Augeo FI held its first Partner Advisory Council (PAC) meeting in mid-November and through its critically acclaimed feedback, it certainly won’t be the last. Set at Hotel Indigo in downtown Naperville, Illinois, near the company’s corporate office, some of Augeo FI’s brightest clients and partners were brought together to collaborate on developing and delivering industry leading innovations.
The council’s purpose is to assist in providing effective, real-world insights into what products, services and partnerships Augeo FI as a company should develop to validate its relevance to stay competitive in the market. Mike Knoop, Chief Executive Officer of Augeo FI, is humbly grateful to have recently completed the first PAC meeting. “Our hope in preparing for the PAC meeting was that our clients and partners would come together in a collaborative way where open dialogue and information sharing was paramount,” he says. “Feedback from those in attendance is that we hit the mark, which is very exciting to hear.”
“Congratulations to Mike and his team for an excellent event,” says Ian Pinkerton, Assistant Vice President, Business Innovation, at Redstone Federal Credit Union. “As participants, we had access to the Augeo FI leadership team and learned firsthand what the innovation and product roadmap will look like over the next few years.” In addition, Pinkerton appreciated the industry-wide perspective provided by VISA and The Wise Marketer.
During the council’s meeting, a Product Innovation seminar was led by VISA’s Doug Rappoport alongside Augeo FI’s Chief Product Officer, Mike Moss. They covered market focus with information and trends driving the loyalty market, client needs and development focus. Participants were inspired to innovate, rethink old strategies and continuously strive to be better. “As a credit union, we are always looking for the best possible products and services for our members,” says Pinkerton. “I will take the knowledge I learned from Augeo FI, industry partners and other participating financial institutions to improve Redstone’s product offerings.”
Bill Hanifin, Chief Executive Officer of The Wise Marketer says, “It’s so important to be inclusive with customers and clients and the PAC was a great example of how to exchange information, strengthen relationships and spark new ideas.” Hanifin felt energized with all the discussion of customer focused marketing ideas the group had. “In my opinion, the financial services industry is engaged in a period of regeneration in terms of customer marketing.”
Knoop believes the success of the meetings, was a combination of the Augeo FI team developing such a solid agenda of compelling topics coupled with the content being delivered by some experts from the industry. Sessions were interactive with varying views, he shares, yet all centered around how the market should use data to better understand the consumer behavior and work to tighten the affinity between the individual cardholder and their issuer as a way to advance the engagement. Methods discussed included the market’s desire for immediate gratification through real-time personalized engagement strategies all tied to relevance to the individual cardholder’s preferences. “The team is quickly gathering feedback from those in attendance and have already started to think through how to ensure the next PAC session is even more successful,” says Knoop.
One of the greatest benefits of attending the PAC meeting for Pinkerton was learning how other financial institutions are competing and carving out a niche in the card space. In addition, Pinkerton left this event with knowledge about new products from Augeo FI and is excited to capitalize on Augeo FI’s expertise to strengthen and grow Redstone’s product lineup.
For this first meeting, the council comprised of nine representatives from financial institutions nationwide and Augeo FI is looking to add more in the upcoming year. Other members joining Pinkerton included: Adam Cannon of UMB Bank, Thomaz DeMoura of Digital FCU, Matt Farrow of Mountain America Credit Union, Paul Hinrichsen of GTE, Todd Lindemann of Redwood Credit Union, Alex Lane of Northwest Federal Credit Union, Jeff MacMillan of Affinity Federal Credit Union and Nic Peterson of Affinity Plus. Augeo FI’s Partner Advisory Council is set to meet multiple times in 2020.