Rock & Roll for Credit Unions 7: If I Had a Million Dollars

I was recently talking to a friend of mine who shared an experience he had at his credit union. “I walked in last Friday and all of the staff were wearing t-shirts that said Ask Me How I Can Save You Money.” He proceeded to do just that. But instead of a response about how the credit union could save him money, the young staff person laughed at him and made some small talk. From a marketer’s standpoint I had to wonder, how much time and financial resources did this credit union spend on preparing this promotion?

It’s not limited to that one instance. Another friend of mine was telling me about her experience at a credit union. Her friend was a member and recommended she speak with them about a car loan. After opening her share account and getting a great rate on her auto loan, she never heard another word from them. They didn’t offer any additional products while she was in the branch getting the loan. Nor have they ever followed up to see how the car is. Staffers also didn’t ask if they could be of further assistance to her or her husband (say by transferring a credit card balance or looking at their mortgage to see if they could save them some money.) This is a fairly large credit union near me, with a marketing budget close to $750,000 a year.

These instances remind me of a song by the Barenaked Ladies that was popular in the mid-nineties, “If I Had a Million Dollars.”

While the lyrics are more aimed at romantic intentions, they offer very bizarre ideas about eccentric purchases they would make with a million dollars to impress their girlfriends. Some of the items listed in the song seem to mock the lavish and eccentric spending of the late Michael Jackson during the 1980s including exotic animals, the remains of the “Elephant Man” and a pet monkey.

Some financial institutions tend to have a very short-sighted marketing plan focused on media buys and the collateral for internal promotions with no thought about staff education. In either of those instances, if a small percentage of that marketing budget was spent on staff communication and education (note: NOT training) it might have made the difference. Instead, many marketing budgets (and apparently including the two examples in this article) are spent on the marketing equivalent of fancy Dijon ketchups, as referenced in the Barenaked Ladies song.

In the first instance, had the credit union properly educated the staff about the goals of the promotion, the member would have walked out with more products and services and had saved money. In turn, a happy member who is presented with an unexpected opportunity to save some money would be telling his friends and family about that experience.  That would result in other opportunities of growth for the credit union.

The second example is much the same.  However, the amount of money spent marketing their bare-bottom auto loan rates only to make a thousand or so dollars on that one particular auto loan doesn’t seem worth it. That is unless you’re taking the time to find other ways to help that member.

What’s the good news? It’s the same thing I tell my clients. “We can very easily be outspent by our larger competitors, but we will never be outworked.”

While many organizations and especially financial institutions spend money like a drunken sailor on traditional media, there are some folks running circles around them and they don’t even know it. My recommendation? Siphon a percentage of your marketing budget toward staff education. That doesn’t mean another sales trainer coming to your shop or a binder full of 300 great pages of sales training for your front line staff. It means simply taking the time to communicate with your staff about what’s happening in marketing and what their role is in it.

Bo McDonald

Bo McDonald

Bo McDonald is president of Your Marketing Co. A marketing firm that started serving credit unions nearly a decade ago, offering a wide range of services including web design, branding, ... Web: yourmarketing.co Details