It’s a Chimed Life: Bringing our member obsession to life with Chimetacular 2023

“It was the first time we ever brought Chime members to our office,” says Chris Denina, who goes by ‘CD’ (he/him/his). “Before, we would always talk about being member-obsessed and share quotes from our members, but Chimers outside of member-facing teams never got the chance to meet and get to know them.”

CD is talking about Chimetacular, during which we brought several Chime members to our headquarters in San Francisco. Chimetacular — the biggest internal celebration of the year at Chime — is an event to recognize Chimers who live our company values and leadership behaviors and to thank them for their hard work and contributions to our company.

This year, we decided to make Chimetacular even more spectacular by making it a celebration of both our members and Chimers. The result was, well, Chime-tacular. We sat down with three Chimers who helped make it happen — CD, Karla Liwanag (she/her/hers), and Javier Zamora (he/him/his) — to learn more.

Bringing members to Chimetacular

When CD was working with a Chime exec on their opening remarks for our first all-hands meeting of the year, they included several mentions of doing more with Chime’s members. “I put in a placeholder, calling 2023 the ‘Year of the Member,’ and it stuck,” CD says. Later on, as he and Karla were planning Chimetacular, they discussed how to incorporate the year’s theme — and landed on bringing members into the office to meet Chimers. “Inviting Chime members to be a part of our Chimetacular celebration tied in seamlessly with the work Chime has been doing all year,” Karla chimes in.

The goal of bringing members to the office for Chimetacular was simple: To get to know them as people, rather than members using the products we build. “When we first started brainstorming what a day spent with our members might look like, we talked about asking them what they think of Chime’s products…but quickly scrapped that idea,” Karla says. “This was about more than just their banking app — it was about getting to the heart of who they are as people.”

Members who were invited to participate in Chimetacular were asked to share their stories, ambitions, and dreams. “We wanted to give our members a platform through which to actually connect with Chimers as people,” Javi says. “For a long time, members have only gotten to know Chimers through our marketing and user experience work. This was a way for members to connect with Chimers more meaningfully — and for Chimers to get to know the humans we call our members.”

When it comes to Chimers, the team hoped folks would walk away with a renewed sense of purpose after meeting members IRL. By putting real people behind the term we use every day — ’member’ — they wanted to inspire Chimers to draw the connection between their work and the real people it impacts.

“Our members are the human beings behind the numbers and quotes Chimers see on slides and dashboards daily,” Javi says. “We wanted to put faces, stories, and memories to those numbers and quotes for Chimers to think about.”

Creating a memorable member experience

For the members involved in Chimetacular, the team’s biggest goal was to provide a memorable experience. “We wanted it to be a day they’ll never forget — for them to share their stories and know how much they matter to us at Chime,” Javi says. The team took care of every detail, from travel to accommodations, food and dietary preferences, and tried to make them feel as special as possible.

“We wanted to make sure Chime member Smiley, a tattoo artist, felt comfortable telling her story,” Karla says. “We gave her the reigns to create her own presentation — there was no specific way we asked her to show up, and she was creative with designing the session she led for Chimers, making it genuine and true to who she is.”

Members who attended were invited to the full day of events, from skits by our founders, Chris and Ryan, to being interviewed and playing Chime’s Dollars and Sense card game, every part of Chimetacular was full of unfiltered insights and fun with our members. For Chime member Rozan, meeting execs was a highlight of the day: “[Chime’s execs are] totally cool and down-to-earth people, and it was so nice to see how engaged they are with the employees, sadly you don’t see that very often these days,” she says.

Members also played in our Chimetacular game show, one hosted a breakout session to share how they think about growing their business, and another participated in a live This Chimerican Life episode.

“The Chimetacular event was beyond what I imagined,” says Chime member Maysan. “It was a fun-filled day with nothing but positive energy from everyone present. As a Chime member, I felt very special and appreciated by all the Chimers.”

All the member feels

“After Chimetacular, we kept hearing how much Chimers loved meeting our members,” CD says. “I can’t count the number of times Chimers said, ‘We have to bring them back!’”

This year’s Chimetacular did more than instill a renewed sense of purpose in Chimers — it set a precedent for all Chimetaculars to come as a member-obsessed day. “This was just the first time we brought our members in, and we’re ready to make it bigger and better next year,” Karla says.

And for members, there were feels too: “I left the event feeling very motivated and inspired to focus on my finances and elevate my business,” Maysan says. “I also felt even more proud to be a Chime member after meeting Chimers who genuinely care about putting members first.”

Ultimately, our members make Chime the company we are — they are the spectacular part of our story. “Making our members feel special and seen was a huge accomplishment, and it’s just the beginning of our efforts to do so,” Javi says. “Chimetacular set a whole new bar for our member obsession — and we’re here for it.”

For Chime member Andre, who joined for the day, the day was about being heard and accepted. “Chimetacular allowed everyone to understand we all have a story to tell and within those walls we all felt safe and loved,” he says. “It meant the world to me. The Chime team literally helped me see a vision within myself that I couldn’t see.”

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