Transcription:
How to Position Your FI Top of Mind - 24/7 365: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Bill Klaproth, (Host):  When you’ve been searching for the right insight, advice and information on financial marketing; you know where to go, the Speakeasy, the exclusive source for financial marketing insights with a shot of human. Staring Kelly Hellickson and Hilary Reed, from EmpowerFi, Strategy infused, data driven marketing solutions for financial institutions nationwide. I’m your host Bill Klaproth.

So necessity is the mother of invention Kelly and Hilary. So, I guess the question is what can we learn from this? What marketing and communication changes can we implement now to ensure our members remain engaged with the credit union and start thinking of us as an essential business to their lives? Kelly, what do think about that?

Kelly Hellickson (Guest):  Well I really think that we are the type of community as credit union marketers that really learn from our mistakes and I think that we should make a really good point as we talked earlier in creating an emergency strategic and an emergency strategic marketing plan. I know that the folks that are studying to be a credit union marketer, ha, ha, that is not a thing, you do not just wake up one day and say I’m going to be a credit union marketer. It’s in your blood. It’s who you are. It’s your passion. So, you kind of stumble into it and we all have our own story but for those that are coming up the ranks, like let’s reach them what happened and let’s show them how we can pivot and how we can not only recover from this, but we can recover strong. So, I think we just need to make sure that everything is documented and then heh, here’s a thought, let’s talk about it. Let’s communicate about it. what happened. Let’s not hide it. Let’s talk about it openly and hear everybody’s story.

Hilary:  I think communicating with our members. We want to engage our members and our members are automatically engaged throughout this whole process because let’s be honest, people are scared. They’re scared about their finances. They’re scared that they don’t have enough money. at the root of everything that’s going on, right now, outside of COVID and all of that, at the root, money. Right. Money is at the root of this and where do you keep your money? Your financial institution, so I think credit unions need to be proactive when it comes to communicating with their members throughout this process. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to forgive everyone’s payments across the board. You can certainly be a little bit reactive and wait for members to ask. But maybe you do something like that. Maybe you do forgive something across the board. Maybe you do make a decision to lower your NSF fees across the board for the next three months to gain that loyalty. After this is all over, consumers are going to be looking back and thinking did my financial institution help me? Did my bank, did my credit union help me or did they just sit there and wait for me to act? And I think that’s the key here. Is being proactive and communicating throughout the process and just being empathetic, extremely empathetic in all your communications.

Host:  I think empathy is missing a lot in a lot of marketing today. So, that’s such a great point.

Hilary:  It’s hard. It’s hard to be empathetic as a financial institution I mean gosh it ‘s not like we’re hardened prison criminals here but sometimes in financial institutions, we act like it. We act like these staunchy, stuffy like we have no feelings. You know bankers, bankers historically are known to be these big scary staunch people. And sometimes we live up to that. And I think we need to let our barrier down just a little bit. Like we were talking about when you are on Zoom video now, we have CEOs working from their bedroom, the President of QuinAI is working from his spare bedroom and filming videos and appearing on news channels. So, I think we just need to let the barrier down just a little bit and be a little bit more human with our members.

Kelly:  Yeah and I think being human as well as forgiveness is essential right, but speaking of essential, we really need to make sure that we drive home the fact that we are credit unions and banks are an essential business and an essential important part to everybody’s lives. So, I think that if you come up the other side of this and Kelly’s got a great story, but Hilary hears Kelly’s story and says well what the heck, my credit union didn’t treat me like that. She’s gone. She’s going to go join Kelly’s credit union. So, I think that as you are still onboarding new members right now, you need to be very, very serious, take a serious look at your retention platform and if you don’t have a retention platform, that consists of empathetic materials, caring messages, security; I think that you need to take a look at that and imagery across the board and tweak that ASAP.

Hilary:  Yeah, onboarding, retention platforms and onboarding, reboarding now is a great time to actually start a lot of marketing initiatives that you’ve been wanting to start for a long time. So, all those credit unions and financial institutions out there who are like I’ve been wanting to do onboarding for a really long time, we don’t communicate enough with our members. There is not a better time to start that right now and some credit unions are saying oh we have to wait; we can’t do any marketing right now because we don’t know what’s going to happen. And other credit unions we hear say nope, we are going full force ahead because they need us right now. Well, you need to engage with your members and what a better platform to do so than a retention and onboarding platform and if I had one recommendation to engage your members, not only now, but six months down the road from now, 18, 24 months down the road from now; is start your retention onboarding platform now. Don’t wait. Good point Kelly.

Kelly:  Yeah, thanks. No, I just feel that those types of platforms too like you said, Hil, get pushed to the wayside because they are sort of a large undertaking but not if you have a really great system, a well-oiled automatic machine, right, so it’s a great time to start that and think about this, what about member welcome guides and membership onboarding collateral. I mean that’s something that a lot of times, in this digital age, we don’t see a lot of and that’s something that’s necessary. Talk about a necessity. I think all of the membership materials and collateral should have credit unions just look at what they have, assess and adjust.

