Transcription:
The Progressive Road Ahead: The Decision to Implement Reputation Management and Why

Bill Klaproth: 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, starring Kelly Hellickson and Hilary Reed from EmpowerFi, strategy-infused data-driven marketing solutions for financial institutions nationwide.

And on this episode, Kelly Hellickson talks with James JD Dawson about the progressive road ahead, the decision to implement reputation management and why. Now, here's your host, Kelly Hellickson.

Kelly Hellickson: Today, we are excited to speak with James Dawson at Alta Vista Credit Union in Redlands, California, Director of Brand Strategy. How are you this morning? Thank you for being with us.

JD Dawson: Wonderful. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely. So we want to talk today about, I won't say post-pandemic, but maybe there we go. I just said it. Let's talk about the last 18 months, Alta Vista Credit Union, and really where you started pre-pandemic and then where you folks are now. I really like to say that we were unapologetically aggressive and ambitious these last 18 months as we partnered together with Alta Vista. JD, take us through the last 18 months for Alta Vista Credit Union, some of the progressive changes that you've implemented.

JD Dawson: Yes. It's been a roller coaster as everybody's kind of gone through. So we had some goals at the start at 2020, where we really need to focus on growing membership, growing deposits, growing checking accounts. We totally rehashed our checking suite and cleaned it up a bit. Offered more value, partnered with BaZing to put together this great three value-based checking accounts, your best, better, good scenario with a free account base. And then the more value you add, going up to $6 a month to $10 a month for the prestige, but really partnering with local businesses.

And we have an app that goes with our two top checking accounts called Alta Vista Perks. And you know, it's really there to drive your member's ability to save money, reach out to local businesses that are part of the network. They could also shop, you know, big brand stores that are nationwide, roadside assistance, cell phone protection, concert tickets, movie tickets, all that stuff at a discounted price to really help our members save more while they're spending. But right as we launched that, the pandemic hit the world. And so we really had to put all this momentum. We had a launch, we really lost quite a bit as nobody could go anywhere. Nobody could shop. Businesses were closed out. Concerts were put on hold. Sports tickets, all that stuff, as we all know, no longer existed in just a matter of weeks.

And just like everybody, pulled their money out, not knowing what to do. And then, with stimulus checks, they've started bringing all their money. They brought the money they took out plus some extra ones and started sitting on it, so our net worth kind of flipped on its end as our need for deposits and checking counts and membership growth and not necessarily focusing on loans completely shifted our net worth, started to go down with this increase in deposits and no consumer confidence to lend money to our members.

So, it was a long 2020 for everybody. And we just were in such a reactionary state of trying to just stay afloat and not lose employees and keep our branches open and shift digitally. They're pushing more people mobile, trying to tell everybody stay away, please. And when you can, you're going to take your money. So as 2021 has rolled around, it's nice to get back into more of a we're in control of what we want to push to our members and to our prospective members. So it's been an interesting change.

Kelly Hellickson: So the overhaul of the checking product, really a brand new product with three different tiers, good, better, best mentality, what did you see? I'm just curious from your current membership, what did you see in terms of trends? Pandemic aside, what were the trends that you saw checking-wise, deposit-wise from the start of 2020 to let's say today, second part of the year 2021?

JD Dawson: For our checking products, you know, we had a really smooth transition and a rollover as we launched and transitioned our members into these new value accounts. And we did a nice job communicating with our members all that was coming. There was a good strategy in place as far as which members went to which accounts as we rolled everybody over.

But yeah, there was just nothing to follow up with once we launched, because some of the perks that were supporting local businesses, we couldn't really push and initiate and promote because there's nowhere to go. Now, we're able to kind of start pushing that again and supporting our local businesses more than ever, because everybody knows what a tough year it was for local businesses, some that are unfortunately no longer here and others that are staying strong and shifted as we all did. It's kind of just ebb and flow of the entire 15 months, 16 months of some interest. And then, everybody just kind of sat in their money. Nobody did anything.

And as we kind of got closer to feeling like life was getting busier again, we had to retrain our staff as far as what all the features were of these products, because we're starting to get more people to the branch. We launched online account opening and lending, a pretty robust system that finally we had that efficiency to offer that stuff to our members, which we didn't necessarily have before.

Kelly Hellickson: Little antiquated when you don't have online account establishment and then lending online. But I mean, that's what you did, right? We implemented the new checking platform. And then you simultaneously go through, I won't say a rebrand, but a brand new website that really just powered and fueled all of the new products and services and the momentum that we had with the checking, with online account establishment. And then there were some other things, exciting things that you guys implemented. Talk a little bit about those

JD Dawson: Yeah. Website launched in April, so like a month and a half into pandemic closures and new website launched and we'd cleaned it up, some old branding and wanted to bring out some more brightness and everything to look more cleaner and more efficient. And yes, with that, as everybody's shifted digitally, having reputation management and making sure that those that are looking for us or looking for a financial institution or a place to bank, they could find us. And what they see is not only positive reviews, but the ones that aren't necessarily positive that there's communication from our end to those people with a negative experience that we do want to make things better. We do want to take their feedback and improve on it.

Kelly Hellickson: That's fantastic. So checking, brand new website, online account establishment, and then reputation management was the fourth final platform that we implemented there at Alta Vista Credit Union. And so, reputation management, why it's important and why you need it, I think we all know that it's a popularity contest, right? So the internet is a popularity contest, and we want Google to position us, Alta Vista Credit Union, at the tippy top of that list when someone gets online and says, "Where's the best place to park my money?" So how has reputation management helped you with not only your SEO standing from a Google standpoint, but your Google My Business review rating shot through the roof too, didn't it?

