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Connect & Collect Podcast - Season 2, Episode 18
In the season 2 finale of Connect and Collect, host Michael Pupil is joined by Lexop's Sasha Bordonaro, Jordan Greenberg, and Laura Chambers for an engaging discussion on the year’s key takeaways and what’s ahead for 2025. The team unpacks the biggest challenges in hiring and retaining collections staff, shares client success stories showcasing the power of technology, and highlights why financial literacy and texting will be critical for credit unions moving forward. Get actionable insights on leveraging technology, improving member communication, and helping smaller credit unions thrive in a competitive landscape. Don’t miss this insightful wrap-up to season 2!
Skip Ahead
- 00:00 Introduction to Connect and Collect Podcast
- 01:38 Key Lessons from 2024
- 12:32 Client Success Stories and Highlights
- 17:24 Predictions for 2025
- 30:54 Actionable Takeaways for Credit Unions
- 38:36 Closing Thoughts and Future Directions
Read the Transcript
[00:00:00] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Welcome to the Connect and Collect podcast. Brought to you by Lexop. Connect and Collect is a podcast created with the credit union professional in mind. Our goal is to bring you the latest innovations and trends in the industry by speaking with incredible credit union leaders so you can hear what's happening at the ground level.
[00:00:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Here's your host, Michael Pupil, Vice President of Sales at Lexop.
[00:00:26]
[00:00:27] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to Lexop's Connect and Collect podcast. My name is Michael Pupil. It is a pleasure to have you guys today. And, uh, really excited to announce or introduce today's guests that you guys see here. And joining me today, Laura Chambers, Sasha Bordonaro, Jordan Greenberg, the Lexop team, uh, here to do a little bit of a recap of 2024, make a couple of predictions of 2025, and a few insights that we've learned along the way.
[00:00:57] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So guys, welcome. It's fun to have you [00:01:00] guys on.
[00:01:00] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Thanks, Mike.
[00:01:02] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Thanks. It's fun to be on the other side.
[00:01:05] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I love it. I love it. I know all of you guys are so polite. You all wait for each other to go first, and so there's going to be that awkward pause. So, moving forward, what I'll do is I'll pick on you like I normally do on a daily basis.
[00:01:17] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So, what we'll do today, everybody, is we're just going to go around the room. Talk about a few key lessons that we've had in 2024, some of our experiences, and talking with a number of credit unions, and what our thoughts are and what we think is going to happen.
[00:01:30] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: It'll make it kind of fun where we all have some of our predictions for 2025, and we get to see if we were right, um, you know, at the end of the year. So, uh, maybe my first question to the team is, uh, just talk a little bit about your experience in terms of some of the lessons that you've learned in 2024.
[00:01:47] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And we'll start with Sasha.
[00:01:49] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: A couple of things. So I think a lot of the lessons that, you know, we've heard, and this is going to be a reoccurring topic that we talk about throughout this podcast, and I think messaging is the big thing.
[00:01:58] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: Messaging has been [00:02:00] a huge, huge change when it comes to credit unions. And it's not just about, you know, collections in terms of sending out a text, or sending out an email, or making calls, but it's really who you're speaking to.
[00:02:10] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: And the more credit unions we speak to, the more we're realizing that that targeted messaging is so crucial. Depending on the loan product, depending on the age of the member, what stage they're at within the delinquency, that messaging has truly made a huge change.
[00:02:26] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: Um, so to me, it's really been about every time we're speaking to any of our credit unions, you know, like, what are they doing with their messaging? How can we help? Is there templates we can put out?
[00:02:36] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: I think the big thing for a lot of my credit unions this year was have you tried putting an emoji in your subject line? And everyone was really shocked at the results that we saw with that with one of our credit unions. So I think a big key lesson for me this year was messaging truly does make a difference.
[00:02:50] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: And it's not about whether it's sent out through an email or through a text. It's what you say.
[00:02:54] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: Well said. We'll dive into the emoji part a little bit in terms of the templates. That's a really good example. Jordan, how about [00:03:00] yourself?
[00:03:01] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: I think for me, Mike, 2024 and having conversations with, you know, multiple credit unions and also even fellow vendors, partners in the space, what stands out right now is that, yes, delinquencies are still pretty high. We might be seeing, uh, even more delinquencies going up in 2025, and there's definitely credit unions out there that are pretty good when it comes to delinquency.
[00:03:23] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: They've got it under, under control. You know, there's a sort of a low number there. but there's still a shift towards, even if we have low delinquency, are we creating a channel for our members where it is a digital first approach? And so now the conversation has shifted from delinquency to do we have a digital first strategy in place to make it easier for our members to engage with us and to pay back their loan, for example. That's one.
[00:03:48] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And the second is conversations surrounding the idea of the cost of loan servicing. So as a credit union, do you know how much it costs you currently [00:04:00] today to service a loan. And if not, well then definitely you got to go back and do some homework and if you do know that number, how do you bring that number down? And the answer, of course is with technology, whether it's us or any other vendor that's out there.
[00:04:12] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So, I think those are the two things, the two key things that I've noticed, at least in 2024, where at the beginning of this year, and even towards the tail end of 2023, it was just rising delinquencies, rising delinquencies, and nobody was talking about anything else.