Hilary:  Yeah and for credit unions now who are just turning on that empathy feeling that empathy tone, I mean I have to admit, there’s a lot of credit unions out there who never really touched on empathy. They either had a charismatic tone, or a very serious tone and now everybody is jumping on the empathetic bandwagon. And I’m not saying that’s wrong but I guess I would implore credit unions to think going forward in all of your communications, why don’t you weave in a little bit of empathy no matter what you do, no matter when it is, whether you are going through something like this or it’s 20 years down the road and the economy is booming. Empathy should be woven I think into the fabric of all credit unions going forward in their tone of voice.

Host:  I think of empathy and banking, I think of George Bailey.

Hilary:  Oh my gosh, yes.

Host:  From It’s a Wonderful Life.

Hilary:  He’s like an iconic banker of course.

Kelly:  George, yes.

Hilary:  If everyone could be like him, that would be great. That’s a great analogy.

Host:  Be more like George Bailey. Not like Mr. Potter.

Hilary:  Right.

Kelly:  Oh my gosh.

Host:  Think about in that movie, how he was so essential to that community.

Hilary:  Banking on a handshake is – and all these credit unions have these great stories to tell about when I actually worked at a credit union, we had this story. We were a teacher’s credit union and all the members would come in and they’d say I remember when you guys were in the basement of the house next door and you had shower curtains separating the loan officers from the manager and you guys were raising pigeons in the basement. Like that’s a real credit union story. That’s banking on a handshake. That is George Bailey. So, that’s the perfect example of what credit unions need to get back to a little bit in their communications.

Kelly:  Paying homage to your roots I think is something that we’re going see a lot of after we are on the other side of this. And something that I mean talk about getting back to your roots and banking on a handshake, what would that look like and what would that look like from a loan standpoint if you eased up a little bit and if you went after CND Paper and worked with them, teach them how to handle their finances and then rehab their credit, put them in a loan that they can afford, might be a little bit of a higher interest but then when they have great credit, because you’ve helped them build it back up, you are their premiere financial institution for life. That’s a loyal. That’s a lifer right there.

Host:  What a great way to tell a story too. We’ve been here before. We’ve helped you through tough times before. We’ve been all through this together. And there’s certainly some great stories you can pluck out of that to showcase how you’ve helped the community and helped the community rebuild in tough times certainly and you can do that through an eye of empathy as well. I think you guys have made some great points about onboarding, membership welcome guides, and full speed ahead on marketing. The first people out with that great empathetic message about being there for the community, understanding what the community is going through and will always be there to help them through, I think is going to be the place that –

Hilary:  Yeah, we’re going to be here no matter what. Financial institutions, you’re going to be here, no matter what, so why not remind your members that you’re here and one thing that always resonated with me throughout this whole process and gosh these frontline individuals, the nurses, the doctors, even the grocery store workers. Putting themselves at risk right now. One individual, one institution I never hear mentioned is banking. So, we hear about these frontline individuals but we all know that money is the dirtiest thing that you can touch, and I think it’s interesting that consumers and just everybody seems to forget that banking is essential, and they are one of the frontline people too. And they are having to touch the money and the germs and all of that and I think if we can just rise up a little bit and remind our members that we’re here, we’ve been here through the last recession. We’re here through this and we’re going to be here on the other side. I think that would be a really great reminder that financial institutions can put out there in a really empathetic way.

Kelly:  Yeah Hil, that’s fantastic. That’s a great point.

Hilary:  And I think we’re closer now than we ever have been to that handshake banking on a handshake, lending on a handshake. Everything we once knew got thrown right out the window with COVID. And there is no greater example at this point than that SBA payroll protection loan. I don’t think many financial institutions know what they’re doing and they’re just saying here, we’re going to give you some money and we trust that you’re going to pay it back. So, I think now’s a great time to start that banking on a handshake philosophy again.

Kelly:  Yeah, that’s a good point.

Host:  Well speaking of that visual alone, you talk about handshake banking, how many people are going to need a helping hand right now? That handshake helping hand, the two go together. So, it just makes a lot of sense.

Kelly:  They go hand in hand though.

Host:  They go hand in hand Kelly, nice, very nice.

Hilary:  Listen guys, six feet apart. Six feet apart. Social distancing.

Host:  It’s an air high five.

Kelly: Yeah, it’s a virtual fist bump.

Host:  That’s it, exactly. Any final thoughts on how credit unions can become more essential to the lives of their customers?

Hilary:  My last thought here would be on fees. I think that in the consumer’s mind when they think of their banking institution, they associate that with fees and that’s a negative but in this environment their thought is I don’t have a paycheck coming in. My financial institution is going to charge me fees. So, if there’s one thing that we can do to engage our members, even more so now than ever, is take a look at your fee schedule and or waive some fees or institute some new policies around fees and get the word out to your members whatever those fee changes are.

Kelly:  And I agree with that and I would have to say my point would be accessibility. People want to have access to their money day and night 24/7 back to that online account opening. If you do not have online account opening and you do not have a retention platform, you need to evolve, and you need to create some dynamic pieces that are going to resonate with your membership.

Host:  Great points. Drop the fees, and accessibility. Right, people want access to their money 24/7 and times like these when we’re told to stay home, how true is that. What a great point. Ladies, thank you so much. Another great discussion thank you.

Kelly:  Thank you Bill.

Hilary:  Thank you.

Host:  And to connect with Kelly or Hilary please visit www.empowerfi.org. This is the Speakeasy Financial Marketing podcast. Thanks for listening.