The First "Duh of the Week" of 2013 is One for the Record Books

by Ron Daly 

Ever bite down on your tongue while you're eating a lemon? It's a double-whammy of pain. There's the acidic burn of the lemon juice and the "yow that smarts" of cutting your tongue with your teeth. The thought of it is enough to make you wince. 

It's one of those blunders that you could have avoided in a few different ways. For one, stop eating lemons, you weirdo. For two, chew more thoroughly. You've got no one to blame but yourself. 

The first "Duh of the Week" has a lot in common with this twofer of pain - it's something that could have been avoided and it's easily the stupidest combination of dumb ideas I've ever heard.

A Portland-area teen...

1. drove home drunk from New Year's Eve, then 
2. told everyone about it on Facebook.

What a dumb move. For starters, he drives home drunk (under-aged, mind you), hitting TWO PARKED CARS in the process. As if that wasn't enough of a bonehead move, he POSTED ABOUT IT ON FACEBOOK, complete with a little winky-face emoticon. 

If you have young people in your home, now's the time to have "the talk" with them.

• Sit them down. 
• Tell them you love them. 
• Explain that if they need a ride, you'll come get them, no matter the situation.
• Tell them they should never ride in a car with a drunk driver.
  
  And lastly...
• Gently remind them how hard you're going to kick their butt if they ever do something this idiotic. 

Drunk driving kills people, and when it doesn't, it can cause untold damage of another kind. The last thing your kids should ever want to do is drink and drive, and the second-to-last thing they should ever want to do is brag about it on a social network. 

Kudos to the thoughtful Facebook followers who informed the police and got him booked for his idiotic crime. Maybe now, he'll be sending a status update: 

"In jail :( Not as fun as I though it would be..."

Are your employees behaving resposibly on social media? Is the person in charge of your Facebook account making the right decisions?  How sure can you be about all that? Time to start that long-awaited social media policy, maybe? Maybe employees can use "the talk", too.

Comments always welcome. Happy 2013 to everyone!

It's "American Pickers"…only the stuff's pretty worthless.

by Ron Daly 

 I like "American Pickers". I'm a big yard sale guy and I love the idea of getting a big return on a junky little find. One man's trash is another man's treasure, after all.

Unless it's just plain ol' trash.

We were cleaning out the office the other day and I discovered a few rare gems from a bygone age. Among them: 

Floppy disks! These little wonders used to be our way of moving files from one computer to another. Then, it was CDs. Then, it was thumb drives. Then, it was shared networks. And suddenly, these little springy disks just didn't cut the mustard. A little creative math tells us that a 2GB thumb drive holds as much information as 1,422 floppy disks. So why bother? 

Picked Price: ~$10 for a box of five in 1998

Current Value: Nuthin'. We don't even have a PC with a floppy drive anymore. 

Phone Books! Two of them. Yep, there are businesses that will still buy yellow page ads and there are still phone companies that will drive around and hurl these fossils out in giant piles. If you think there's anything sadder than an enormous stack of dead trees full of information no one really needs, think again - it could be raining on these piles, making them not only useless, but soggy.

Picked Price: Technically free, but I'm sure I'm paying for them some way or another.

Current Value: Diddly squat.

A big book on writing direct mail letters! And a heavy book, at that. For it's time, I bet this thing was a great value. But with the lack of attention people give letters anymore and the price of postage, this seems like an instruction manual on using your buggy whip. (Note: Yes, I know, I'm biased - but I'm a consumer, too, darn it. I don't give a lot of thought to direct mail pieces, other than whether to recycle them on throw them in the fireplace for kindling.)

Picked Price: Someone bought this in 1997 for $80, and it's in mint condition - we never even cracked the spine on this thing.

Current Value: I dunno...make me an offer. There are some interesting tips in here about writing, but you'll have to filter them through the past sixteen years of marketing changes.

___

So what have we learned from this? Time marches on. We make new discoveries, set new goals and meet them, and the old relics fade away in the process. Sometimes, they become treasure - there's a big-time market on old typewriters, watches, fancy pens, and anything that's both stylish and useful - even in the age of iPads and wi-fi. 