[00:04:26] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: That's shifted now.
[00:04:28] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I love it and before I get to you, Laura. I think the two of you have very, very complimentary comments to make. So you're right.
[00:04:34] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Where we've shifted away from just a pure increase in delinquencies. Underwriting has stabilized. The market has stabilized a little bit, and I will probably see that. And you're moving away from just focusing on that word collections to more about member servicing or member solutions, right? And it's more about the communication that you are offering to members to be able to engage.
[00:04:54] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: A great example of that is the use of sometimes emojis and text messages. Two [00:05:00] younger demographics in order to capture that intent to engage in the message that's there and then be able to service the member appropriately. Whether that be a delinquency, or a question, or otherwise.
[00:05:11] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I think that kind of packages it together and when your decisions are run based on the cost of loan servicing, then you're able to identify where are the areas for greater efficiency through the use of technology.
[00:05:24] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Brilliant insights from the lessons of 2024 guys. That, that was, I love that. And by the way, for anybody listening, all of this is unscripted. We just jumped on the line. We were all giggling our heads off just before. And so we just jumped on to make this as authentic and real as possible.
[00:05:39] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: So Laura, I'm going to flip it to you now.
[00:05:41] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: You've got the tough part because those were two excellent answers. And so key lessons from 2024, from your point of view,
[00:05:47] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: It's definitely hard to top those two answers, but for me it's more about thinking about the collection teams themselves.
[00:05:53] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Hiring collectors is still a huge challenge. Retaining those collectors, a huge challenge. And giving them the tools [00:06:00] they need to succeed with, again, those rising delinquency levels, a massive challenge.
[00:06:04] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So for us, thinking about how can you help retain your staff through the use of technology, making their jobs a little bit easier and letting them focus on the higher value types of member transactions where they need that kind of one on one consultation. But also, how are you creating that safety net?
[00:06:21] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: We were talking to a customer just yesterday on the line talking about how technology has saved them. They had a collector leave. All of a sudden, they were down a key member of their department. What are you going to do and what's your contingency plan?
[00:06:34] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And that's something I think as we look to next year, even if you have great retention, you need to have a backup plan in place because you never know what it might take for one of your team members to get an offer from the credit union across the street.
[00:06:46] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: More money, more flexible schedule, better benefits, whatever it may be. You can't guarantee that your team will be there forever. So what can you do to make sure that you're secure on the collection side even without that human manpower?
[00:06:58] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So that's probably [00:07:00] my biggest learning.
[00:07:00] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: Super important.
[00:07:02] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: What a great one. Because we've even had a couple of podcasts that would highlight that, right? Like I think automatically of Brittany Harbolic and her, uh, tint on helping to train individuals and empower them to be more effective at their job, to coach them up.
[00:07:14] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Then I think of Maria Martinez down at border, how, uh, her piece was really to coordinate the training of her group to serve the underserved, and that was the mission of the team.
[00:07:23] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Even, um, uh, who am I thinking of at Credit Union One? Why am I forgetting? Oh my God, I feel so terrible.
[00:07:30] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Maria,
[00:07:30] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Maria, of course. Maria Boucher. Yes, Maria Boucher. I'm sorry, Maria, if you're listening to this, I can't believe that just happened. Proof that this isn't scripted, that it's all, it's all off the cuff.
[00:07:41] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: But even with Maria Boucher, in terms of developing gamification with her team to keep them very active and motivated. Because how many listening to this podcast right now have had teams that were overworked because of the volume, understaffed, where FTE has been a challenging piece to this.
[00:07:57] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And those that have implemented [00:08:00] technology have seen, you know, a little bit of letting off the steam so that it kind of cools it down so that everybody has something that they can lean on.
[00:08:06] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And think, the key point to that too, Mike, is the team's now seeing technology as an aid, as an enhancement, as a benefit to their roles and not something to be threatened by. And I think we've started to see that shift as well, where it's not, hey, this tool is going to take my job. It's really saying this is going to make my life a lot easier.
[00:08:25] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: This is going to collect for me while I'm sleeping, while the branch is closed. It's taking that load off my plate. So I can do other things. So I think that's a big mindset shift we've seen as well from the teams that are actually using different tools, whether it's Lexop or anything else. But seeing more and more people embracing technology into the roles and not seeing it as something to be threatened by. So.
[00:08:45] Michael: Great point. Before I move on, I'd love to maybe just pick on, you know, a couple of team highlights. Um, you know, there was lots of things that we did over the course of the year.
[00:08:56] Michael: We'll start it in the reverse order. I'd love to grab a highlight from, from [00:09:00] each one of you guys. And we'll start with Laura first, this time.
[00:09:02] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: I would say this, the podcast. It started out as a little bit of a, a wild idea that we had, and saying, you know, who's going to want to listen to us talk about collections and credit unions? And the feedback we've gotten, the people, you know, agreeing to come on and share their time and their expertise with us.
[00:09:17] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: It's really, really been just fantastic. We're so excited to see it continue to grow.
[00:09:22] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And I guess we can let the secret out of the bag. We're going to actually start dropping two episodes a month, starting in January for 2025.
