I received this anonymously today and thought it was worth posting.
It used to be that if you wanted to know something about someone or more about a friend or family member; you sat down and had a cup of coffee. Understand that I am not quite of the age of the “Original Coffee Talk” but remember it well while I was growing up. Many evenings were filled with adults sitting in our living room sharing conversation and a cup of coffee along with the occasional pie or cake. Face to face talking, smiling, and sometimes crying with each other. There were no laptops, bluetooths (or would that be teeth?), whipped double cappuccinos with a hint of mint, or speed text messaging. With that being said, do you want the secret for “YOUR” Credit Union to thrive? Yes I said THRIVE not survive, but THIRVE. Are you really sure you want to know? Because the answer is so simple, but yet so hard to accomplish. Yes I am going to say it, are you ready (should be a drum roll in your head at this point)…….Service! Now many have stopped reading or jumped ahead to their preconceived ideas that they have arrived when it comes to member service. They understand it, and they do it now. Wanna Bet?! You talk it in your all staff meetings, you push it down to the front line managers, the tellers, and MSR’s then you stroll back to your office and say “We at your Hometown Credit Union consider you family, and we are dedicated to giving you the best service anywhere”. You consider this to be true, in fact you can show it to me in your mission statement (that by the way took 7 months to hammer out), minutes from management meetings, and input from both the staff and BOD. The words sound just right, they say that service is your top priority.
Many of you truly do understand that service is where you can thrive and that service and service alone is how to be successful, but yet you do not understand how to get there. Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, most CU execs will tell you how they think “you can” or that “they did”, but, in reality, anyone telling you how to succeed without being on the ground (your ground) is a shot in the dark, and I believe that they normally have half (at best) of the equation.
Now I have given you the ending, but without the journey it becomes useless. I will be submitting posts anonymously from time to time. I will give words of ….well at least my words (many would not give them the title of wisdom). I am a straight shooter and have been around the CU movement for awhile now. If you have ideas or a strategy on how you think you can get THERE (there being an environment where service truly is number one) please share!
Signed,
“SS”
Straight Shooter
