Never let them see you … bleed
I recently produced an event for a conference where I brought in some of the best speakers, humorists, and entertainers that I know. It was a variety show format to benefit the foundation of the association with a star-studded line up. One of the acts was a juggling duo. These were no ordinary bowling pin juggling clowns on unicycles (although they can do that). These guys are comedic geniuses with an act that contains suspense, drama, plot twists and more. They could easily find a home on any Vegas stage. As a matter of fact, they were first runners up on Americas Got Talent and I was thrilled that they agreed to participate in my event.
During the big close, one of the guys juggled three axes while balancing a five-foot-tall metal pole on his chin with a baby doll on top. His partner had a bullwhip that he snapped at the pole ripping it from its perch. The baby doll falls thus completing the big finale. It was hilarious act. All went off without a hitch…or so I thought.
The next night I was speaking to one of the guys and he had a bandage on his forehead. I asked what happened and he told me when he snapped the whip at the pole, it fell and glanced his head, cutting his forehead. He said he immediately turned away from the audience and walked out of the ballroom, caught an uber and went to the hospital to be stitched up. I had no idea that even happened. He said “never let an audience see you bleed”. What professionalism!
Things go wrong. Mistakes are made. We all have bad days. It is our ability to continue to show a professional face to our customers that creates a member experience that people want to repeat. Without trust there is no loyalty.
Two factors that build trust are: Consistency and customer centricity. Your members expect a repeated experience when they do business with your credit union. They don’t need to see behind the curtain and hear about how difficult or busy your day has been. When we let our customers experience our pains, problems and challenges, we take the focus from the customer thus eroding trust. The long and short of it is, “Never Let Your Members See You Bleed”.