[00:09:29] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So, um, yeah. Thank you everyone for listening and for keeping Connect and Collect growing and rolling and we're thrilled for where it's going.
[00:09:37] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So that's definitely my highlight. And Mike, thank you. Host extraordinaire, you've really crushed it, so.
[00:09:43] Michael: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for volunteering.
[00:09:44] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Host with the most.
[00:09:45] Michael: Yeah, I was well and told that I was going to be doing this way. And it's been a lot of fun. The conversations that we've had, I think, have been eye opening with so many credit union leaders and what is remarkable in that with the thought [00:10:00] leadership is learning about credit union leaders who not only are really proficient at their roles, but how much they give back to the community.
[00:10:08] Michael: Truth be told, we are filming this, or recording this, the day before Thanksgiving. We just had a podcast that was released with Shannon Stewart. And, uh, if you have not listened to that, please go back into the archive. Find it, because I know that we're releasing this in December. But what a, what a great example of giving back to the community. With just an altruistic, you know, non-business related, you know, kind of function.
[00:10:29] Michael: And I think that has been eye opening to see so many leaders, uh, giving back, which is, which is inspiring. Really, really great point.
[00:10:36] Michael: Jordan, I'll move to you. You're next.
[00:10:39] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Yes, sir. I think for me, in 2024, it was really all about the client wins. I'll name a couple by name, and, uh, I'm sure they don't mind because we've got some case studies on the website.
[00:10:50] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: But, just as an example, so we've got a South Texas FCU, and I believe that you guys let me know if I'm getting this wrong, they achieved a 51% quarter over [00:11:00] quarter increase in collections without adding any staff, which is huge.
[00:11:06] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And they also, at the same time, we're able to automate their outreach. Which really allowed their existing team to focus on more, you know, high priority accounts while still managing rising delinquencies, right? That never changed.
[00:11:19] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So, hearing directly from them, being a part of these sort of case studies, this process to me is just, it's a huge win, and I just, I love, I love seeing that success.
[00:11:29] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Another example I want to give is the Atlantic FCU. Anthony Merrill, the CEO over there, really cool story, in their first month, I think they paid for the entire annual fee of Lexop. In their first month of using the service.
[00:11:44] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So the, the rest is just, I'm excited to see what happens for the next couple of months because talk about starting off with, with a bang.
[00:11:52] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So the, the client success stories, seeing everything in action now, being part of these quarterly business reviews and really [00:12:00] learning from our clients to see how we're changing their process. To me, that was, that was just a huge win and a massive highlight.
[00:12:05] Michael: Agree.
[00:12:06] Michael: Shout out to Gerardo Paz, the CEO of South Texas Federal Credit Union. Lily Migas, who's the vice president of collections there. Two phenomenal leaders who lead that organization really, really well.
[00:12:16] Michael: Same thing. Shout out to Anthony Mero of the Atlantic Federal Credit Union. We actually met with him yesterday. What a great guy. Just terrific. And we may be, uh, Twisting his arm so that he is one of those new podcast members that join us in 2025. And so we'll be able to hear from him, which I think he's, uh, he's agreed tentatively.
[00:12:34] Michael: So sorry, Anthony, I'm putting you on the spot. We're, uh, I think you'd like to say that you have to do this now.
[00:12:39] Michael: Sasha, I'm going to flip it to you and bring in the, uh, the last team highlight.
[00:12:43] Sasha Bordonaro: Yeah, so definitely for me, client wins are definitely something that we're super, super proud of everything that we've done this year. But I think something for me has definitely been the in person.
[00:12:53] Sasha Bordonaro: The conferences that we've gone to the relationship building we've done. It's tied into a lot of those wins.
[00:12:59] Sasha Bordonaro: Same thing, like it's [00:13:00] tied into the podcast, being at a conference and having somebody come up to me that I've never met before saying, "hey, I saw you on the podcast" or, you know, just, just that feeling alone of the trust that we've built with our clients.
[00:13:12] Sasha Bordonaro: And then, you know, last month, or actually in October, um, I had the pleasure of speaking at Shift. So that was a huge, huge win for us. Very happy to be able to speak to a lot of different credit unions.
[00:13:23] Sasha Bordonaro: Some of our clients being there, some new faces there, and just the open arms, you know, like, for anybody who doesn't know, I have a huge fear for flying and I was going to that conference completely by myself and I was greeted with complete open arms and it was, it's, it's constantly been such a pleasure.
[00:13:40] Sasha Bordonaro: Every conference we've gone to and every relationship that we've built. And I'm super excited for 2025 to keep doing that and keep doing those in person events, because as much as I love doing virtual meetings, there's nothing like an in person event and really being able to spend time with our clients.
[00:13:55] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And I'm going to give a huge shout out to the three of you, because you guys hit the road [00:14:00] hard this year, and really just brought Lexop to the people. If there was a Credit Union Collections Conference, we were there. We probably gave Mike a microphone and had him up on stage, but you all just literally knocked it out of the park on conference season this year, so thank you to the three of you for that.
[00:14:16] Michael: And I'm going to give a couple of shout outs to a couple of organizations and apologies if I'm forgetting any, we loved every single one that we went to.
