CELINA, Ohio-Not all small CUs say they're not seeing strong membership growth.
The $23-million community-chartered Dynamic FCU in Celina, Ohio, reports excellent membership growth at the end of last year and during the first quarter of 2012.
"We operate in a small, rural community, and normally we sign up about 30 new members a month. Now we are doing 69 and it has not slowed down," said CEO Diane Rodriguez.
The CEO explained what is driving the member growth are practices the CU has always had in place and are right for the time. Front-line staff are trained to be excellent listeners, make notes about members' financial situations and their personal lives, and spend time with members each time they stop.
"They ask about members' families and recommend services that improve their lives. Our growth is coming from word-of-mouth advertising," said Rodriguez, who said DFCU's only media buy is in a weekly newspaper ad that emphasizes the credit union's personal attention, as well as its services.
Employees are trained to pay even more attention to new members, which Rodriguez asserted has many of the new enrollees telling others. Being located on Celina's main drag has not hurt either, Rodriguez added.
