What have you learned from the Wells Fargo scandal? The mega bank with the best retail reputation all of a sudden has to fight to stay relevant in retail banking. Over 2 million fake checking and credit card accounts, a systemic culture of cheating to achieve lofty sales goals and generate personal income and achievement, and it all ended with 5,300 employees fired, a CEO forced out following a grilling by a Senate panel, and a head of community banking who decided to retire at an interesting time.
Do you compete with Wells Fargo? Most of us probably do, but what have you done do take advantage of the situation? Some customers will forget and stay with the mega bank, but others will take action and leave. Now you have two options: you can open your doors every morning and hope you get more than your fair share, or you can do something to get more than your fair share.
To get more than your fair share you always have to be positioned to grow and take advantage of opportunities. The backbone for this is a strategic approach to Primary Financial Institution (PFI) member growth. Solid organic growth does not mean adding widgets or meeting sales quotas on products or cross sell. It means a focus on organic PFI growth by making it a core part of your strategic vision. Over the last few years there were several credit unions that won awards in this arena. A couple of these are Centris FCU, Omaha, Neb., and American First FCU, LaHabra, Calif. Let’s explore what led them to their success and allowed them to get more than their fair share of the Wells Fargo, or any other opportunity.
• Key to any sales culture is the right product. Even if all of our members have a savings relationship the PFI status truly hinges on having your members’ core checking relationship. A checking product line up, well suited for growth has to be simple and a good deal for your members. A good deal does not mean the highest rate paid, it simply means it works well for your employees and your members. If in doubt, ask your front line if your product is good. They have to sell it!
• We live in a regulated industry. That adds hurdles on the policy and procedure side. You must be in compliance, but don’t forget that we should always serve our members. Review your policies from their point of view!
• Give your frontline a simple sales tool. Most of your sales team, your front line, will love a simple process that gets the member into the right product for them. Your employees look for guidance in this area and will embrace it.
• Train, train, and train again. Unfortunately our industry is challenged with high turnover rate at the front line. Your staff changes all the time and you need to make sure they hare well equipped to serve your members. Understandably not all training can be in person, so take advantage of online resources and recorded sessions, especially for new team members.
• You must keep your name out there. Marketing is the key to driving traffic and the organizations that market all the time will fare far better than the ones that try to hop on the bandwagon when something like the Wells Fargo incident happens. Reactionary marketing will not nearly get the same results as marketing that is executed as one of your strategic initiatives. As part of your marketing target the right audience. Data analytics are the key. Those organizations that won the most recent awards for PFI growth mentioned above have a very analytical approach to prospective new PFI member selection. They use data from their rich internal sources, but don’t stop there. Integrate new channels, new analytics, and big data. Can you learn something from cell- or GPS-based data integration. Are the folks that are close to your branches more often more likely to pick you as their PFI? Absolutely they are, so use it!
• If you provide great service, your current members should be your biggest advocates. Channel them in the traditional and online world. Ask for the referrals and thank them for giving them to you.
• This last one may be criticized in today’s world, especially in light of the Wells Fargo scandal. To be successful you must set goals, measure and hold your people accountable. That does not mean unrealistic goals and immense pressure to push results. It means realistic goals set on benchmarks others have achieved, and ensuring that employees understand that we reward not for the goals, but for doing the right thing for our members. It is absolutely critical that our employees believe in WHY we are doing this and understand that our members always come first.
Successful member acquisition is not a campaign or a promotion, it is strategy. When you run a strategy like that, hard work pays off. Sometimes circumstances like Wells Fargo’s mistakes or a financial institution’s acquisition in your market make it easier, but you only take full advantage of it if you were ready before it ever happened. That does not mean you missed the boat. If you think there will be other opportunities, mistakes by the big banks, acquisitions, product changes, or bad policies alienating financial services customers by your competition in the future, you better get ready now.
Achim Griesel is president of Lincoln, Neb.-based Haberfeld Associates. He can be reached at
