.
- 3:44Amber Carroll: We took a very traditional credit product the installment loan and we brought it online.
- 3:50Amber Carroll: Installments installment loans at that time had really fallen out of fashion because it just wasn't as lucrative for traditional banks as credit cards.
- 3:58Amber Carroll: So we really brought personal loans back into the fray, took a very niche product, we made it digital, we put it online and we made it seamless.
- 4:07Amber Carroll: Since we launched in 2007, our vision of transforming the banking industry remains the same, and today we remain committed to relentlessly advantaging our members by challenging the way banking is done.
- 4:19Amber Carroll: And you mentioned this In 2021, Lending Club was the first US fintech to buy a bank, with its acquisition of Radius Bank Corp.
- 4:27Amber Carroll: So now we offer more ways for people to pay less when they're borrowing and earn more when they're saving.
- 4:35Mark Johnson: Okay, interesting.
- 4:36Mark Johnson: So the micro lending was kind of the genesis for lending club way back with Facebook.
- 4:43Mark Johnson: I guess it could be micro and a little bit bigger, but that's kind of how it was started.
- 4:47Mark Johnson: That's interesting.
- 4:48Amber Carroll: Yes.
- 4:49Mark Johnson: Okay, great.
- 4:49Mark Johnson: So when you look at the products and services you offer, you have a broad selection of financial products and services you know from bank accounts, personal loans, business loans and more.
- 5:01Mark Johnson: Is that kind of a full array of the products you offer?
- 5:05Amber Carroll: Yeah, yeah, we have definitely grown, and there's more to come.
- 5:09Amber Carroll: We are actively building products that will meet our members' needs.
- 5:14Mark Johnson: That's awesome.
- 5:15Mark Johnson: So when you look at your loyalty program, how does your loyalty program work, how do Lending Club members engage with it and what are the benefits to those who are part of the program?
- 5:27Amber Carroll: Yeah.
- 5:27Amber Carroll: So just starting a bit back, in my opinion, our member loyalty goes well beyond the traditional views of points, earn and burn programs.
- 5:35Amber Carroll: Our member loyalty is really built into our core products and servicing, and this shows up Mark in what we call know me, show me and reward me experiences and interactions.
- 5:47Amber Carroll: So I'll step you through it a bit.
- 5:49Amber Carroll: So we talk about know me when our members come back to do more business with us and we do have one of the highest repeat business rates in our space.
- 5:58Amber Carroll: We have the data to create a frictionless experience right.
- 6:02Amber Carroll: Our members are not entering their name and address over and over again just because they're either taking out an additional product right or doing a different type of business with us.
- 6:11Amber Carroll: And you know we really can do that because we have a 360 view of our members right.
- 6:17Amber Carroll: That allows us to create those simple, seamless experiences we talk about show me.
- 6:22Amber Carroll: That's really about putting money back in our members' pockets.
- 6:26Amber Carroll: It's what we do right.
- 6:27Amber Carroll: That's what we are founded on, that's what we continue to do, and the way we do that is by using advanced analytics to proactively identify savings opportunities.
- 6:37Amber Carroll: We then surface personalized offers to our members and in a couple of clicks they have money back in their pocket.
- 6:44Amber Carroll: And just to highlight the savings that we create for our members in some of our core products on average members who do a balance transfer loan with us, they reduce their APR on high rate credit cards by about 4% and that saves them about $1,800 over the life of their personal loan.
- 7:02Amber Carroll: Right, we could all use a little savings right now.
- 7:06Amber Carroll: The last bit is the reward me piece, right.
- 7:09Amber Carroll: So we provide access to exclusive member products and services, and this includes one of our newest offerings, stackit.
- 7:18Amber Carroll: So Stackit is a browser extension that shows up for our members providing cash back at their favorite retailers on everyday online shopping.
- 7:29Amber Carroll: So, unlike traditional offers, they don't have to go find them and link them.
- 7:34Amber Carroll: There's no hoops to jump through.
- 7:36Amber Carroll: They search for what they want.
- 7:37Amber Carroll: If an offer is available, it shows up right in their path.