[00:14:23] Michael: But I'm thinking of Mark Avalar, who helped create that event in South Texas for the Magic Chapter Valley. Where it flips back and forth between Corpus Christi and McAllen in Texas. He did an outstanding job.
[00:14:36] Michael: Then I think of Chris Benson, who was the president of UCC, who started off their inaugural event, who Shannon Stewart helped plug us in there.
[00:14:43] Michael: And I think of C. U. C. P. Jamie Saunders, and Alisha Blundell, who helped us come through and where we're going to be attending next year.
[00:14:50] Michael: And Joel Bowen at C. C. U. C. C, um, you know, for their annual event that just took place in Palm Springs that are going to come back.
[00:14:57] Michael: And can never forget N. W. C. U. [00:15:00] C. A. Uh, where they're going to be celebrating their 50th next year. And we were around for the 49th.
[00:15:04] Michael: And I know we did a ton of others, but those are just the ones that, you know, pop out to mind very, very quickly where the amount of work that goes into putting together those conferences, sometimes it's very easy for the vendors to just write a check and show up.
[00:15:19] Michael: But there is so much blood, sweat and tears and effort that comes between the organizing committees. Just a huge thank you to all the events that the ones that we don't attend to, to the ones that we do. Just a terrific job.
[00:15:30] Michael: I think, I don't think that there was a single event this year that, you know, we turned around said "wow this sucked." Let's not do this again next year I think we're all trying to figure out how do we do more of them throughout the year.
[00:15:40] Michael: So kudos to everybody that I just mentioned.
[00:15:44] Michael: My team highlight, I am definitely going to be in the thankful mood given that we're on the eve of Thanksgiving, to the three of you. The growth that we've had over the two years, personal and professional, has been amazing.
[00:15:56] Michael: I think our group, has become so tight. Uh, I am [00:16:00] grateful to the three of you every single day. It goes beyond work, uh, and it may sound cheesy to say, but it feels like family.
[00:16:08] Michael: Uh, and it certainly feels that way, not just between myself and you guys. But between yourselves, I think you have also created such a tight bond with each other and that is something that I hope, you know, goes on for forever more.
[00:16:23] Michael: I, uh, I don't want it to go away and, uh, nor, nor should anybody want family to go away and that's how I see you guys.
[00:16:30] Michael: So a little teary eyed and a little mushy before we get to some other stuff.
[00:16:33] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Thanks, Mike. The feeling, the feeling is mutual. I don't want to speak for all of us, but it is definitely mutual.
[00:16:38] Michael: it better be.
[00:16:39]
[00:16:39]
[00:16:40] Sasha Bordonaro: I agree, apart from when you put me on a plane and I have a seizure and nobody coming with me, but apart from that, the feeling is mutual.
[00:16:48] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Definitely mutual.
[00:16:50] Michael: All part of your growth. And with that, we should just mention a very happy birthday to Laura's dog today. Uh, Chadwick.
[00:16:56] Sasha Bordonaro: Happy birthday, Chadwick!
[00:16:57] Michael: Yeah, exactly. He's part of the crew.
[00:16:59] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: [00:17:00] Happy Birthday to your dog.
[00:17:00] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Thank you.
[00:17:01] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: He's part of the crew.
[00:17:03] Michael: He's definitely part of the crew.
[00:17:05] Michael: Well, let's, let's get to the fun part here, where we get to make a couple of predictions for 2025. This is always the tough part. This is where we'll step out on a limb. We'll make a couple of predictions of saying this is what we think is going to happen in 2025. And we'll live or die by that prediction. Sometimes we'll get it wrong. Sometimes we'll get it right, but this is going to be the fun part to see what we feel is going to come out in 2025.
[00:17:28] Michael: And so we'll reverse the order again, Sasha, I'll lead with you. What is your first prediction for 2025?
[00:17:36] Sasha Bordonaro: So, I think for me, and this originates from the SHIFT event, where we talked a lot about financial literacy. Um, really targeting Gen Z and, you know, as a millennial, I've seen over the years how financial literacy has become so important in so many different aspects. And I think credit unions are focusing more and more and more on that, knowing that they need to go after that younger demographic. [00:18:00] Knowing that they have to be able to educate them before they can bring them into the credit union.
[00:18:05] Sasha Bordonaro: And I think it's so important because that education is not necessarily always great when it's online. And I'm an addict of social media. I'll say it out loud. And I'll tell you that a lot of that information sometimes is false.
[00:18:17] Sasha Bordonaro: And I think credit unions are now making a point for 2025 to get in front of it and make sure that they're putting out those programs, that they're educating their youth and allowing them to then get those loan products within the credit union because they now know what a credit score is and they now know the importance of a mortgage and they now know all of these things because credit unions are getting in front of it.
[00:18:36] Sasha Bordonaro: So definitely my 2025 prediction, is that financial literacy will be a point in every single credit union to make sure that they have programs in place for their youth.
[00:18:46] Michael: Yeah, well said. I hope the finfluencer, you know, kind of demographic comes from financial institutions and not.
[00:18:54] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: TikTok.
[00:18:55] Michael: People that have no idea what they're doing. Yeah, I mean, you could release it on TikTok, but I [00:19:00] mean, it's got a terrible track record for the Finfluencers in terms of their annual performance over the course of the year.