JD Dawson: Yeah. I mean, just to be able to reach out to our members and say, "Hey, we're looking through your feedback and how best we can serve you and improve upon what we're already doing, or are there features we're missing that we aren't aware of that we need to start looking into. All that stuff, people are more eager to do it online right now than they are to fill out a survey or come on in and put your suggestion in a box, so to speak. So having these reviews and our reputation on some of these platforms isn't great because some people are out there just to comment when things go bad.

Kelly Hellickson: Yep. We call them Negative Nancys, don't we?

JD Dawson: Yeah, the Negative Nancys. That's right. So to respond to them at a quicker pace than having, you know, three or four-day turnaround. Now, some of this stuff does take a little while to have a proper response because what somebody maybe complain about is pretty in depth and you want to find out what their service level was like. You want to talk to the people that helped them, whether it was from the call center or somebody in branch or whatever they are upset about, we want to find out some details. So when you do respond, it is more personable and not just some, "Hey, we hear you. Thank you for replying. We'll look into it." You know, you want to kind of have some sort of p ersonable experience with them. And I think when other people are looking at reviews and they see a negative one, but then they see that you responded in a pretty personal way or really come with some sincerity. It really helps turn the tide of what you're looking at when you see a negative review.

Kelly Hellickson: It does. And I think that to capitalize on the optics of that, reviews equal trust. And the fact that you've now implemented this platform that we're soliciting for reviews from our membership. And then we respond and then you take the time to customize it, make it personable, personalized for the member, I think that's a huge win-win. And I think to hone in on your point of it does take a couple of days to kind of investigate, but that's the best part about this is that we now have the opportunity to, "Okay. Well, let's keep the conversation going and we will, member ABC, get back to you as soon as possible. But we want to take that time. You deserve that time for us to take a look, dive in and see what exactly happened during this interaction you had," online or otherwise, now that everything's opened up and we have some more foot traffic.

So I think it's a really positive thing. I think I'd love to hear, JD, you have two branch locations, you've got the Redlands and the Realto and talking about giving back to local and whatnot and all the changes and implementations that we've seen come out of Alta Vista Credit Union in the last 18 months, 15, 16 months, what have you. Talk about the Realto branch and some of the powerful ways in which we can advertise at that branch level because of the different changes you're seeing in Realto itself.

JD Dawson: Our branches are only 17 miles apart, but it's a world of difference when you're looking at different members that live in different areas. So we've been pretty conscious when we are marketing to our Realto branch. We use some local Rialto photography to kind of help make it a more localized experience. And we do the same with the Redlands landmarks. So the goal there is to make people feel comfortable with their local surrounding. And Realto is growing big time. There's some big new construction of some fancy shopping strips and movie theaters and cracker barrels and all the big boxes are coming back along with local coffee shops that are flourishing because they move so well digitally and following all of our guidelines that were set forth by the county and the state. So as that area continues to grow, it's just really helping us connect with them. It makes them feel that that branch is theirs and Realto is not an extension of our Redlands branch, even though it is.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. That's fantastic. So all in all, you'd say that life gives you lemons and you make lemonade. I think that that's definitely something that you can attest to and say for Alta Vista Credit Union. Don't you think, JD?

JD Dawson: Yes. We've been very fortunate. Like I said, we've pivoted from the top down as far as just trying to find ways to make sure that we can stay open and we can continue to serve our members, whether it's digitally or going into the branch. This is mid-pandemic when everything was just wild out there, we only have limited people in the branch, got to wait outside and we had to redo everything pretty much how we looked inside as far as putting up all the safety barriers and laminates on the ground. And then just to be able to slowly kind of transition back into, "Alright. Yep. We can help you now inside well as we can digitally," for those members that must come into the branch. When they have a good experience with whether it's a teller or an account executive or the manager to be able to say, "Hey, do you mind us shooting you a quick text message and you could fill out Google or Facebook review for us. We'd really appreciate it." And being able to have that connection, it gets sent to the member. They can do a quick review, it's personalized. It tells them who they did their business with. And it just links right to the Google or Facebook account. Really easy to do so. So it's easy for us at the frontline, it's easy for the members to do so hopefully, we'll continue to see the improvement of our rankings and our ratings.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. That's fantastic. Easy peasy lemon squeezy as my boys like to say, and honestly that translates very well into the financial landscape and you have to make it easy for your membership. You want to make it easy for them and you want it to be personalized, personable, and interactive. So I think that what we could do is have a really exciting and a little bit more insightful conversation as to reputation management on a whole, what it is, what it does and sort of the granular details, JD, next time we speak with you. So, really excited to have you on. Get a couple of conversations rolling with you and we'll let our audience know that we've got some powerful commentary and conversations coming up. So I really want to thank you for your time today.

JD Dawson: Kelly, thank you. It's been great to be with you and it's been a pleasure to talk about this.

Bill Klaproth: And thanks for joining us. And to connect with Hilary or Kelly to simplify your credit union marketing needs with EmpowerFi's full service marketing and design support, please visit EmpowerFi.org. You can also email Kelly and Hilary at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it with your colleagues and on your social media channels. This is the Speakeasy Financial Marketing Podcast. Thanks for listening.