- 7:41Amber Carroll: We have over 15,000 merchants that are available.
- 7:45Amber Carroll: In our rewards program, our customers and members can start redeeming for gift cards once they've accumulated $5.
- 7:54Amber Carroll: Stackit also has another great feature where it applies coupons at checkout for the member.
- 8:00Amber Carroll: So our members can get additional savings without having to scour the internet.
- 8:05Amber Carroll: I feel like me I'm a deal hunter.
- 8:07Amber Carroll: I'm out there looking for coupons internet coupons Our members don't have to do it.
- 8:12Amber Carroll: If there's one out there, we're going to apply it already.
- 8:14Amber Carroll: So it's called Stackit for a reason Cashback on everyday purchases at 15,000 merchants.
- 8:21Amber Carroll: Additional coupon codes show up at checkout and our members earn more cash back when they pay with their lending club rewards debit card.
- 8:28Amber Carroll: So I would call that a triple stack.
- 8:32Mark Johnson: That's awesome.
- 8:32Mark Johnson: When you look at your clients, personalization is a topic that's very germane to your audience.
- 8:40Mark Johnson: You have about 150 brands that are members.
- 8:42Mark Johnson: We meet on different topics and personalization is very germane, especially right now, this economic uncertainty we have.
- 8:52Mark Johnson: When you look at personalization, what does personalization mean to the Lending Club and how do you work to capitalize and personalize in your reward program, your product offering and your branding?
- 9:05Amber Carroll: Great question.
- 9:06Amber Carroll: So marketers have been on the path for personalization for some time now.
- 9:10Amber Carroll: Right, and our ambitions are going to be very similar to some of the others who are tuning in to your podcast.
- 9:16Amber Carroll: Right, we want to deliver the right product to each person at the moment that they need it.
- 9:21Amber Carroll: So, while our ambitions are the same, how a brand like Lending Club shows up is really what's different.
- 9:28Amber Carroll: Right, as a FinTech Bank, lending Club is well-versed in technology and advanced analytics.
- 9:34Amber Carroll: One way we are driving personalization is in our marketing messaging.
- 9:38Amber Carroll: So at Lending Club, we use large language models today to optimize our marketing communications.
- 9:45Amber Carroll: So themes like recognition, partnering, congratulatory, cheerleading have provided, on average, about a 31% response lift on already strong performing communications.
- 9:57Amber Carroll: We also use advanced targeting and offer personalization to make sure that we're surfacing and promoting the right offer to our members.
- 10:06Amber Carroll: So being able to provide messaging and offer personalization at scale has really helped Lending Club maintain, again, that highest return member rate in the industry and strong member satisfaction scores.
- 10:21Mark Johnson: One of the big benefits of FinTech obviously the Genesis Company was seeing a market opportunity, market need and being able to execute against it the Facebook start and then obviously buying a bank and then continue to iterate.
- 10:39Mark Johnson: But how does your company help your members achieve their financial goals?
- 10:46Mark Johnson: Because obviously the FinTech opportunity can be quite different and you guys are doing some very unique things now how do you help your customers achieve their financial goals?
- 10:56Amber Carroll: I think the biggest way is, again, I don't think anyone.
- 10:59Amber Carroll: I have yet to meet folks who are not looking for savings opportunities, especially in this climate.
- 11:07Amber Carroll: So again, it's about looking at their current position and if someone is carrying high rate credit card debt, for example, or another example is if someone has purchased a vehicle and they have a loan on that vehicle, we have products that are really designed to lower the cost of borrowing and put that savings back in our members pocket.
- 11:29Amber Carroll: And to give you a sense, I talked about the $1800 on average for debt consolidation type loans on an auto refi that can look like $2,100.
- 11:40Amber Carroll: So again, it's about using data, data we see from credit bureau reports, data that we have on their relationship with us and then finding those opportunities to surface pre-approved offers for them to put that money back in their pocket.
- 11:56Mark Johnson: You talked about kind of ML/AI, kind of neural networks, and how you were leveraging some of the application.
