Five ways you’re scaring members away
Gather ‘round the campfire folks, pour your favorite pumpkin-flavored beverage, and get ready for five spine-tingling cautionary tales of ways credit unions might be making members go “EEK!” and run away.
Do you have what it takes to face the horrors ahead? Come closer, closer, and hear our tales of dread…
The Website of Fright
This dusty, neglected online crypt of ancient information bears the foul reek of 2010. Members shudder as they click the online banking login, and potential members just plain scream and run away. The zombie corpse of the summer 2013 newsletter still lurks in a forgotten corner, and the navigation is a horrible, shapeless mass…
Your website should be the best of your brand in action, a 24/7 outpost. If it’s an ancient graveyard of bone-dry brochure text, it’s time to upgrade pronto. Unless “e-crypt” is the effect you’re looking for, of course.
The Endless Online App of Dooooooooooooom
Once you enter, you can never leave – you’re trapped in the endless online loan app, a labyrinth of nosy, hazy questions with no end in sight. What’s your shoe size? Your favorite color? The name of your closest neighbor’s oldest aunt’s youngest child’s cat? Growing doubt gnaws – can I even get approved? Should I even trust these guys? Will I ever escape the horror?
Nothing is more terrifying to members and potential members than mangled, broken processes. From loan apps to new memberships, review the member experience regularly and make sure it’s smooth sailing.
The horrible, abandoned corpse of “Member Education”
Perhaps it’s hidden in a dark corner of your website. Or maybe it’s still mumbling to itself about retirement planning behind a stack of dusty old newsletters. Member education is an important part of every credit union’s mission to improve financial wellness, but too many times it has decayed into a starved, desiccated remnant, a mummy of what might have been.
Make a real commitment of time, attention, and budget devoted to helping your members learn how to help themselves. The more your members know, the better their lives are, and the stronger the credit union gets.
The Slippery, Slimy Sales Creeper
Who needs Halloween when just looking at the day’s news will give you a week’s worth of fright? Times are hairy and scary indeed, and the last thing your members want from your digital marketing, social media, and website are stacks of slithering sales pitches and giant rates going “BOO!”
Members and potential members are looking for reassurance, strength, safety, inclusion, convenience, and respect. They want to know they’re going to get good deals and good advice. They need a credit union they can believe in.
The Blah Brand Blob
Here’s a nightmare thought to keep you up all night: can members really tell the difference between your credit union and the bank across the street? The watery, squishy, Blah Brand Blob can sneak up and smother you while you’re trying to be everything to everyone. If members can’t tell the difference, every day, you face a terrible, fading fate — being forgotten.
Focus on living your difference, and connecting authentically to the friends and neighbors you serve. You’ll be able to keep this beast under control and build a unique, lasting brand.
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