[00:19:07] Michael: And if that is somebody's first experience and it's a negative one, how open are you to doing it again? And that is just going to lead to a bigger gap of financial illiteracy where people don't understand interest rates. Um, things like the, the overall economy.
[00:19:21] Michael: That is not going to lead to a good outcome for the next generations in terms of saving, um, you know, overall or using credit effectively.
[00:19:30] Michael: Good, good point, Sasha. Jordan, I'll flip it to you.
[00:19:33] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Yeah, so I think, uh, on my side and coming from a bit of a background in the recruitment space and specifically with within technology, I would say that we're going to see or credit unions are going to see continued. Uh, labor market challenges.
[00:19:46] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And so, in 2024, they call it more of I guess you can say a more of an employer's market. So it was more of an employer's market in the sense that credit unions, uh, did have options or had more options in terms of the candidates that they were [00:20:00] able to bring on board. It's going to be challenging now for credit unions because we're sort of seeing a shift there.
[00:20:04] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And now 2025, I do believe based on what we've seen, is going to become more of a candidates market, meaning it's going to become even harder to find, for example, collectors, because now they're going to have more options.
[00:20:15] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And so, how do you sort of attract that talent? And then once you have them in place, how do you retain them? And Laura kind of touched on this in terms of, you know, reducing burnout and really improving that overall job satisfaction.
[00:20:28] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And it's really going to be allowed by leveraging technology, which means leveraging more automation to handle more of those, the routine tasks, the, you know, sort of being able to free up the teams to perform more high value activities if you want to call it that. I think that shift probably you're going to see even more, uh, in, in 2025.
[00:20:48] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So, technology is definitely going to be, uh, be the key or, or play a big part in that.
[00:20:53] Michael: Totally agree, and I know your hesitation where, you know, all credit unions are going to always prioritize the member experience and [00:21:00] all of them are valuable. But there is a difference between, uh, transactional and strategic activities that are taking place, right? Like checking up a balance on the account doesn't exactly need a face to face, you know, meeting between credit union member.
[00:21:13] Michael: And in fact, that is a negative member experience. Just give me what I want when I want it. Then when we need to have that conversation, you have obviously the channel that is there.
[00:21:22] Michael: And so that's a, it's an excellent point that you're bringing up, because I think if there are continued struggles on the employee side, you are going to continue to have a gap in terms of FTE to perform the activities that are needed, which means that member services are lower than what they should, and so if we want to plug that gap, sometimes technology is the right move for that in order to be able to keep that wheel spinning, you know, really, really well. And encourage more members to join, right?
[00:21:52] Michael: And that's, uh, that's the bottom line. Really great point.
[00:21:55] Michael: Laura, we'll, we'll, we'll move it over to you. Prediction for 2025.
[00:21:59] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: I mean, [00:22:00] I think the trend of mergers is going to continue. I think that's sort of inevitable looking at the landscape right now, but on the flip side of that, I think we're going to see a lot of interesting projects and initiatives. Smaller credit unions are going to take on to try to stand out and to grow their membership, without having just to grow through acquisition.
[00:22:21] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So, I think technology is a really great equalizer in that. I think if we rewind the clock even just five years ago, a lot of the tools that are available now, two smaller credit unions that are affordable to them, were only just for the big banks, or the very, very, very large credit unions.
[00:22:38] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So I think seeing how technology has, again, a different price points, but there are now options for even small credit unions to offer really fantastic digital experiences to their members.
[00:22:49] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: I know when I walk around the trade show floors at some of these conferences we go to, there's really incredible products that are available throughout that member experience from origination all the way through to [00:23:00] collections, where again, these smaller credit unions can become really competitive with their much larger peers, thanks to the affordability of some of the tech that's out there.
[00:23:07] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So I'm really excited to see both in terms of where the smaller credit unions are deciding to invest. Um, seeing where the fintech ecosystem is kind of stepping up and in often cases, you know, putting together packages for these smaller credits, making sure that they have the tools that they need to stay competitive, stay in the market.
[00:23:24] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And I think it's going to make it really interesting.
[00:23:26] Michael: I totally agree. I think we're definitely going to see a continued movement of mergers and consolidation both on the vendor side as well as on the credit union side. I think that is going to be a trend that continues. I also am an advocate, that for the life of me, I cannot understand why, you know, people continue to have national banks like the Cities, Wells Fargo, you know, Bank of America.
[00:23:48] Michael: Sorry to those organizations, but not really. I don't understand why everybody isn't part of credit unions across the board from coast to coast in the United States, um, because of the activity that they have in the community. And [00:24:00] it's a member owned institution as opposed to a profit driven organization. And so, I can't fathom why that trend will not reverse itself. And perhaps it may.
[00:24:10] Michael: My prediction for 2025 is going to be a little bit different. I think my prediction for 2025 is that we are going to see the collections arena become highly more targeted with scaling outreach to the demographics of members. Partly through the use of things like generative AI or otherwise, in terms of scaling templates, and you can start with a more manual process to that.
[00:24:35] Michael: But I'll give a great example for those that are listening. If you have a member who has a car loan that is delinquent for $750, that is 30 days in arrears, and you have a member who is 25 years old, $750, 30 days in arrears. Do you send the exact same template?
