NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Forget about branding, storytelling or whatever the next marketing trend may be.
According to David Baker, principal of management consulting firm ReCourses Inc. in Nashville, what matters most for credit unions is to think of themselves as not being in the service business but rather the expertise business.
- WATCH the live stream from the CU Water Cooler Symposium
- READ about thinking on a larger scale from the symposium
- READ about making IT real from the symposium
“There are three dry cleaners in my neighborhood and if my dry cleaner ticks me off then I'll just go to the dry cleaner around the corner. The point is that the only time I care about or notice those in the service business is when they screw up,” Baker said at the CU Water Cooler Symposium, which concludes Friday at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
“If you are in the expertise business that means you are as an institution doing what's right for the consumer even if it means you don't make as much money. So members aren't headed to your credit union just to park their money but because they need answers to something that's important to them,” Baker said.
One way for that shift to happen starts with having people in the organization who truly believe in and live the mission, he said.
“Those people do a much better job of representing your credit union as they are out and about in the community than any marketing,” said Baker. “If you want to change the world, do it first with your significant other, second your children, third your friends and fourth the people that you manage.”
He added that educating consumers in financial literacy can be a good start to being in the expertise business as most consumers still aren't able to navigate their finances.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
