Balance in “The Force”: Operations vs. credit union member services

Calling all Star Wars fanatics. With the Last Jedi being released December 2017, you no doubt have wondered if this next installment will finally shed some light on the prophecy of the chosen one, the one who is (or was) to bring balance to the force. “A prophecy that, misread, could have been.” While we still have yet to know if Vader was the chosen one, or if the one has yet to be revealed, we do know one thing for certain. In order for the galaxy to find peace, there must be balance, in this case, between good and evil. The same can be said for the success of your credit union and finding balance between operational efficiency and quality member service.

How can you find this careful balance? Here are few pieces of guidance from your CU High Council:

Your Members and Technology should be symbiotic

C3-PO and R2-D2 are clearly valuable players in the Star Wars universe, but as droids, they are there to improve the experience of the humans, not to take over the leadership roles. The same applies to your CU technology. Efficiency ratio is the key metric when it comes to measuring a technology’s effectiveness. It tells us how much operating expense is needed to create each revenue dollar. The lower your efficiency ratio, the better. But, sometimes in trying to reach this lower, “more efficient”, level, we sacrifice quality in the hopes of making our operations leaner. This is where CUs need to find balance between forces. Technology should not only increase efficiency but also increase member satisfaction.

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