- 12:04Mark Johnson: But when you look at some of the technologies out there, customer loyalty is bigger than just the points and the rewards and the thresholds.
- 12:12Mark Johnson: It's really looking at human behavior kind of from an economic perspective right from behavior economic perspective and integrating technologies that work.
- 12:21Mark Johnson: So you know, how are you using the chat gpt, ai, ml to help augment your customer loyalty efforts?
- 12:31Amber Carroll: Yeah, I would say you know.
- 12:32Amber Carroll: Technology and specifically chat GPT are super hot topics in the market, right, you can't go anywhere without you know, seeing these, these businesses sprout up or articles on it.
- 12:42Amber Carroll: And while it's early days, I think there are a few use cases that are easy to see from marketing organizations.
- 12:49Amber Carroll: But I would also say some areas to watch out for, right.
- 12:52Amber Carroll: So the first is chat GPT can help generate ideas and it can really cut down research time on content creation.
- 13:00Amber Carroll: However, right, it's not a straight copy paste.
- 13:04Amber Carroll: One of the key aspects of marketing and branding is in its differentiation.
- 13:08Amber Carroll: So content for a brand like Lending Club is delivered with a point of view that helps provide thought leadership.
- 13:15Amber Carroll: Right, our content also supports building our members knowledge and answering relevant questions about financial services and our specific products and offerings.
- 13:25Amber Carroll: Right, the last piece is, you know, our content is written in our own unique brand voice.
- 13:30Amber Carroll: While we do use large language models to optimize our content, these models are calibrated based on our members and it's fine tuned for Lending Club.
- 13:41Amber Carroll: Another use case is chat.
- 13:43Amber Carroll: Again, I don't think you would want to let chat GPT loose and interacting directly with your members or customers, but I think it can help identify the most common requests and the content marketing teams, right, can craft the appropriate responses that reflect the way that the brand engages.
- 14:01Amber Carroll: These products already exist in the market.
- 14:04Amber Carroll: The last one I'd call out is research.
- 14:07Amber Carroll: Right, when a company is starting to think about a new product, right, you can actually ask chat GPT tell me about ex customers in the United States.
- 14:16Amber Carroll: Right, chat GPT does a great job of summarizing available information.
- 14:21Amber Carroll: Right, it's limited to the most recent information, but it's a good starting point.
- 14:27Amber Carroll: Again, a caution here is it shouldn't replace your primary research, which helps identify unique needs that your company or solution can address in a very differentiated way.
- 14:39Mark Johnson: Employee engagement is very important in a low-efficiency program offering, but the bigger picture customer experience, customer loyalty efforts and having engaged employees is very important.
- 14:50Mark Johnson: When you look at the employee engagement piece of the customer loyalty discussion, how do you train your employees or do you engage them differently?
- 14:59Mark Johnson: Or they just, since it's a fintech company, do they have a proclivity to be more customer focused?
- 15:05Mark Johnson: How are you doing that and doing it so well?
- 15:08Amber Carroll: I love this question.
- 15:09Amber Carroll: So at London Club, our brand is built not only on how we deliver on our members' needs with our products, but specifically how it feels to engage with us.
- 15:19Amber Carroll: Our member care team operates with what we call our London Care Ethos, and it's really three things.
- 15:26Amber Carroll: The first is build a relationship Right.
- 15:29Amber Carroll: So we're looking to establish rapport through personable language and shared experiences.
- 15:35Amber Carroll: You've heard me say on our discussion today, members.
- 15:39Amber Carroll: That's because London Club has members, not customers, and that reflects how important it is to us to build community and inclusion.
- 15:49Amber Carroll: The second part of our London Care Ethos is making it easy.
- 15:52Amber Carroll: We know finances can be complicated.
- 15:55Amber Carroll: We are here to try to take the complication out and make things simple and easy.
- 16:00Amber Carroll: The last piece and I think this is really important is around thinking ahead.
- 16:05Amber Carroll: So it's not about the personal loan they're talking to us about today or a checking account.
- 16:11Amber Carroll: It's about our members reaching their financial goals.
- 16:14Amber Carroll: We want to help them to see the bigger picture and work towards that future.