But certain things are junk, plain and simple. I can't imagine a world where artsy hipsters get up early on a Saturday morning to find old Zip-drives and printer cables. They served their purpose. Hopefully, they've been recycled. But I doubt it. Most of that stuff got swept out of an office that was being renovated, driven to a landfill and chucked into one big pile of mess.

When it comes to technology, awareness helps, as well as an aversion to attachment. Consumers are being educated to love the new and the now and to dislike anything that's a generation back. We update our technology not year-to-year, but week-to-week - "apps" have turned the industry of creating and shipping technology on its ear, letting everyday people get in on the game and create apps for the entire world to use. Computer companies are trying to make every generation of computer slimmer, faster, and more powerful than the generation prior. Why wouldn't you want the fastest, the best, the least-complicated version of anything? 

Why would you do business with a credit union or bank that doesn't make the everyday act of "banking" simple?

Are you going to be a relic? Are you going to be rubbish? Or are you going to be so important to the lives of your members that they'd never dream of throwing you out in the trash?

The strong survive, but the smart thrive.  

If you have comments, leave them here. If you need me, I'll be out in a barn, looking through old soda bottles and bike seats. The rich life, here I come!

The Crystal Ball: Will Fewer Credit Unions and More Technology Make a Better Industry?

by Ron Daly 

If you don't spend a few coffee breaks each week reading The Financial Brand, you're doing yourself a disservice. Jeffry Pilcher, One-Man-Journalistic-Juggernaut, does a great job breaking down the industry from either side - banks, credit unions, and beyond. Best of all, there's really something for everybody. Finance folks? Check. Marketers? Check. Fortune tellers? 

...wait, fortune tellers? 

Jeffry Pilcher has spent this past week showing us a glimpse of the future...and it might be a little scary for some. 

One article that's turned a lot of heads is "Credit Union Industry Outlook: 5 Years Back, 20 Years Forward". In it, Pilcher predicts that, at the current rate of retraction/"asset shift", half of all credit unions around today will be gone by 2032. The smaller credit unions are dying, hemorrhaging members and losing assets year after year. The larger credit unions keep growing, grabbing up new members and more assets and swallowing smaller credit unions. The bright side? Credit unions will continue to add members AND assets, growing into a stronger, if much smaller, force. Branch growth is slowing for the big guys, and is actually negative for smaller credit unions. 

Now, anyone can tell you the future is tricky to pin down, especially on only five years of evidence. But the reasoning behind Pilcher's prediction is strong and it's not impossible to imagine the industry going this way. Not disappearing, mind you - this isn't any indication that credit unions are dying/are dead. But things aren't looking great for "the little guy". 

I'm not a biologist, but I'm reminded of one of the important parts of evolutionary theory - "only the strong survive". It stands to reason that credit unions with billions in assets will be well set for the next two decades, but what of those with "just enough"? How will credit unions with only a few hundred million (or much less) keep their edge? 

Pilcher's second hum-dinger article of the week, "Killer Online Services Can Level The Playing Field For Smaller Institutions", talks about the relationships people have with smaller institutions versus the "big banks". The trade-off used to be convenience for high-quality service. The game changer, according to this article, is great online banking. The study mentioned in the article shows that online banking penetration for the CUs studied is 73% and that 85%  members surveyed rate their OLB experience as "excellent". 

Recall the first article mentioned in this post. If branches aren't practical to build and members are willing to do most of their banking online, shouldn't you have a virtual branch that really screams? Yes, yes you should. I've been saying as much for years.  

It's nice to hear someone else singing the same tune. Tim Bunch of CapEd FCU wrote a great guest piece on the Financial Brand about turning your online branch (mobile, browser, et. al) into your flagship branch. It's a brilliant article, written by a person who knows what they're talking about in the realm of online development because, hey, he's doing it first hand. His take:

Sadly, online banking doesn’t get the same internal treatment as a physical branch. It’s often something that we like to “set and forget”. It tends to be viewed as an inanimate object. We think of it like a hammer. When our members want to use this hammer, they pick it up and hammer away. But in reality, online banking has so much more potential. We need to stop thinking of it as a tool, and start thinking of it as a branch. Then, add the tools needed to make it an effective branch.