[00:24:53] Michael: If your answer is yes, well, do you speak to a 55 year old the same way, with the same language, in the same [00:25:00] tonality, as you would with a 25 year old? And the answer in real life is no.
[00:25:04] Michael: So then why would your templates be the exact same? And that is a gap. And so those are some of the things that vendors including groups like Lexop shameless plug are going to be really beating the drum on in 2025. We were beating the drum on communicating to members before the grace period had come through.
[00:25:24] Michael: And I know that when we were first starting to beat that drum in late 2022, early 2023, we were looked at like we were crazy. I think almost every credit union now engages in some communication to that. I don't know if we can claim victory with it, but I mean, it makes a heck of a lot of sense as does the example that I just mentioned.
[00:25:42] Michael: And I think what we're going to see towards the end of 2025 is everybody is going to be, you know, looking at it that way. So I don't know if I can claim it, but I'm certainly going to make a prediction that that is going to be far more utilized, um, you know, for every credit union department that has a collections team that is going to be [00:26:00] trying to scale outreach and trying to pinpoint to make it more effective.
[00:26:04] Michael: Kind of like the emoji example that you used, uh, Sasha. We've been doing this for a little while and we see the results and now it's time to push, you know, that piece.
[00:26:12] Michael: So I'm confident we can get there.
[00:26:15] Michael: As we come towards the end, uh, I'd love to get actionable takeaways, uh, from each one of you. If, uh, credit unions are listening to this, um, you know, what is the actionable takeaway that you would love for them to, uh, to pull? And I, I can't even remember where we started. Who did we start with? Was it Laura or Sasha?
[00:26:32] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: I believe it was Sasha.
[00:26:33] Michael: Did we start with Sasha? All right. So.
[00:26:35] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: And your first question, we started with Sasha.
[00:26:37] Michael: Yeah, you're, you're up first. Actionable takeaway. Tell me what you got.
[00:26:41] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Oh, geez. I would probably say if you're not already, it's you got to be texting. We've seen all the studies across the board. People are using their phones for absolutely everything. It is the primary communication channel. It's how they want to be receiving their bill. They want to be reminded about their bill and it's how they want to be able to pay their bill.[00:27:00]
[00:27:00] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Um, so I know there's sometimes there's a lot of concerns about, you know, phishing or members feeling comfortable with it. You have to start. There's ways you can start in a way that feels supportive to your member base, education campaigns, things like that, getting your teams trained up properly, understanding all of the opt ins and the compliance issues.
[00:27:19] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: It's a bit of a big project to start if you're not already, but it has to be done because it is the most essential way to be communicating with people for 2025 and beyond. So this right here, we're texting.
[00:27:31] Michael: Yeah, leverage technology, make it frictionless, digital first payment options, text to use, absolutely. And anybody listening to this, if you ever want to engage in the philosophical question of, does your, do your members need to opt in, in the collection space? I would love to engage with you guys because you do not need the opt in because it is an announcement.
[00:27:52] Michael: It's information that is being sent. You're not soliciting a services and happy to go toe to toe with anybody on that one. I think I'll, [00:28:00] uh, I'll have a lot of fun with it.
[00:28:01] Michael: Jordan, you're up. Actionable takeaway, what do you think?
[00:28:04] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: I don't want to sound repetitive guys, but for me it's know your metrics big time. What is your cost of loan servicing is probably going to be one of the most important things you're going to need to sit down and figure out if you don't already have that information. Um, because that's when you can make more smarter calculated decisions, but it's also just knowing your metrics in general.
[00:28:23] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So using things like more predictive analytics, maybe more, or I should say credit unions can really anticipate member needs and proactively address delinquency risks, right? Beforehand.
[00:28:34] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: So knowing your metrics, what is your cost of loan servicing, are you using analytics the right way, and if you're not, do you have a partner that's sort of going to guide your hand to make sure that you're making smarter decisions together.
[00:28:45] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: That for me is probably going to be one of the, uh, the main points.
[00:28:49] Michael: Yeah. And just to put it in perspective, if anybody listening to this doesn't know their cost of loan servicing, there was a report that was issued through McKinsey that, uh, highlighted, uh, the, the cost [00:29:00] to service a performing loan for credit unions, regional banks, and the majors. Uh, comes out to roughly about $175 per year. The cost to service, a non-performing loan.
[00:29:12] Michael: And this is not the, just the collection of payments, just the cost of service them is nearly $2,000 per year per loan, uh, across the board. That is a wild statistic. Now, multiply that by the number of non-performing loans within your portfolio, and you can see the annual cost just for those. Um, and so that I think is knowing your metrics and where to turn the dial in order to help, you know, the profitability of the portfolio as a whole.
[00:29:36] Michael: Great point, Jordan. Sasha, how about yourself? A takeaway.
[00:29:40] Sasha Bordonaro: I think I'm going to beat this drum a little harder in terms of really focusing on that education piece. I think my big takeaway is really to stand out as a credit union, and I say this because I've seen some of, you know, my smaller credit unions be able to really make a difference within, you know, their specific state when it comes to community engagements, when it [00:30:00] comes to, um, any sort of education first is really how they're, they're really standing out in the market.
