Differentiate your credit union with both members and employees

In our previous articles we presented steps for creating a world-class culture at your credit union. In a couple instances, we alluded to the powerful dual impact an outstanding culture will have on both your member experience and employee experience. No other investment you make next year will have a more significant payoff on the future success and viability of your credit union!

An example of that dual impact is making the time to invest in your Statement of Differentiation. In the process of defining your Mission, Vision, and Values and identifying how employees need to live them day-in and day-out, many credit unions also define what makes them special, different, and better. It’s vital to creating a great culture and it’s vital in successful sales and service efforts. It’s what we call your MVV+ and is fundamental in our work with credit unions to create their cultural “way”.

In an increasingly crowded and competitive business landscape, answering the question, “How are we different?” is necessary for being able to tell prospective members and employees why they should choose you versus all the other financial institutions. Previously, you may have thought of differentiation as it relates to member acquisition (it is a vital piece of the sales process!) but not many have likely thought of it as vital to recruiting and retention of employees.

You have the same products and services, right? You can’t afford to be the price leader in every situation, right? You need to attract more and new business in order to grow and thrive, right? And you need to attract and retain top talent in order to support that growth, right? For all those reasons, you need a crystal-clear differentiation statement. Following are some critical ways to create one that’s perfect for your credit union:

Your employees have a unique perspective on your culture and what makes you different and better. Long term employees can share how they feel about the evolution and maturation of the credit union and what keeps them employed there.

But new and recent hires may have the most insightful perspective. They probably had a choice when looking for their job and had a definite reason for choosing you. What was it?! Further, they can speak to how welcoming the culture has been and how effective the credit union has been with their onboarding efforts.

Ask all employees to think about how you compare to other businesses they have worked at—what do you do that makes them feel positive and proud about your credit union? All employees can also compare their experiences to what they hear from family and friends about their employers. In the end, you want to identify specifically what your employees love about you and why they think other jobseekers should choose you above all others.

You can take a similar tack with your members; again, focus largely on new and recent members. Why did they choose you and continue to choose you. There are myriad financial options for them … there must be a singular reason why they selected you. What was it?

When talking to members about this decision, get as specific as possible in their reasoning and process. You’ll want to build a case study of sorts around their process; therefore, this interaction needs to be different than a typical feedback survey where you’ll get mostly superficial (but important) feedback. For this quest, you’ll want to acquire deep and rich information so a direct interview or focus group will be your best option.

While long-term members may be your most loyal members and the ones most willing to talk favorably about you, they may not be the best source for specifying your differentiation. You may be the only financial institution they’ve dealt with in a very long time and, therefore, their memory for why they choose you could be quite fuzzy. They probably don’t have anyone else to compare you to. Like your long-term employees, however, they can likely provide good perspective on how you’ve grown and improved over the years.

Too many credit unions fail to speak proudly of their history; of where they’ve come from; and the difference they’ve made in their markets and communities. If you don’t shine a spotlight on it, no-one else will. Talk about your humble beginnings and the inflection points along your timeline. Have references to your history in your lobbies and on your homepage. Make a video that plays on a loop. Include a printed piece in the welcome and thank you packets you present to members.

Two other areas to speak proudly:

Employees and members should be proud of your past and future and those stories can become central to your differentiation statements.

In presenting your history, you can usually note general things you’ve done in the community and how you’ve helped the community grow. But, don’t miss the chance to focus on what you’re presently doing in the community and for your community (both individuals and businesses or organizations). Like we said earlier, if you don’t talk about it, no one else will.

This is also a great place to cultivate verbiage and feelings from employees and members—employees who are helping you with your community efforts and members (and non-members) who are the recipients of them. Don’t miss the chance to capture personal stories and anecdotes about those events and the difference they are making. This isn’t a marketing effort, it’s the heart of who you are.

When drafting your differentiation statement, don’t get too wordy. Keep it simple and focused on the prioritized items that carry the most weight and relevance. Remember, one of the main goals is for you and your employees to speak your differentiation to others and they’ll be hesitant to do that if it’s too long and complicated.

Additionally, the statement needs to be a little flexible, too. What’s most significant to some individuals may be less significant to others. Be willing and able to amplify certain areas of it when talking to one group but a different area when talking to someone else. This can, again, apply to both members and employees, depending on their life stage and current life situations.

In the spirit of people speaking your differentiation, help employees and other ambassadors get as comfortable with it as possible. Make it a regular activity in team meetings to hone your differentiation statement, modify it for the different audiences, and be able to speak it confidently and with pride. Conduct training specifically on this matter—it doesn’t have to be long, detailed training but should focus on the basics and get people excited about it. Very few people like to role play but role-playing this is a low stress way to make sure everyone can speak it the way you need them to can be an invaluable step.

Lastly, a tough challenge when composing your statement—try to do it without mentioning any products or services. In fact, try doing it without noting that you’re a financial institution (what?!!!). Remember the other guys in your markets have the same or similar products and services, have the same or similar job roles, and conduct their transactions in similar ways. In 99% of cases, you can’t differentiate that way; you have to focus on the specific cultural components that make you different, special, and outstanding.

Our consultants have been partnering with credit unions for over 20 years to establish cultures that become a key differentiation for their employees and members. If we can assist you in any way to establish it at your credit union, please reach out to 636-578-3280 or fi-strategies.com/contact-us.