BURBANK, Calif.-A "Synergy Department" at Partners FCU has helped drive a Best Practice for growth.
Partners is a $1-billion CU that serves a single sponsor, but that simple description belies the fact the Walt Disney Companies is far from a warehouse operation. It has more than 102,000 domestic "Cast Members" (the Disney term for its employees) and more than 200 different operating companies. It has three service areas, Anaheim and Burbank in California, plus Orlando, Fla., so it operates across the continent and in two time zones.
Mike Terzian, VP, marketing and business development for Partners FCU, told Credit Union Journal that "synergy"-which refers to a combined effort being greater than the sum of its parts-is a big part of the credit union's efforts to keep in touch with all those potential members.
"Our approach to synergy drives everything from new memberships to member education to inclusion in Cast Member publications," he said, adding the parent company has a department dedicated to synergy efforts that is called "Synergy."
"Without a dedicated Synergy department and the changes we have put in place in the last year, growth would be a foreign concept," said Terzian.
After two years of negative membership growth, Partners launched a number of "synergistic best practices," Terzian reported. These include:
* Restructuring. Business development and marketing were placed under one leader, while implementing a traditional account team structure found in B2B service organizations. Goals, responsibilities and incentives are tied to regional account teams, not individuals. Qualification standards were set to ensure consistent activities across major market areas which included: required monthly meetings, required table-top and presentation quantity, and required new hire orientation presentations.
* New Leadership. The CU developed Member Service Advisory Committees in the three market areas. Terzian said the purpose of the MSAC is to create a group of unelected representatives on behalf of the membership.
* Face Time. Partners integrated itself into Synergy meetings in all three markets through attendance and various promotional gits. "Through regular attendance by both the business development and marketing teams, the credit union has established new relationships that are invaluable given the current single SEG structure," he assessed.
* Tent Poles. The credit union conducted two major "tent pole" campaigns annually. A tent pole campaign involves all three market areas and receives substantial Disney support in the various Synergy meetings. Examples of these campaigns included tie-ins with the movie "Toy Story 3" and the ABC television show "No Ordinary Family."
* Synergy Campaigns. Through the support of market-area specific promotions, Partners created targeted relationships with individual companies under the Disney banner. For example, the CU partnered with the Parks and Resorts group to leverage the focus on its upcoming new attraction, "The Little Mermaid."
* New Hire Orientations. Each week there are upwards of 10 new hire orientations held on the various Disney campuses. In the past, Terzian said, it was difficult for Partners FCU to secure time and presentation space. "However, this is the first point of contact and for the credit union, the best opportunity to capture the membership," he said.
"We are engaged in our other departments as well," Terzian continued. "At almost every Partners' event there is a business development representative. As a result, referrals have jumped dramatically with better cross-departmental participation as well as more and more members understand the complete breadth of service offered through the credit union."
The credit union has also moved to improve cross sales. Terzian said the culture at Partners has "really advanced" over the last year and a half and has become a way of doing business.
"We really do believe in looking for what we can do to help members, and that means encouraging our staff to have conversations," he said. "Sales is a dirty word in the credit union world, but we need to educate. We need to help members save more money or make more money day in and day out. We have three goals: strengthen our relationship with all the business units of the Walt Disney Co., increase member benefit, and drive greater number of services per member."
After two years of negative membership growth, 2010 represented a return to 2% positive net member growth. The average number of services per household for Partners has grown to more than 2.7 per the last Raddon CEO Strategies report. In addition, the Partners Home Mortgage team had another record year, generating more than $173-million in originations, while the Wealth Management team remained at capacity with clients actively seeking out more qualified resources to meet the demand.
More Relationships Per Member
"Our new members have 2.2 services per household, but for existing members that number is 2.7," Terzian said. "We still want to get that number over three, but the focus now is getting new membership growth, which has somewhat lowered our numbers because it takes time for new members to add services. We are continually working on our onboarding process to help uncover further needs or bring more business from other institutions. For now, people are looking to us for a specific need which gives us a chance to eventually capture additional business."
