3 Things Your Credit Union Can Learn from Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber’s Baby” has become the highest-certified single in music history, overtaking Sir Elton John’s tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales. However, the teenage star has been in the news more frequently because of his behavior, rather than his musical talents. After a flurry of scandals over the past few months, Bieber has been defending himself from accusations in the press.

Here are three ways your credit union can leverage enterprise content management (ECM) to avoid negative press and make your members “Believers.” (For those of you without young daughters, devoted Bieber fans are called Beliebers.)

  1. Exceed Expectations – Members are at the heart of every credit union’s purpose, but you don’t have to have a pet monkey – yes, Bieber really had a pet monkey he left at a German airport – and some sweet dance moves like the Biebs to wow them. From branch visits to Web site hits or even stops at an ATM, you can use ECM to make a difference to your members by giving them what they want faster and more accurately – sometimes even before they realize they need it.  ECM – also called document management – ties together disjointed, cumbersome processes and systems across your credit union. With ECM, you stop the paper deluge by capturing, accessing and storing it electronically, so you have time to make a difference to your members. By using ECM, you share information across departments and branch offices and automate low-value, repetitive tasks. With instant access to information and processes that are faster and more accurate, your staff has more time to focus on bringing better service to members.
  2. Reduce Risks – He has 8.5 million instagram followers but Bieber’s recent bizarre behavior puts him at risk to alienate his extensive fan base. Your credit union can maintain its loyal membership base and reduce risks by decreasing the opportunity for misplaced documents or files. By not imaging loan files, servicers run the risk of information and documents becoming lost in the shuffle. To mitigate this risk, you can set up an indexing strategy to automatically attach keywords, or metadata, to all documents and files. Capture and indexing capabilities enhance the searchability of databases and files because it ensures everything is saved correctly and can be easily found using agreed-upon search terms, such as member number or last name. Multiple search words not only mitigates the risk of human error when naming files, but also increases file accountability across the credit union while enhancing communication among employees and between branches.
  3. Have a Backup Plan – Like Bieber has backup dancers, your credit union definitely needs a backup plan. Storing business-critical data on paper leaves credit unions vulnerable to data theft and/or natural disasters. Paper can easily be forgotten on someone’s desk, incur damage or be destroyed completely, necessitating the need to create multiple copies of loan files. Not only is this “back-up” system inefficient, it also makes theft much easier. If you have three to four copies of a loan file, will you notice if one goes missing? Probably not.

With ECM, credit unions of all sizes are able to image, store and manage documents in a way that suits the individual business need, ensuring greater document security and increasing efficiency.

The next time you hear the latest Justin Bieber drama; think about what your credit union can learn from his mistakes. Putting your biggest fans – your members – first and improving your processes with ECM will ensure they give you a standing ovation instead of booing you off the stage.

Michelle Harbinak Shapiro

Michelle Harbinak Shapiro

Michelle Shapiro has more than a 15 years of experience in the banking industry to her role as Financial Services Industry Expert at Hyland Software. Her mission is to share ... Web: www.onbase.com Details