I was fortunate enough to attend this year’s CUNA Government Affairs Conference (GAC) in Washington, DC. Someday I’ll probably tell my kids “I was there when it was all going down.” I literally stood a few hundred feet from the White House the same week President Obama was preparing to deliver his first budget proposal to Congress. With the severity of the current economy, it literally felt like standing at the crossroads of the world.
Just up the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, credit union executives from across the country gathered last week to ponder their own economic fates. U.S. Central, the largest corporate credit union in the United States, had recently announced investment losses large enough to require intervention. And just like the United States looked to taxpayer dollars for economic recovery, the National Credit Union Association (NCUA) weighed a financial assessment on credit unions to support U.S. Central and the failing corporate credit union structure.
All of the people I spoke with at the CUNA conference agreed: the NCUA’s Corporate Stabilization Program will have a significant impact on the credit union world. The assessment will hurt profitability. More importantly, there was significant distress that the assessment amount had not yet been defined. There will be a cost to every credit union, but no one knew exactly how much or how many times credit unions will be asked to contribute.
At some level the challenge facing credit unions is the same challenge we are all facing: How can we do more with less? Whether our incomes have gone down or our expenses have gone up, spending decisions are now integral to the survival of our organizations. Even though I don’t have an answer to the corporate credit union crisis, I can suggest one way to “do more with less” and it comes from a personal experience.
While on a business trip to Portland, Oregon last year, I stopped at a small deli for a bite to eat prior to meeting with a CEO of a local credit union. As I stepped up to place my order, I noticed a small stack of business cards on the counter. The cards were from one of the credit union’s lenders who I was about to visit who undoubtedly provided services to the deli. Seeing my interest in the cards, a woman behind me leaned over and declared: “That is the best credit union in the whole world!”
What’s significant about this experience is that the credit union received free marketing from a person who had an obvious emotional connection with their organization. And the truth is, every organization has customers like her. They are out there, and they love your company. To borrow a term, they’re “engaged” with your company. If you ask them, they’ll be happy to tell you why they feel the way they do and what influenced them so strongly. If you can get more of them (the same way you got the first one) you can generate more and more of this kind of free marketing.
This kind of viral marketing is not only free-it’s ridiculously effective. Allegiance conducted a study last year and found that 19% of “engaged” customers recommended their bank to an average of 4.1 friends-and 23% of those friends actually switched banks! Your mileage may vary from industry to industry, but what a great way to acquire customers with very little incremental spending!
My experience at the deli have left me wondering: What would happen if the U.S. Government borrowed a page from the credit union playbook.
Terence Fugazzi is the VP of Demand Marketing at Allegiance (http://www.allegiance.com). His company provides Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) solutions that help organizations grow and increase profitability through improved customer and employee loyalty and engagement.