[00:30:07] Sasha Bordonaro: So I would say that's, that's definitely my big takeaway. Um, but again, to Laura and Jordan's point, it's so important to know your metrics. That's something that we, we, we live by. Um, and that frictionless text is also something that is super, super important. So, I agree with all of the points and I think it's so important to make sure that you're doing a variety of things.
[00:30:26] Sasha Bordonaro: So, um, you know, because it's not just going to be one thing that's going to make that change. It's not just going to be the text. It's not just going to be the metrics. It's not just going to be the education. It's going to be a combination of things. That's really going to help you stand out as a credit union.
[00:30:37] Michael: Yeah, well said. Well said. Well, guys, we're coming up to the closing. I'd love to reflect a little bit on Lexop's 2024, you know, growth and alignment. There were a lot of credit unions that joined the Lexop, you know, family, uh, in 2024. And we know that there's many more that are going to be joining us in 2025 and expanding our partnerships.
[00:30:59] Michael: I do [00:31:00] want to make a quick shout out to just Allied Solutions. They have been a massive partner for us, and not just on the business side. There are so many wonderful relationships that we have cultivated over the last couple of years with Allied that even on a, on a friendly basis, It's just fun.
[00:31:18] Michael: And, uh, sometimes when you learn that if somebody is, uh, sick or out of the office for a little while, we all rally and send text messages to the individual to make sure that they're, uh, well spirited or send Uber eats so that they have a little food to eat.
[00:31:31] Michael: Shout out to Elaine Cahill for that. Uh, we have a lot of fun there. But there's so many people. John Delucia comes to mind, uh, where he has been absolutely, uh, integral to the, the growth of this and Holtzman of that group, Rob Hagemeyer, uh, group. My God, Aaron Heckert. I'm missing a number. There's too many to name. There's like.
[00:31:48] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Angelo for sure.
[00:31:50] Michael: Angelo Martinez, my god. Who started down this journey with us originally. My God, I can go on and on with like 40 different people there. Uh, just such a, [00:32:00] such a great group of people to work with. And, uh, we're incredibly thankful for it.
[00:32:05] Michael: What I am excited about is moving to a podcast of two a month. Uh, over the next year, which means we get to have interviews with a lot more credit union professionals and those that are helping to serve the group. Uh, and I think we'd love to hear more from the listeners.
[00:32:19] Michael: I think what we're going to do is create some sort of a feedback loop, like a, add your comments or things like that, where, you know, we'll take suggestions or what is it that you want us to explore or talk about, or if there are individuals.
[00:32:31] Michael: That we should be reaching out to where you want their voice heard. I would love to start creating a little bit of that community where we're giving you something that you're looking for. I think that would be pretty cool.
[00:32:40] Michael: Sasha, I see you smiling ear to ear. I know that this is definitely something that you have passion with as well as you, Laura. Jordan, you and I think are a little bit more of the, the we're voluntold what to do.
[00:32:52] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Let's not talk about it.
[00:32:53] Michael: Yeah, exactly. But maybe before we close out. Yeah, it'll be, it'll be fun.
[00:32:59] Michael: Before we [00:33:00] close out, maybe just one final parting comment from each one of you guys for 2024, 2025, um, before we do this. And so I'll start with you. Uh, Laura, we'll go you first this time.
[00:33:13] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: I'm just gonna say again, thank you to all of you on this call. It's been a really interesting year. I think just seeing the growth of where lockstop was at the start of the year to where we are now. Seeing us go from, you know, more so a newer player in the space to one now that we're being invited to speak at things. Um, you guys walk into the conference halls like rock stars.
[00:33:35] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Everyone knows you so i'm just so so proud of the growth that You all have kind of developed for both your personal brands, um, you guys are all mini Linkedin influencers now. I could not be more proud of all of you.
[00:33:48] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So, you have been a marketer's dream in terms of just really becoming not just salespeople, but subject matter expertise, really diving into the world of credit unions, the world of collections, [00:34:00] plus the whole fintech space and really bringing it together in a way that helps credit unions, collectors, solve their challenges. And feel good about it and making collections something that's not icky to talk about, but something that can be interesting, it can be engaging, and it can be something that's a lot of fun.
[00:34:17] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: And that's all thanks to you guys, so.
[00:34:19] Michael: Awesome.
[00:34:20] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: More claps for the team.
[00:34:22] Michael: Well said. I don't know if that reputation is a good one or a bad one. It, uh, I don't know. I don't know if, uh, yeah, but when we walk in the room, they certainly hear the Canadians coming out. Sorry.
[00:34:33] Sasha Bordonaro: The loud.
[00:34:34] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: We'll include some, uh, some party snapshots of a few conferences in the episode notes. I know there's some pretty good theme nights you guys partake in.
[00:34:43] Michael: So true. Jordan, how about yourself?
[00:34:45] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Yeah. I mean, just to echo what Laura said, I am super grateful and I know very good timing with Thanksgiving, for this team, for you guys. Laura, I'm going to throw it back over to you also, just the work that you've done on the marketing side. I mean, this, this machine cannot work [00:35:00] without you. So thank you for all the work that you've been doing.