Some of the things Bunch thinks are critical in making the best online branch possible:

• Pre-filled loan applications
• Targeted marketing
• Easy account management/PFM

If I can add a few of my own?

• Switch kits that actually handle all the action of switching 
• Single sign-on to other services
• Wealth management tools/secure document storage and management

The crystal ball always shows a murky picture. It might be that more credit unions survive than predicted, it might be fewer. But what will all the survivors have in common? I'm betting they'll all have a strong focus on mobile and online convenience, a few helpful branches and a commitment to helping their members for the long run. 

Got an insight? Leave it for us in the comment section. 

BTD2012: Will It Happen, and If Not, Will You MAKE It Happen?

by Ron Daly -

Reports vary on how important Bank Transfer Day 2011 was. The 5th of November was supposed to have been the finish line of months of bank-switching and move-making. What came of it? 

According to a new Javelin study, not nearly as much as what might have been. Even though the NCUA and CUNA have speculated that 2011 brought in between 1.3 and 2.1 million members, respectively, Javelin's Mark Schwanhausser has called BTD "a bust". Even though the year saw impressive member growth (by CU industry standards), Javelin's study suggests that 11% of consumers are still eager to switch and some $675 Billion is still up for grabs in 2012...well, what's left of 2012, that is. 

So, when is Bank Transfer Day 2012? Is it needed? Could it happen again as it had before?

Ron Shevlin doesn't think so. From his blog: 

As far as I’m concerned, BTD 2011 was a passing phenomenon. A one-time shot. The pieces came together at a moment in time in 2011, and those pieces aren’t there for 2012. 

What pieces, specifically? An angry public, for one. People just aren't as incensed this year. They haven't had a "$5 fee-asco" like the Bank of America fee that kick-started the whole affair in 2011. Not to say the "Big-Banks" aren't charging fees - far from it. But there's no kick-start, no "straw that broke the camel's back" this year. 

Another missing component? A strong social media groundswell, created by an outsider, pushed on by concerned and eager fans and followers. You can't just drum those up out of nothing, they have to be hand-made by eager participants. 

And what about the insistance that "every day is Bank Transfer Day"? Yes, it's technically true, but are credit unions making the switch an easy one?

I was at an industry event a few weeks ago when someone insisted that "switch-kits" - the online walk-throughs designed to help people move their money - are "worthless" (their words, not mine). So, what's the key? Is there a snappy, easy way to get money from one FI to another and close accounts? 

And on the other side of the coin, there's a much bigger issue: member attrition. How many members that DID show up thanks to BTD are already gone? How many will we lose this year? If we keep sliding backwards, how will we ever get the growth we need? More startling, the fact that people itching to switch would be willing to pay fees for additional services...as much as $92 million. In FEES! Don't you see how important it is to not only offer "great customer service", but to offer sticky, useable products to back that up (as I discussed in my July CU Community article)? 

I can tell you this - if you're hoping another 50% member increase is just going to fall into your lap, you're dreaming. 

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? Four Good Ideas for Getting Locally Known

by Ron Daly 

[image via the Muppet Wiki]

It's time for you to take down that big, scary, Lex Luthor-esque map of the world you have in your office. You know, the one with all the big push-pins in it showing how you're going to take over the world?

If you're reading this, you're a credit union person. Global domination should be off your agenda. Why?

1. It's a tad bit frightening and we're not necessarily a terrifying bunch.
2. It's impractical
3. It's improbable

I've seen credit unions with extra-inclusive fields of membership. I've seen credit unions that have branches in far-flung corners of the globe. But let's be realistic - where are you?

Where Are You? 

It's a big question. For years, we were trying to puff ourselves up to seem big and impressive. Now, we need to recognize that "local" isn't a bad thing - it might be our saving grace. 