- 16:19Amber Carroll: I would also add very rarely do you hear the words empathetic or kind with a bank, but at London Club we hear this from our members consistently and it's a point of differentiation and pride for us, and I was recently looking through some of our NPS feedback and one of the things that I saw was London Club makes getting a loan easy and almost effortless, and as you build a relationship with London Club, they become your partners in business and financial solutions.
- 16:53Amber Carroll: And it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
- 16:55Amber Carroll: But that's it.
- 16:56Amber Carroll: This is not a one-off.
- 16:58Amber Carroll: This is consistent feedback from our members.
- 17:00Mark Johnson: Okay, and when you look at the economy, we've talked a little bit about some economic uncertainty.
- 17:07Mark Johnson: One of the things that we've heard from a number of brands is that customer loyalty, loyalty programs can be a hedge against economic uncertainty.
- 17:16Mark Johnson: How do you think your loyalty program meets the challenge, especially when you look at kind of the financial goals that could be impacted in this time of economic uncertainty?
- 17:28Amber Carroll: Yeah, absolutely.
- 17:30Amber Carroll: I talked about the savings that London Club's core products provide to our members.
- 17:34Amber Carroll: You see the impact this has on them from the quotes that I just shared and high satisfaction.
- 17:40Amber Carroll: We are helping them to put savings back in their pocket now.
- 17:43Amber Carroll: But we know that the cost of everyday items is also going up.
- 17:48Amber Carroll: Right and Stack it our everyday shopping rewards program helps our members earn cash back on those items and, for example, members who are using Stack it consistently, they're putting about $80 back in their pocket in just a few months.
- 18:04Amber Carroll: But loyalty isn't just born from rewards, right?
- 18:07Amber Carroll: Sometimes life happens and it may be a challenge for some of our members to meet their obligations.
- 18:13Amber Carroll: I think this is where London Club really shines Members who need our help.
- 18:18Amber Carroll: They receive kindness, empathy and support, not judgment.
- 18:22Amber Carroll: Our member care team has programs to help our members get back on track, and that sets us apart.
- 18:28Amber Carroll: This builds partnership, trust and loyalty.
- 18:31Amber Carroll: At London Club, we have our members backs in good times and also in challenging times.
- 18:37Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 18:38Mark Johnson: And when you look at your customers, there's a great deal of discussion how customers have changed.
- 18:44Mark Johnson: They changed.
- 18:45Mark Johnson: Going into COVID change, coming out of COVID retail to change, financial services had to change.
- 18:51Mark Johnson: How do you think your customers are changing and how are you adapting to and responding to those changes?
- 18:58Amber Carroll: Yeah, I think.
- 18:59Amber Carroll: Just first a little bit about our members.
- 19:01Amber Carroll: Right, our members are established.
- 19:03Amber Carroll: They have strong incomes with good credit.
- 19:05Amber Carroll: They have historically come to us for lending needs, which already sets them apart.
- 19:11Amber Carroll: Right, they're active and proactive in managing their finances.
- 19:14Amber Carroll: Our members are striving to make their finances work for them and to move towards their goals, and so, for me, there's really a natural progression in our relationship with them.
- 19:26Amber Carroll: First we help them to create financial space and savings right, I've given a few examples here around debt optimization, auto refi or spend earn wins.
- 19:36Amber Carroll: Then we move on to building greater resiliency right, this ensures that our members can manage when unexpected expenses show up car repairs, medical bills, you name it.
- 19:46Amber Carroll: And then finally, once they've got that space a bit of a cushion, then they can shift to be more future focused, working towards bigger goals and financial aspirations.
- 19:58Amber Carroll: I think the need around proactive, actionable nudges to make your finances work for you and then the ability to easily act has been there for a very long time.
- 20:09Amber Carroll: Right, it's been in banking a while and this has always come through in the research that I've done.
- 20:13Amber Carroll: But banks haven't delivered.
- 20:15Amber Carroll: Banks show consumers pictures of their finances, but they don't tell them, what options they have and the impact of taking those actions, and so I think that the change driven by our current environment is people are looking for actionable solutions and more ways to make their finances work better, more ways to balance the demands of life with a dollar that isn't going as far, and that the change driven by COVID specifically is the willingness and desire to engage digitally More and more.
- 20:45Amber Carroll: Banking is now something you do, it's not a place you go.
- 20:48Mark Johnson: Okay, you've talked a little bit about your customers how their relationship with money changed their financial health, financial literacy.
- 20:59Mark Johnson: How are their behaviors changing overall?
- 21:03Amber Carroll: I think they're again more active in their finances and they're looking for solutions.
- 21:08Amber Carroll: They're not well, they're not going to sit complacent, and again you see a lot more willingness and openness to work with a provider that offers digital capabilities even more.
- 21:21Amber Carroll: So right, they want to be able to manage their finances through their mobile device.
- 21:26Mark Johnson: Okay when you look at other customer loyalty programs.
- 21:30Mark Johnson: Are there other programs out there you admire that you're loyal to from a customer loyalty perspective and if so, what do you like about their offering?
- 21:39Amber Carroll: So, mark, this is a very timely question.
- 21:41Amber Carroll: My team has recently done a lot of research, talking to our members, talking to our employees, to ask this very question.
- 21:49Amber Carroll: What was interesting is like what we heard is some of the favorites are Costco right, access to great deals, comfort and knowing that they will be treated right.
- 21:57Amber Carroll: You know, credit card offers great cashback rates and useful tiers.
- 22:02Amber Carroll: Starbucks is another great one.
- 22:04Amber Carroll: They love the ability to customize how they use the rewards they can pay through the app.
- 22:09Amber Carroll: And you know, starbucks has essentially become a bank.
- 22:12Amber Carroll: So for me personally, I am a huge fan of Nordstrom's.
- 22:15Amber Carroll: It's a great brand.
- 22:17Amber Carroll: They have the core tenants of a great loyalty program recognition, right Of the business I give them with a tier status.
- 22:25Amber Carroll: Right, I'm icon member.
- 22:27Amber Carroll: Reciprocity the more business I give them, the more I earn.
- 22:31Amber Carroll: Right, I get more triple point days.
- 22:33Amber Carroll: Early access to things.
- 22:35Amber Carroll: Right, there's benefits that come along with it no cost tailoring again.
- 22:40Amber Carroll: Early access to sales and special events.
- 22:42Amber Carroll: And then for me, it's their secret sauce, which is an unwavering commitment.
- 22:47Amber Carroll: Right, they stand behind the quality of the products that they sell.
- 22:51Amber Carroll: There's hassle-free returns, they give you personal style advice and they have a knowledgeable and friendly staff.
- 22:58Mark Johnson: Excellent.
- 22:59Mark Johnson: And the last question I have what can Loyalty360 do to help you and your team and your customer loyalty journey?
- 23:06Amber Carroll: Well, I've definitely tuned into some of the podcasts and it's always great to hear how different companies and brands are approaching their own loyalty programs.
- 23:15Amber Carroll: Right, a lot of the fundamentals are consistent.
- 23:18Amber Carroll: I talked about that.
- 23:19Amber Carroll: So, recognition you know different tiers, reciprocity, benefits, access but the way companies bring their DNA and purpose into the delivery of their programs Mark, these are the insights that come through the conversations you're having with marketing and loyalty of leaders, and myself and my team are all ears.
- 23:39Mark Johnson: That's great Well, amber.
- 23:40Mark Johnson: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.
- 23:43Mark Johnson: It was great getting to know you on a more personal level, but also some things you're doing at Lending Club very interesting and some of it's quite profound.
- 23:50Mark Johnson: So I appreciate all you're doing around customer loyalty, but also to help your customers achieve their financial goals.
- 23:56Mark Johnson: That's great to hear.
- 23:58Amber Carroll: Well, we appreciate the conversation.
- 23:59Amber Carroll: Thanks for including us, Mark.
- 24:01Mark Johnson: Absolutely, and thank you everyone for taking the time to listen to and make sure you join us for another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series soon.
- 24:07Mark Johnson: Have a wonderful day.