New Members: Investing in Core Competencies

Do you remember your first time you stepped into a credit union? For me it was about ten years ago when my wife had asked me to visit the “bank” with her. We went to this small branch office stuck on the end cap of a strip mall.  I had never even heard of a bank in a strip mall. Inside as we were filling out the deposit slip I saw that the  savings account was not called a savings account but was a “share account” .  I  held up the deposit slip and asked my wife, “What kind of weird bank is this place?” to which she replied it was a credit union. To her that explained everything.

Since that time not much has changed as I have seen many people search for understanding of what is the difference between a credit union and a bank.  This task has become more difficult at times because credit unions themselves seem unable to clearly articulate the difference to their membership. Even during the Wall Street melt down of Big Banks I have seen credit unions  advertise with slogans extolling how they are some type of better “bank” or that they offer “better banking”.

This loss of message is a sad reflection of some of our own internal  understanding of what makes us different from banks.  A deep seated understanding of what separates member owned credit unions from stock owned banks is a mission critical item. Let me explain before you dismiss this as sentimental propaganda.  From a practical business perspective one of the first steps to attracting and retaining members is to identify the value proposition we offer the member.  Then once you have indentified the value proposition you have to invest in the core competencies needed to meet that need. For many of our members there is a real need to trust the financial institution they do business with. This is due to the high levels of mistrust people feel for Big Banks and Wall Street.

Yet, many of these new members who walk into a credit union experience the same type of welcome I did all those years ago. They pick up a  new member application and then get told they need to deposit five dollars into a “share” account.  They are herded through the process and soon find themselves new members of that  “weird bank” with the great auto rates.  All the difference in jargon simply gets lost in translation and the member walks away without a clear understand of the value you have to offer them.

The opportunity to educate the member has to start with making sure that new member service representative on your platform has a real understanding of what it is that their credit union has to offer that new member.  Not only should the member feel great about the auto rate you were able to get them but they should also walk away feeling different because of the experience itself.

Most credit unions will never have the deep pockets of a Big Bank. That means the investment in core competencies is at the person level. It is one person feeling excited that someone else has discovered the real value of being part of a cooperative financial institution. That excitement is something that people are not used to experiencing in large impersonal Big Banks. It is that excitement that turns a monetary transaction into emotional transaction that resonate with that person restoring their trust. 

Practical Application:

How well is your staff able to articulate what makes you different from the Big Banks?

Does your staff help new members understand the difference and help insure that terms and concepts are not simply lost in translation?

Can you quantify how you have invested in core competencies that push forward your value proposition to your membership ?