Many CUs are repositioning at this moment, trying to remind locals that they have alternatives to their community banks and the big banks. "If you live, work, or worship..." covers a lot of ground, so get out there and show people what you're doing in, and for, that area. 

How? Here are four "good start" ideas: 

GUEST POST: Mark Arnold on Becoming Your Members' PFI

Mark Arnold, CCUE, is an acclaimed speaker, brand expert and strategic planner. Mark speaks regularly to audiences around the country on branding, marketing, strategy, leadership, personal growth and generational issues.  With over 20 years experience in the financial services industry, Mark’s breadth of knowledge covers areas such as marketing, business development, human resources, training, and sales. You can follow him on Twitter [@jmarkarnold] or via his blog at blog.markarnold.org. 

_______

 

BEYOND A SAVINGS ACCOUNT: BECOMING YOUR MEMBERS PFI

“Credit unions must see themselves as relationship managers. As relationship managers, credit unions better position themselves to become members’ primary financial institution.”

—CUNA E-Scan 

While there is a big rush today to get more new members, one marketing strategy your credit union may want to focus on is getting more from your existing members. Most marketing experts estimate it is eight to ten times easier to expand a relationship with a current member than it is to acquire a new member. Just think about it: what would happen if every one of your members just added an additional product or service per household? Odds are, your net income would skyrocket.

Credit unions must get their members to go beyond just having a savings account and strive to become their members’ primary financial institution. “Financial institutions that make retention one of their top three priorities often enjoy deeper relationships, steadier growth and clearer focus on the core business,” says CUNA’s E-Scan.

According to CUNA, here are the odds of your credit union losing a member based on product usage:

• 2 to 1 of losing a member if they only have a saving account
• 10 to 1 of losing a member if they have savings account and a checking account
• 20 to 1 of losing a member if they have savings account, a checking account and a loan
• 100 to 1 of losing a member if they have savings account a checking account a loan and any fourth product

Product penetration and member retention are directly linked together.

Two steps your  credit union can take to going beyond just having your members’ savings account are:

1)      Offer relationship pricing

2)      Get sticky products in their hands

Still don't have a social media policy? Bet you'll write one after this...

by Ron Daly 

Yeah, I know. You're tired of getting poked and prodded and constantly reminded that you need to hurry up and implement your social media policy. After all, you don't even use Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or Pinterest or FourSquare or...whatever else there is. How important could it all be? 

What if an employee was shooting videos of your member's feet? 

You balk. That's ridiculous, you're thinking. What kind of person would go around shooting videos of people's feet? 

A credit union employee, that's who. From the Financial Brand:

The Financial Brand first learned about this series of shocking and offensive videos when one popped up on an automated Google Alert for “credit union” + “YouTube.” Someone under the YouTube handle marajohn1123 had posted an odd video of a female credit union co-worker’s toes. When a similar Google Alert was triggered for another video, this time of a member’s toes, it was clear that a credit union somewhere had a serious problem with a serial voyeur.

Presently, there are over 100 videos of women’s feet, all shot spycam style without the knowledge and approval of the victim. Based on information revealed in the videos, the videos were likely shot in and around a suburb of Atlantic City.

The credit union employee appears to be a loan officer or similar member service rep, but that doesn’t stop him from leaving his desk to film members’ toes at the branch ATM.

This is a gross abuse of trust. The emphasis in that last passage is mine - Jeffry Pilcher did a little detective work around which credit union might be employing this voyeur. He's narrowed it down to a few possible places. I'm hoping at least one employee there has the intelligence to figure out who this might be and bring this to the attention of the management. Because where does it stop? 

Think about it for a minute. Most of the videos in that story appear to be shot on a smart phone. What happens when it's not feet they're recording, but credit card and debit numbers? Checking account numbers and balances? Still not seeing a problem? 

I don't want to dismiss what's being done here - taking video of someone without their knowledge is wrong. Add to that the fact that these are being used to feed a fetish (one assumes), you're talking about not only a breach of trust, but serious damage to the CU's reputation. This employee should be fired, full stop. 

