As Kathleen Metz, vice president of commercial lending for Affinity, explained in a keynote session, the credit union identified several culprits of the problem:

Many of the business accounts were in fact consumer accounts that were given a business title.
Business members were turned off by certain rules. For example, Affinity lost one business member because they would have had to wait 30 days to obtain a remote deposit capture scanner, Metz said.
Branch staff members were "absolutely terrified of the letters LLC," according to Metz. "They weren't comfortable when a business member walked into a branch and they had to take care of them – staff would run into the bathroom and hide," she joked. In addition, the marketing department wasn't promoting business services at all, Metz said.

Over the next few years, Affinity focused on the following to help remedy the situation:

Convincing upper management that more work needed to be done on the business side. "Having focus from management is so important," Metz said.
Reviewing, redesigning and creating business products. Affinity worked with CU Business Group on this effort, which included rolling out an analyzed checking product that required new software from a third party, and implementing some new fees. Educating members about the new fees so the credit union wouldn't lose them was important, as was launching marketing campaigns around the new products and changes.
Enticing new business members with a strong, promotional money market account rate.
Creating a team of business bankers by making new hires as well as promoting staff from within.
Launching "Business University" – a training course designed to help frontline staff learn the basics of assisting business members. "We decided everyone who was member-facing needed to get comfortable with businesses," Metz said. "They need to be confident enough to ask the right questions, or get the member set up with a business banker."

Metz said Affinity still has work to do in the business services department. For example, she said it's still challenging to keep upper management focused on improving business services, and while the promotional money market account did well, it's still difficult to obtain business deposits. She also noted the branches need to create sales goals for commercial products, and that marketing efforts for business services are still minimal.

Instant Insights /

Affinity FCU Reveals Pointers for Business Program Growth: Onsite at CUBG

Related Stories

Recommended For You