Bum in the seat

Last week my Twitter account was overflowing with insights into what was the 2014 World Council of Credit Unions Conference in Australia (#WCUC2014).

Much of the discussion was generated towards the digital era, and more importantly for credit unions, the discussion on digital community. As the world continues to move towards the need for more convenience/automation in less time, the delivery channels of credit unions will need to continue to evolve or we will all fall behind to our competition. The challenge will be, as many have said, is how can credit unions continue to provide the level of trust and financial advice/service expected by our members in a forum that is most efficient to meet their needs in an environment that will see greater competition than we have ever seen before?

Let’s just say it’s a work in progress.

What we can fix today is complacency, both our own and our members.

Like many of you, our credit union uses call lists as a tool to connect with our members. Whether it’s contacting the member on a term deposit set to mature, or a renewing mortgage, calls are a great opportunity for all of us to re-engage our members in their financial well-being. Unfortunately at times I feel like we provide a disservice to our members where they just want to renew the term deposit over the phone, and we allow them to do that, without talking about what this means for their retirement plan, or if they are concerned at all that they may not be on track with their retirement.

For our branch, we measure our staff based on “Bums in the Seats”. In every contact we make with a member, we track how many appointments have been generated from those calls that allow us to have an informed discussion with our member on whatever financial decision is currently in front of them.

With whatever digital realm we decide on that allows us to best serve our members, we must ensure that we are providing the tools necessary to ensure complacency is not hindering our members in reaching their financial goals. Whether a financial decision discussion takes place face to face in the brick and mortar of your credit union, or by using technology that allows us to visually have the discussion with our member while they sip coffee on their deck on a beautiful summer day, we must ensure we’ll always have the opportunity to get the bum in the seat.

Devin Selte

Devin Selte

Devin Selte is a 15 year veteran in the credit union industry all with Servus Credit Union. On top of his position as Branch Manager in Stony Plain, he is ... Web: www.servus.ca Details