"On what grounds?", you ask. 

And THAT'S why you need a social media policy. Now. Today. 

As Jeffry said in a comment further down on this same post: 

If you don’t have one yet, this kind of situation should illustrate the gravity of need. If an employee posted something that you wouldn’t want on social channels — not necessarily stuff as bad/potentially illegal as what Marcus did, but bad just the same — a social media policy can give your organization the legal leverage you need to deal with the problem swiftly and without complications.

But where to begin? This article from Credit Union Magazine is a great resource to get you started. Their list of best practices covers a lot of ground. 

• Define social media usage expectations clearly in your policy;
• State that employees may only access social websites consistent with the credit union’s security protocols (i.e., they may not circumvent information technology security protocols);
• Educate staff on the risks of exposing confidential information about their employer, other employees, volunteers, and members;
• Monitor social media use via credit union resources;
• Outline expectations for reporting policy violations;
• Enforce policy violations in a nondiscriminatory manner;
• State that retaliation for reporting violations is not tolerated; and
• Define personal off-duty use of social media. For example, supervisors should not “friend” their direct reports due to the potential sharing of personal information.

A word on the "monitor" part of that equation - the employee who was shooting these videos was, as I said above, most likely doing this via smart phone. That doesn't use the credit union's data network - that's technically external use. If you aren't watching out for threats internally and externally, you're doing yourself - and the members who might be at risk - a disservice. 

Click here to sign up for a free webinar on social media monitoring.

Guest Author Marvin Umholtz: Stop Feeding the Strategic Crocodiles Snapping at CU Heels

The following strategy-focused overview candidly dissects the challenges and risks that are dangerously snapping crocodile-like at the heels of credit union leaders.  The mere fact that there is so much change going on and so much change that could go on in the 2012 to 2013 timeframe makes credit union’s reluctant to take major strategic steps when significant energy and resources might be demanded to manage through these unprecedented challenges.  Although potentially unsettling for those who like easy answers, this overview’s’ fundamental premise is that today’s credit union leaders must thoroughly understand what they are up against and mitigate it.  Credit unions aren’t paranoid if malignant forces are truly out to get them!  Use this overview as a discussion-starter at the next Management Team or Board of Directors meeting. 

Strategic Macro-Trends Affecting 2012:

• Today’s political, legislative, and regulatory risks far exceed the traditional operating risks – credit, interest rate, liquidity, transaction, compliance, strategic, and reputation.  The crushing regulatory burden exacerbated by compliance’s escalating cumulative complexity now drags on the credit union business model and threatens its future viability. 
  
  
•  The polarized Congress and the gridlocked legislative environment that results cause strategic uncertainty in financial services regulation, mortgage finance, and the economic recovery.  The November 6, 2012 elections could lead to a massive macro-directional overhaul of the federalgovernment.  That added ideologicaluncertainty makes scenario planning and financial modeling difficult at best – perhaps impossible. 
  
  
• Many credit union officials claim that the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board has been relentless in imposing its interventionist agenda on credit union decision-makers.  On a regular basis the NCUA Board demonstrates through its policy directives, supervisory edicts, rulemaking, and enforcement actions that its priorities too often stray from an emphasis on safety and soundness toward micro-management and counter-productive social engineering.  However, the biggest burning question – How much is the corporate credit union crisis resolution going to ultimately cost? – remains unanswered.
  
  
• In addition to its own pre-disposition to re-regulate credit unions, the NCUA is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s(CFPB) statutory mission to examine for and enforce additional complex and costly requirements on credit unions.  The NCUA is destined to become a branch office of the marketplace-controlling CFPB enforcing a “level playing field” of fewer consumer choices and limited credit availability.
  
  
• The global economic situation has not been this troubled in decades.  The U.S. Federal Reserve System Board of Governors has promised to keep interest rates at unprecedented lows through 2014.  Only slight improvements are expected in overall economic growth and employment over the next several years.  Consumers will continue to focus on deleveraging their debt and limiting their spending.  The federal debt continues to grow and the political inability to deal with demographically unsustainable entitlement programs embeds more uncertainty into the fiscal dynamic.  The wearying margin-less economic situation obstinately refuses to go away.
  
  
• Additional strategic hot topics: net worth expectations, capital access, deposit insurance reform, moral hazard, too-big-to-fail, systemic risk, loan portfolio mix risks, charter conversions, prepaid cards, consumer activist groups, financial literacy, credit union service organizations, participation loans, partisan political polarization, and many specific credit union-identified hot topics.  
  
  

Key 2012 Strategic Takeaways:

1.     Fundamentally Different Decade Ahead.  The next decade will be fundamentally different – economically, competitively, demographically, culturally, and politically – from the preceding decade.  Using the same strategic approach to the financial services marketplace as in the past would be insane.  The economy in particular is expected to inch its way along impeding everyone’s business plan.  To keep the credit union’s metaphoric head above water, its leaders must fully understand the prevailing undercurrents that radically impact on strategy.

2.     External Risks > Internal Risks.  External risk factors – especially political risk, regulatory risk, and complexity risk – will have more impact on a credit union’s strategic success than will internal factors.  What one does not control will exceed what can be controlled.  Get used to it – uncertainty and how well it gets incorporated into strategy is critical to a credit union’s successful operation.

3.     Federal Government Not Friend.  The Congress, the National Credit Union Administration Board, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Reserve Board have their own political agendas and are not a credit union’s friends.  Don’t let them fool anyone into thinking otherwise.  Instead, expect them to keep making things more difficult.  Treat their increasingly costly, complex, and burdensome demands with deference – but validate, verify, and when appropriate challenge their directives.

4.     Ultimate Stabilization Costs Unknown.  Regardless of whether the NCUA Board’s loss estimates for the corporate credit union legacy assets are realistic or not, the Board sets the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund(TCCUSF) assessment based upon those estimates and they drive the credit union’s costs.  Nobody knows for certain how deep the multi-billion dollar TCCUSF hole really is or how long it will take to pay it off.  Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

5.     Industry Infrastructure Fractured.  As a direct result of the 2008 financial system meltdown, the current credit union industry’s legacy infrastructure – including its in loco parentis regulators, non-risk-rated deposit insurance regime, and even its traditional trade associations – are showing signs of rust and structural weakness.  Proactive demolition and reconstruction of these faltering institutions sans dogmatic platitudes, entrenchedoligarchies, and one-size-fits-all approaches could go a long way toward restoring real return on investment for each increasingly diverse and independent credit union.

6.     Heavy Mortgage Loan Mix Untenable.  In the absence of a serious refocus of lending strategies credit unions are at risk of becoming the next Savings and Loan debacle.  Collectively credit union loan portfolios are dangerously loaded with low-return fixed-rate mortgages.  Many credit unions also rely heavily on originating and selling to the secondary market that is currently in flux due to the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the glaring absence of any private market investors, and Congressional proposals that could radically reduce the demand for mortgages.  It’s an accident waiting to happen that credit unions must anticipate and avoid.  

7.     Non-Bank Competition Toughest.  Big banks, community banks, thrifts, and even other credit unions are not a credit union’s biggest competitors.  Big box retailers, insurance companies, payday lenders, and other non-banks are running circles around traditional federally insured financial institutions and it will only get worse because most of the non-banks’ offerings are convenient, uncomplicated, and consumer-friendly.  Credit unions, and especially Congress and regulators, should learn from these competitors’ successes rather than try to stamp them out.

8.     Boomers & Seniors Rule, X & Y Drool.  Aging baby boomers constitute a major portion of credit union memberships and along with many seniors dominate credit union boards of directors.  Generations X, Y, and the very young will not be a credit union’s salvation in the near term no matter how hard they try to attract those smaller demographic cohorts.  Each credit union needs to find out what their existing baby boomer members want and find a way to profitably give it to them.  Neglecting boomers could be fatal to the institution’s bottom line.

9.     CU Business Model Threatened.  The traditional low-cost, high-service credit union business model seems increasingly at risk from its cumbersome governance structure, limited access to capital, reliance on loan and investment income, legacy modest means mission, innovation-killing hyper-regulation, and inadequate products and services authorities.  Credit unions desperately need additional ways to generate income, broaden service offerings, streamline delivery systems, and generate scalable growth.  The credit union business model will need to evolve in ways that will make the traditionalists uncomfortable, but the alternative is stagnation.  Credit union leaders must proactively advocate this business model evolution since it won’t be simply handed to them. 

10.  Urgency for Change.  Lead, follow, or get out of the way.  Credit union elected officials and management executives that are unwilling to be drivers of change should seek early retirement.  The future belongs to credit unions that are committed to and intensely involved in change.  A change management skill-set and a sense of urgency will be required if a credit union wants to emerge unscathed at theother end of the coming decade’s strategy-altering uncertainty-laden gauntlet.

 Have questions/comments for Marvin Umholtz? Leave them in the comment section below. 

Everybody's Reviewing It! Why Gen-Y Depends on Other People's Opinions Online

by Ron Daly 

Ah, Gen-Y - the "El Dorado" of marketing demographics. People are hazy about where they are, what they do, and the richness of the treasures they possess. And after about five years of hearing how critical it is to win over the Gen-Y crowd, we get a little insight into how they buy and behave with their money.

One of the critical things a business (or credit union?) must do, according to a study done by Bazaarvoice, is point Millennials to user reviews (which they describe as "user generated content", or "UGC"). The opinions of other online users of a product or service weight heavy, particularly with regards to electronics. They're more eager to hear from people with "relevant experience" and they're three times as likely as the Baby Boomers to ask for people's opinions on a social media network. 

Why would the opinion of someone a Gen-Yer has never met mean more than their real-world friends and family? Well, in the real world, maybe not. If someone runs up to you on the street and screams "BUY AN iPHONE!", it might not make you break out your wallet right then and there. But when Bazaarvoice means "stranger", I'm pretty sure they mean a "reviewer". And what does a review have? 

• A star rating - Quick and easy. If there are five possible stars and three of those stars are filled, that's a metric. There are typically a row of those stars followed by a number in parentheses indicating how MANY people have responded/rated that product. If a product has four-of-five stars and a thousand reviewers, well, that product is probably pretty good.
• Short write-ups - A short review says a heck of a lot. If it's thoughtful and fully formed, it tells you the reviewer took their time and is a smart, well-informed consumer. If it says "Dis produkt is h0rrible, teh wackness"? That person's probably not so trustworthy. 
• A link back to more information - Some online channels will give you permission to see other things that reviewers have reviewed on that site. This helps you figure out whether a person is ALWAYS negative or just negative about the thing you want to buy. 

Online reviews are interesting and helpful because not only are you evaluating a product, you're evaluating its users. But you don't see a lot of online reviews on a CU's website, do you? At least, I don't. 

Why is that? 

According to that same study (presented in a friendly little infographic on this site), 29% of millenials won't make a decision about credit cards or insurance without feedback from other users. Maybe more important: 

"Most Millennials say companies that include customer feedback on their websites are "honest" (66%) and "credible" (53%). "

Pretty great first impression, right? Think that could work for CUs? Who's willing to start this out? We know of a few CUs over on Facebook that let Facebook users review their products, but who's going to up the ante and include a place for reviews on their actual website? Is some CU out there already doing it? 

And before you go on about how you want to manage all your content and control every aspect of your "online presence", consider that over six hundred thousand people in the US moved their money in the past three months and attributed that switch to Bank Transfer Day, an online event that largely happened TO credit unions, not BECAUSE of them. 

Food for thought. 

Want to "review" this article? Have some insight? Talk to us in the comment section. 

 

 

Go Ahead, Stay Under the Covers - the Monsters Can Still Get You.

by Ron Daly 

A while back, the credit union Twittersphere had a conversation about blog comments and whether a blog is really a "blog" if it doesn't allow any feedback. 

"A blog without comments is still a blog, it's all about frequency of posting," some said. "A blog without comments might as well be a static web page," said others. Good examples on either side, but my question was always, "why block comments?" 

So...why block comments? I think I know why. It's because someone might say something bad. 

I've heard a lot of hubbub about "negative feedback" in the past five years. With the emergence of social media and the acceptance of blogging as a medium, people immediately skim over all the basics and jump right in on asking, "What if someone says something negative?" 

What if, indeed? 

The Monsters Are IN the Bed 

The idea of "monsters under the bed" isn't new to any parents out there...we've all had to check for them at some point. We know the truth, but if it makes our little ones feel safer? Sure, we'll check. We'll put in a nightlight, or we'll buy an extra teddy bear. We'll make sleep possible and, hopefully, lasting. 

When the "monsters" are not monsters but are instead an unsatisfied member? Don't worry about them being there or not being there. They're there. There IS a monster there, not under the bed, but in the bed. The question is, do you want to DEAL with the monster or PRETEND it isn't there? 

I think the term of choice for bloggers/social media managers/marketing people who consciously ignore bad feedback or go out of their way to hide it is "tone deaf". I also think there's something really sad about wanting to "go after" commenters or social media users who say something negative. Want to see where that gets  you? Read this story about Boners BBQ attacking someone for leaving a bad Yelp review [ABC News]. 

And while we're on the topic, what about social media from INSIDE the workplace? "We don't want people saying anything that might make us non-compliant!" 

And you manage that...how? Turning off social media? You turn off social media on their network, that's not going to stop anyone from doing something anti-compliant from home or on their phone.

"What if they complain about the credit union or our members?" So, let me get this straight - that's something you DO NOT want to know about, AT ALL? 

Monster Resistant, Not Monster Proof

The truth about business is, you'll never make everyone happy. You'll make some people really happy, you'll be fine with a lot of people, and you'll get a couple of folks good and angry. Getting the angry folks back on your side isn't a matter of just throwing money at them - sometimes, complaints and gripes are solved through careful evaluation. 

Let's run this down: 

• The complaint is anonymous and full of cuss words - Probably not something you need to burn a lot of energy working on, as it's just some punk playing with your comment fields or being a jerk on Twitter or Facebook. Moving on...
• The complaint is angry, but seems to be about a genuine problem and has an email address attached - Why not reach out to that person via their email and ask them more about the problem? For every one of these complaints you get, you're probably not hearing several more; this complaint might actually solve a problem you've been overlooking.
• The complaint is addressing a very specific problem, relative to that member - Then deal with it and follow up with that member, who will be VERY appreciative of your time and attention. 
• There are sixty complaints, all dealing with the same problem - Odds are, unless you are a top ten credit union with billions and billions in assets, you won't have enough members for this level of feedback. But if you find yourself dealing with a mob scene on your blog, figure out where they're coming from - who's got a good point, who's just gloming on, who's a defender of the brand. 

I think that's the worst part of the decision to completely block out feedback - this idea that you're holding back a tidal wave of negative people saying negative things. We've run this blog for about three years now and we've never had seventy comments to moderate at once. We do moderate, one comment at a time, and we post the ones that meet all our guidelines. Haven't seen our guidelines page? Here it is. Go look at it. That's been here from day one. 

As for social media, we take our own medicine - we use Social Sentry. It tracks social media usage on your office network, public and private, and also tracks public posts from users outside of the office all the time. When I, as the admin, see social media use I don't think is fit for the network, I intervene. When I see an account I want to follow, I follow that account and I get their public feed. I don't spend a lot of time worrying because I stay on top of things. Better than being in the blind, right? 

Managing the expectations and the reactions of members is easy. Just be clear, be consciencious, and be fair. When a problem arises, solve it. But don't think ignoring comments or completely disallowing them will stop people from talking about you. 

Be in charge of your repuation.