[00:35:03] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Um, you're, you're amazing. And especially since, you know, a lot of this has been event based. Laura's been the one going out there diving into the events. Who are we meeting with? What's going on? Is this a great fit for us in terms of the event itself? Um, so that's been, that's been fantastic.
[00:35:18] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: I love going to these in person events. I love being able to meet with our credit union clients. And even if they're not clients, just meeting credit unions in person goes such a long way. I mean, it's great to do all this stuff through video, but nothing will ever replace the in person interactions that we have. So I'm just super grateful that I had the chance to go to the shows that we went to.
[00:35:39] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: I'm excited to go to even more in 2025. That's, that's what I'm really looking forward to, is connecting with everyone.
[00:35:45] Michael: Sasha, how about yourself? That was a well said Jordan.
[00:35:48] Sasha Bordonaro: Very well said. I think for me, it's to Laura's point, the personal and professional development, uh, that I've been able to go through. I can now scratch on [00:36:00] my map of all of the different states that I've been to this year.
[00:36:02] Sasha Bordonaro: And huge shout out to you, Mike. Uh, you've pushed me in different ways. I've had the pleasure of working for you for many years. It's definitely been a huge year for me in terms of meeting the different individuals that I've met, allowing me to grow, allowing me to be in a position of, you know, being scared, uh, but at the same time being comfortable with being uncomfortable in different situations and just knowing that everything we're doing is alleviating other people's pain.
[00:36:32] Sasha Bordonaro: And I've worked in multiple different sales organizations, having the team that we have, you know, it's very rare that I get to have a teammate like Jordan that even though, you know, sales people compete, you know, like, I am so grateful to have, you know, like Jordan on the sales team and being able to go to him for anything, and being able to communicate whenever we need each other, like the four of us have been extremely strong and I'm super, super, super grateful for that.
[00:36:57] Sasha Bordonaro: There's not a single person here that would have been [00:37:00] able to get to where we got to, you know, if one of us was missing. So Ninja Turtles forever.
[00:37:03] Michael: I agree. I agree.
[00:37:05] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Sasha, I'm going to give you props because you delivered one hell of a keynote at the SHIFT Lending and Collections Conference. It was a wild deck. There was a ton of data and you just blew it out of the water. Um, so super proud of you. And again, just a great way of showing how well you've represented Lexop, Jordan, you too, Mike, you too.
[00:37:26] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: So again, so proud of everyone.
[00:37:28] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Let's just keep going, guys. Let's make this hour long podcast.
[00:37:31] Michael: Little, it makes me
[00:37:32] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Hour and a half. Hour and a half.
[00:37:34] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I think to myself my takeaway is going to be maybe along that lines of the reputation. I love that we are the first ones on the dance floor, to help the party start. I love that we are the first ones to volunteer for karaoke, uh, despite the terrible voices that we've got singing.
[00:37:50] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Well, Sasha, you were pretty good. Jordan and I, I think need to take some lessons. Laura, I would love to get you to more of these things. Uh, I know that we've done a couple of events together, but we need to [00:38:00] do a lot more. and I think that, that, it, it just makes it fun.
[00:38:03] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And if there's anything that I think the Luxop crew has been able to, uh, to kind of put in is that it's the work hard, play hard mentality as cheesy as that sounds, but it's true. There's, uh, there's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes, but, uh, yeah, we like to, we like to enjoy ourselves as well. And I hope that continues for a long time.
[00:38:21] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: thank you to all three of you guys. A big happy thanksgiving. I know this is releasing in december. So happy holidays to everybody listening to this regardless of what it is that you celebrate.
[00:38:32] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: I hope you spend a lot of times with your family, your loved ones, your friends. I hope everybody is healthy and happy. And I hope that that carries over into 2025. Because I think it's going to be a very interesting year.
[00:38:44] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: And not to get political into this, I think it is going to be a year that has a lot of change. And where that change will land, I think only time will tell. But I think the group of us here are committed in, know, analyzing what that change is [00:39:00] reacting to it in a proactive manner and working with every single person that we meet order to make sure that it's the right outcome.
[00:39:06] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Thank you to the three of you, Laura Chambers, Jordan Greenberg, Sasha Bordonero. Thank you for, for joining and join us next time guys in 2025 as we bring in the new season of Connect and Collect with Lexop. And we'll be moving to two podcasts per month, uh, which is, it's a tall order, but, uh, we've had a few requests, so we're going to give it a shot.
[00:39:28] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: We're going to see.
[00:39:29] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Let's do
[00:39:30] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Happens and what, yeah, let's do it. let's see what goes on.
[00:39:34] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: This was fun.
[00:39:35] Michael Pupil - VP of Sales, Lexop: Thank guys, Happy Holidays.
[00:39:36] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Holiday
[00:39:37] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Thank you.
[00:39:37] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Happy Holidays
[00:39:37] Sasha Bordonaro Collections Specialist, Lexop: Happy Holidays.
[00:39:38] Laura Chambers - Marketing Director, Lexop: Bye.
[00:39:39] Jordan Greenberg - Sales Executive, Lexop: Take care.
[00:39:40] Thank you for listening to the Connect and Collect podcast. Find show notes and other resources for this episode at lexop.com, and if you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe, like, share, and comment.
