ORLANDO, Fla. - Investing can be tricky business in the current market environment, but fortunately for credit unions, the strategy is simple: the single best investment a credit union can make is a quality loan.
“Our business is very simple,” said Ed Swanson, vice president of national accounts for Patelco Credit Union. “We are in the business of buying money and selling money. The key is to loan the money out to people who are going to pay us back.”
Swanson talked about lending strategies at the Florida CU League’s annual meeting here.
Referring to 2008, Swanson said, “we’re almost halfway through the game. What are we going to do the second half of the game?”
In 2007, the average ROA for CUs was .64%, Swanson said, and at present the number of CUs is 8,268. In 1980, there were 21,500 credit unions.
“Our numbers are dwindling,” Swanson said. “I started in the credit union industry in the 80s. We’re not as viable an industry as we were back then.”
That’s why it’s important to offer unique service to members, he said.
“If we’re not going to take care of our members, someone else will,” Swanson said. “It’s important that we make relationships with our members. We have to let members know–when they call us, when they come through our doors, when they log on to our website–they are the most important things in the world.”
“Make a dialogue,” Swanson suggested. “Learn a little about your members. We’re so busy in our days we don’t let our members know how important they are to us.”
Reasons members leave a credit union include: impersonal service, poor response time, unavailability of products or services, unfriendly people, poor service and poor training, Swanson said, observing, “the key is in how we train our employees,” he said.
Examples Swanson cited in regard to poor member service included: employees saying “yeah” instead of “yes,” and being too busy to be nice.
“There are little things we can do that go a long way,” he said. These things include: answering the phone with a smile, addressing members by their name, and saying “please” and “thank you,” Swanson said.
“Members do not need us,” he said. “There are plenty of other alternatives available to them. There is no such thing as loyalty in today’s competitive marketplace.”
Treating members right will also lead to referrals, Swanson said.
“Exceed their expectations and they will want to tell someone about you,” he said.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
