- Does your member want a car loan or a car? Since we are in the business of making car loans this is easy to focus on a metric for making more loans. In reality, the metric that creates more value for your member is the number of members that love their car. By changing this focus – we start to look at how a member actually makes decisions about purchasing a car, registering the car, maintaining the car and driving the car. I don’t know about you, but if you start making the rest of that more efficient and easier for me as a member – I will happily pay a premium for the loan. Sure it won’t work for all members, but if you could get 30-40% to pay a higher rate by bundling in services that make the car buying, owning, maintaining and driving experience better – it would sure rev up your loan portfolio.
- Focus on your best members- This won’t be very credit union like of me but - ALL of your time and creative energy should be focused on creating unique value, services, and products for your best members. Why? Well, why do you want to spend any time helping people who don’t value your help, don’t understand it, and just don’t get it. Sure you are owned by all of your members, but helping the people who want the help is certainly a lot easier and more fulfilling then helping people who don’t want it…Your members who really value the credit union, understand the value of the cooperative movement, are far more likely to do more business with you then your cherry pickers.
- Focus on the first 90 days- We spend a ton of time as leaders trying to get new members. Often times though new members walk in and back out within the first 90 days. Take the time in great detail to understand the member experience during their first 90 days as member. This is where you can really shine and create wow moments that shape the members perception of your brand forever. I switched credit unions several years ago – I started by opening a savings account, then a few weeks later a checking, then I had to change my direct deposit, then I moved a few bills over to bill payment, eventually it was my car loan, mortgage, and credit cards. If the credit union had even asked for the business, or acknowledged my potential they could have moved it all ten times faster and I would have been forever loyal. Instead, I got as far as the car loans and the services were hit or miss…so I stopped moving things over. Now I have an unintended bench mark of what the Credit Union is capable of that will take the credit union years to overcome. By focusing on the first 90 day experience , you can eliminate, streamline, incent, and develop an immediate experience for your new members.
Does your member want a car loan or a car?


Kirk Drake
Ongoing Operations
Kirk Drake
Ongoing Operations
Kirk Drake is founder and CEO of Ongoing Operations, LLC, a rapidly growing CUSO that provides complete business continuity and technology solutions. With its recent acquisition of Cloudworks, Ongoing Operations has expanded its market niche and become the leader in hosted solutions for credit unions and their providers. Kirk is a well-known and respected industry leader with over 15 years of experience designing and implementing advanced IT Systems and Disaster Recovery Solutions. Prior to founding Ongoing Operations, he served as Chief Technology Officer for NIH Federal Credit Union, a $400 million financial institution. During his time at NIH, Kirk spearheaded critical system conversions and led many projects to strategically advance the credit union, allowing it to better serve its members. Kirk is also an expert in designing collaborative solutions and developing innovative technology platforms. During Kirk’s tenure at Ongoing Operations, the CUSO has grown to one of the top twenty CUSOs in the nation and successfully recovered numerous clients in actual disaster situations.
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