Your Word-of-Mouth Litmus Test: Do You Make the Cut?

by Ron Daly 

Kelley Parks is what they had in mind when they came up with the idea of a "go-getter". Shortly after leaving Call FCU, she founded her own consultancy called gira{ph} (the pronunciation of which I've been corrected on multiple times - it's just "giraffe", like the animal, it's not a trick or anything). She's written some great articles and made some waves by talking about what, exactly, makes an initiative stand out for a credit union. Recently, in an issue of the CU Journal, she shared what she calls her "litmus test" for word-of-mouth. According to Kelley - 

1. Is it engaging?
2. Is it true?
3. Is it relevant?
4. Is it fresh?
5. Is it memorable?

are the five questions you need to ask . If the program/plan you want to implement meets these criteria, you can bet they'll get people talking. 

Some great initiatives I've seen in recent years that meet these criteria: 

Shell Federal's iLife

Shell Federal in Deer Park, TX has a program to get people involved with the credit union. One of the programs they took on was Cell Phones for Soldiers, which provides cellular services for soldiers overseas. They collected a lot of prepaid cells and minute cards so soldiers could call home and they've engaged members in a way that's fun, relevant and lasting. 

Belvoir FCU Scavenger Hunt

Belvoir FCU in Woodbridge, VA teamed up with CodeGreen to create a web-based scavenger hunt. Members went to the site to browse through the pages and find the "slices of life" pie pieces - which increased viewership and time-on-site for Belvoir and far exceeded their marketing goals. I think this worked so well because A) everyone loves games and prizes, but more importantly because B) it makes the Internet feel like it used to - a fun place to browse around and discover. 

NARFE Premier's Onboarding Program

NARFE Premier FCU in Alexandria, VA started an on-boarding program that increased deposits by 24% and increased loans by 190%. More importantly, it cut their costs by 50% by year end. Why? Because the promotion highlighted all the points of Kelley's litmus test: 

1. Engaging members that just came to the credit union
2. True content, current rates, the values of the credit union on show
3. Relevant to members because NARFE serves a niche community (retired federal employees and their families) and the content reflected their needs and concerns
4. Fresh look (they'd recently rebranded after a merge) and fresh content (rate changes reflected month-to-month)
5. Memorable because an on-boarding series sends an email every few days/each week/twice a  month to members to keep you top-of-mind on services. 

Do your plans and products cut the mustard? Ask yourself why or why not and then take Kelley's advice. 

Happy Birthday, Mobile Phones! What Do You Get for the Phone That Has Everything?

by Ron Daly 

This month marks the 38th anniversary of the first mobile phone call. Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee (below, photo via thenextweb.com), stood on the street with a gigantic (by today's standards) cellular phone and had a conversation. And in 38 years, we've come a long, LONG way. 

The phones got smaller, they got more functionality, and they went from being a convenience to a "necessity". I'm not one of those people that sleeps with his phone under his pillow at night, but my iPhone is my GPS, my on-the-go email inbox, my research assistant and, occasionally, my phone. It's a businessperson's tool, and the thought of going back to waiting for all my "get it done" information is a little frightening. I'm not alone, obviously. From Kottke: 

Once someone has an iPhone, it is going to be tough to persuade them that they also need to spend money on and carry around a dedicated GPS device, point-and-shoot camera, or tape recorder unless they have an unusual need. But the real problem for other device manufacturers is that all of these iPhone features -- particularly the always-on internet connectivity; the email, HTTP, and SMS capabilities; and the GPS/location features -- can work in concert with each other to actually make better versions of the devices listed above. Like a GPS that automatically takes photos of where you are and posts them to a Flickr gallery or a video camera that'll email videos to your mom or a portable gaming machine with access to thousands of free games over your mobile's phone network. We tend to forget that the iPhone is still from the future in a way that most of the other devices on the list above aren't. It will take time for device makers to make up that difference.

When it comes to credit unions, mobile might be one of the next big mountains to climb. Many CUs aren't running a fully capable website right now...how can they be expected to come up with a useful mobile app for a smart phone? And more importantly - how important will that be in a member's decision to stay or a potential member's decision to join? 

Some very insightful information on mobile apps and credit unions: