CU Chat Up- Net Promoter Score

Last week on the CU Chat Up radio show, we discussed how to measure member loyalty. Quite a few of the questions from the chat room and that I received via email afterwards touched upon how are credit unions actually using NPS including the implementation and how they use the results

I find the idea of using NPS to find out what your members think of your credit union to be very intriguing. It almost seems too easy. In order to get some of these questions answered, Amanda Minehart from Wright-Patt Credit Union will be on the show to talk about how WPCU has used NPS.  If you have specific questions for Amanda, please leave them here in the comments or you can ask them in the chat room during the live show.

This week's CoW is Mark Curran from Palmetto Cooperative Services. Make sure to stop by the CU Chat Up community to read his Q&A profile, it is an interesting one! Tune in to here some inspiring stories he has to tell.

Join the conversation live at 2 pm CT on Wednesday, January 27th! The chat room will open 15 minutes before the show. If you would like to call in to the show, the phone number is (646) 721-9289 - press 1 to raise your hand to talk live on the air. Or, listen to the archived version afterwards.

Chatter of the Week - Mark Curran

Mark Curran

Senior VP Business Development

Palmetto Cooperative Services, LLC

What do you like the most about working in the credit union industry?

There are so many great people working in the movement. The desire to help others is genuine and inspires me to be a better person. I also like that it has put a roof over my head, food on my table and 2 daughters through college. Like so many others, I came upon credit unions quite by accident, but after a very short period of time I was totally hooked.

What is the best change that you have seen that improves credit union operational efficiency in the last few years?

There are lots of new technology tools that have improved efficiency over the years. Due to their focus on relationships with members, credit unions may never achieve the level of efficiency that is truly needed, but they are making some progress. Because it’s the focus of my day-to-day work life, I believe that Check 21 has been a tremendous benefit to credit unions’ bottom lines. With that said, there is still a lot more that can be done in this area. Credit unions need to empower their members to make deposits from home, the office or the beach. They also need to add check imaging capabilities to their ATMs, which can eliminate daily trips to remove envelopes and reduce the likelihood of incorrect deposit amounts.

Your CUSO, Palmetto Cooperative Services, is sponsoring the Crash the GAC event. Why do you think it is important for younger people to get involved in credit union advocacy?

Credit unions are creatures of legislation and regulation. We’re in one of the most highly regulated industries there is. It is critical that we have good relationships with lawmakers and regulators. I’ve been interested in governmental affairs for a long time and encourage others to stay active. Many times, young credit union executives have the desire to participate in governmental affairs, but have no opportunity. When I heard about the Crash the GAC event on Twitter, I knew that they were onto something powerful. Having been a young executive myself many years ago, I knew the energy and enthusiasm that could be generated by having a group of young people gather together for a single cause. Palmetto Cooperative Services has been sponsoring political and charitable activities in the Carolinas and Virginia for many years. Some quick math revealed that we could sponsor all of the housing for the Crash the GAC event for just $2,000.00. We’ve spent more than that in the past, with less opportunity to make a difference. We’ve also been attending the GAC for many years and know the value of participation. If our sponsorship can motivate just one or two people to stay involved in governmental affairs, then our sponsorship will have been worth every penny.

What is your favorite musician or band?

My musical tastes are stuck in the ‘70s and I make no apologies for that. My iPod is full of The Eagles, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Little Feat, etc.

What is your favorite television show?

I don’t watch a lot of television, but I am a fan of Mike Rowe and his shows, especially Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch.

What are you most looking forward to in 2010?

Expanding our business relationships with more credit unions in more areas. I’m also looking forward to actually meeting many of the people I’ve only known online through Twitter, Facebook and various blogs.

What book do you recommend to the community and why?

Purple Cow by Seth Grodin. I know it’s been mentioned here before, but it really is a great read for anyone wanting to make their business stand out from the crowd. Plus, us CoWs have to stick together!

I never saw a purple cow;

I never hope to see one;

but I can tell you anyhow;

I'd rather see than be one!

Thank you, Mark for being the CoW! I look forward to talking to you more on the show this Wednesday, January 27th.

CU Chat Up- Measuring Member Loyalty

Credit unions are in business to serve their members and to offer the products and services that the members want and need. While that is a simplistic explanation of what credit unions do, how do credit unions know if they are fulfilling their members' needs? You could look at the products per household and assume that if members are using the products they are happy. Or, you could send the members a long, involved survey to get their feedback (who really wants to fill those out?).

On this week's CU Chat Up, the dynamic Denise Wymore was on the show to talk about measuring member loyalty using Net Promoter Score (NPS). A very simple method to answer whether your members are loyal or not. Ask them "Would you recommend us to a friend, family member or collegue?" She explains how this one simple question can help you better understand your membership.

It was a great show and there was much interest in the topic. I will be looking to do a follow-up show with guests from credit unions that are currently using NPS to measure their member loyalty and to see how they are using the data to better serve their members.

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned during the show:

Member Loyalty Group: A CUSO that specializes in NPS

Baxter CU's Member Survey Feedback given to members

Denise also talked about her new project about the future of marketing- 2020 Vision of Marketing.

And, during this conversation we talked about how the time for credit unions to grow is now. The economic conditions, positive credit union press, and general momentum are moving in a positive way for credit unions. And, I mentioned a credit union in Utah, Goldenwest Credit Union, that is taking full advantage of a 100+ year old bank that failed and was being shut down in their community. Here is a great write-up of all that Goldenwest has done by Christopher Stevenson: Go Get 'Em Goldenwest. And, you can get twitter updates from their Sales Manager, BenJoe Markland.

If that isn't enough to get you to want to listen to the show, how about this... Christopher Morris, from CUNA, was the CoW. You can read all about him in this week's Q&A profile and listen to him at the beginning of the show. You never know what you will learn about from the CoW!

Here are a few links posted in the chat room and mentioned by Christopher:  The Disclosures
GAC Tweet-up invite

You can listen to all the archived shows here on the blogtalkradio player on the right, or go to the show page.  Don't miss it! CU Chat Up- Measuring Member Loyalty.

Chatter of the Week - Christopher Morris

Christopher Morris

Web Manager- CUNA Councils

Credit Union National Association

What do you like the most about working in the credit union industry?

The people. I've met some of the nicest, smartest, most passionate people in the five years that I've been involved...and I worked in a lot of places beforehand!

I've been pretty lucky - before the Councils, I worked at the National Credit Union Foundation, another national organization that allowed me to have contact from a variety of people from all over in the credit union movement and they are all pretty amazing. Meeting people at the WOCCU conference in Dublin in 2006 pretty much crystallized those assumptions because everyone I met there was fantastic.

Oh and obviously, the credit union philosophy is pretty rad and rewarding to support.

How has interaction between CUNA Council members changed since you launched an online community?

We have pretty active list serves for all councils, which I don't think are going away. As was planned, the community has been great for augmenting the list serve - for example, instead of just sending a blast email to everyone inquiring about a specific vendor, they can use the member search in the community to find a few specific individuals by demographics, vendors they've used, etc and ask their question.

It's also been interesting to see how council members go off and use the technology in ways I hadn't even thought of - for instance, you can create your own targeted discussion groups in the community. Well, last year some council members started vendor's "users groups" so members who use a certain vendor can share best practices, answer each other's questions, etc. Now, those are the most popular groups!

How did your band The Disclosures get started? What type of music do you play?

We started playing a few months ago and it's been a blast. I played guitar a lot when I was in my early twenties, but stopped when my kids were born because they always wanted to attack it or "play along." So basically I didn't really play for about six years!

I met Chad Helminak from the Wisconsin CU League last May when I was a "mentor" at NCUF's Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE) training - he was in my group. He brought his acoustic guitar along and played during the training a few times. We hit it off and turned out he recently moved to Madison. At the same time, I was also dusting off my guitar and getting back into playing again. After months of "Hey, we should get together and jam sometime", we did...and it was awesome. We're just getting started and I can't wait to see how the next year unfolds for The Disclosures.

What is your favorite band?

That's a hard one, but apparently my last.fm profile says it's the Smashing Pumpkins at the moment.

Who is your favorite author?

Toni Morrison or Mark Twain.

What book do you recommend to the community and why?

This can go so many ways and I read a lot too...but I think everyone should read "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut at some point in their lives. It's fiction - insightful, funny, profound, and interesting to read because Vonnegut plays with the narrative so much. I read it when I was sixteen and it changed the way I looked at books. (NOTE: Don't ever see the movie version though because it's unbelievably horrible.)

Can I throw in a bonus one? As it relates to the community specifically...when was the last time you or your staff read the cooperative principles?

Thank you, Christopher for being the Chatter of the Week (CoW). I look forward to having you on the radio show, Wednesday, January 20th!

CU Chat Up- Hot Topics

Credit unions have gotten quite a bit of good buzz over the last year, but over the last month it seems like there is new national coverage every day. This week's CU Chat Radio show is going to cover some of the Hot Topics of the day for credit unions.

First up will be to discuss the incredible press coverage credit unions have received recently from the Move your Money project that was started by the Huffington Post. This project encouraged people to pull their money out of big banks and move it to local community banks. I wrote a blog post response supporting the idea, but recommended moving money to a credit union. We will discuss how the credit union industry can take advantage of this press coverage. 

Credit unions have also been getting some press from Suze Orman and her promotion of Ondine Irving's Credit Card Connection, a website to help people find consumer friendly credit union credit cards! (CU Chat Up show w/Ondine Irving)

Is it possible for us to promote Move your Money to a credit union and Move your Credit Card too? What a great way to spread the awesomeness of credit unions!

Morriss Partee and Matt Davis will be on the show to discuss the press coverage and other Hot Topics! If there is a topic you think should be discussed, please send me me a message at carla [at] cuchatup [dot] net or on twitter. Or, bring it up in the show's chat room!

This week's Chatter of the Week (CoW) is Morriss Partee from EverythingCU.com. Here are the links to his Q&A and a blog post he wrote for CU Chat Up this week: Do you know your Retweet Number? Morriss was my very first guest on CU Chat Up and I am thrilled to have him back on the show!

Join the conversation live at 2 pm CT on Wednesday, January 13th! The chat room will open 15 minutes before the show. If you would like to call in to the show, the phone number is (646) 721-9289 - press 1 to raise your hand to talk live on the air. Or, listen to the archived version afterwards.

Chatter of the Week - Morriss Partee

Morriss Partee

Chief Experience Officer

EverythingCU.com

(And, most importantly first CU Chat Up radio guest!!)

Why are you so passionate about credit unions?


My passion for CUs evolved over time. One of the first experiences that made me sit up and take notice of what the movement was about is hard to explain, but I'll take a shot at it: Back in about 1998, I applied for a balance transfer of my credit card to UMassFive College FCU, who was running a special rate promo (7.9%) on part of the balance, while the rest of it was at their regular, (still fantastic) rate (11.9%). When I discovered that my payments would be applied to ONLY the HIGHEST rate part of the balance, I was thrilled. I was just amazed that the CU would actually apply something in FAVOR of the customer/member. At ANY bank, they would have applied payments to both parts of the balance, or even to the lower rate in order to make more money for the bank. That's when I knew there was something special about credit unions.


So based on my first CU client (Jon Reske, VP of Marketing at UMassFive College FCU) being such a great guy and sharp professional, I set about creating the EverythingCU.com community because I had no idea what the world of CUs looked like beyond two CU clients in Massachusetts. When I discovered all the amazing professionals doing amazing things for their members every day in throughout the U.S. and Canada, I became more and more hooked. By the time I was eight years into my involvement with the movement, and discovered all the amazing history of the movement which started in the U.S. right in my back yard in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, I was fully addicted.


You were an early user of twitter, what has surprised you the most about the evolution of twitter?


One of the most surprising things is the vast array of different ways to interact with twitter. There are a few standard third-party tools that a lot of people use such as TweetDeck, but it's truly amazing that so many new Twitter tools are constantly being invented.


What is a website or service that you use, that most people don't know about, that you would recommend they check out?


Right now, I am all about Gowalla.com. But more broadly, I think place-based services that also include Brightkite.com and foursquare.com, as well as twitter's own new geo-awareness, are great. I'm also excited about all of the Augmented Reality developments, such as what Yelp.com created for the iPhone.... I think this is where all the action will be over the next couple of years as the latest iPhone and Google Droid phones become more mainstream.


What is/are the hot topic(s) in credit union marketing?


Social media, especially CU-wide policies, and effectiveness and ROI questions.


What is your favorite band?


Kings X, a soulful hard rock power trio out of Texas


What is your favorite tv show?


The BBC series Coupling. Having fun watching it on DVD with my honey. It's kinda like Friends in its premise, but with a gentle hilarity that only the British can bring. The short-lived American attempt at recreating it was an utter failure.


What are you most looking forward to in 2010?


Hopefully continuing to consult and speak on social media to CU audiences around the country.


What book do you recommend and why?


Books? What are those? Is that like a blog but printed on trees? Here are some blogs I enjoy:
• Your own CU Chat Up: http://blog.cuchatup.net/
• The CU Water Cooler: http://cuwatercooler.com/• Ron Shevlin's new blog, the Marketing Tea Party: http://marketingteaparty.com/


Thank you, Morriss for being Chatter of the Week. I look forward to having back on the show on Wednesday, January 13th!

CU Chat Up- Targeting Gen Y

To start 2010, CU Chat Up is launching a new feature: the Chatter of the Week (COW). Each week, one of the chatters on the CU Chat Up community will be selected to be featured on the radio show, do a Q&A on the community blog and pick a favorite book to recommend.

The first COW to Moo (not sure if the COW will stick or not, but it sure is fun!) is Stacy Dugan from the Michigan Credit Union League! Read her Q&A to learn more about the DE program, her love of music and for her book recommendation. I had the honor of working with Stacy to plan BarCampBank Chicago and she is full of energy and is also very passionate about credit unions. She will start off the CU Chat Up radio show this week!

For 2010, many credit unions have included targeting Gen Y in their strategic plans. If you have or even if you haven't (find out why you should!), listen in to hear Brent Dixon and George Hofheimer talk about what exciting things are happening at the Filene Research Institute and what new innovations may help with your plans!

While credit unions are targeting Gen Y for membership, the industry as a whole also should be developing their young credit union employees. With limited budgets for education and conferences, few young credit union employees get the opportunity to attend a conference or advocate on behalf of credit unions.  Brent Dixon has found a way to make it happen with Crash the GAC! It is a low-cost option for credit union advocates to participate in the GAC. George Hofheimer will be one of the presenters for this alternate program. Matt Vance from Industrial Credit Union will join Brent and George to talk about the Crash the GAC event and why he is excited about participating.

This show is going to be full of amazing stuff. Join the conversation live at 2 pm CT on Wednesday, January 6th! The chat room will open 15 minutes before the show. Or, listen to the archived version afterwards.

As always, you can post questions or comments here before or after the show for the guests!

Chatter of the Week - Stacy Dugan

Stacy Dugan

CRI Coordinator/MCUF Executive Director

Michigan Credit Union League

Why are you so passionate about credit unions? 

In a word, people. Credit unions are filled with amazing people with amazing energy and amazing ideas. And all that amazing-ness is on top of the philosophy that underpins credit unions of 'people helping people'.

You went through the DE program last year, what is this program and who should attend it?

Credit union development education is an opportunity to learn about the credit union movement worldwide and meet and learn from credit union individuals from across the globe. It is a great program organized and administered by NCUF. Anyone in the credit union movement who has or can create the opportunity should attend DE. I had 3 months in credit unions when I attended and it was a great introduction to credit union philosophy and the assistance credit unions can provide when they work in and with their communities. One of the great features of the program is that everyone has a voice and can provide valuable input. It is an intense ten day experience and I would challenge you to find a DE who doesn't leave the experience excited to go back to their credit union and change the world (or at least their community).

What was the biggest takeaway you had from the DE program?

For me, the biggest takeaway was the great people I met, people from around the globe who I can reach out to with questions or just to say hello. Other big takeaway, DE provides a way at looking at the world and your place in it that extends beyond credit unions. Its about thinking about the big picture and all the small pieces and then finding the connections. DE is CREDIT UNION Development Education, but it would be a mistake to think that DE isn't something that you'll take with you no matter where or what industry you work in.

Who is your favorite musician or band?

Don't laugh too much, but I'm super excited to see Lady Gaga perform in a week. She's not my favorite artist, but I definitely admire her for her quirkiness and individuality. I've also heard its a great show. And yes, I like her music. In general I love music and live music in particular. I'll be going to see Tegan and Sara perform later this spring and am already anticipating Lillith Fair and Rothbury Festival this summer. So if there's a show in your area and you need someone to go with, call me!

What is a book that you would recommend others to read and why?

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
I've been finding parallels between the commoditization of food, the subsequent marketing campaigns to sell food followed by the 'local' movement to the credit unions and the financial service/product sector in general. Plus the book is entertaining and provides good information about food to really make you think about what you eat and where it comes from.

What are you most looking forward to in 2010?
Everything! Its the start of a whole new decade and the possibilities are endless. On a personal/professional note, I'm looking forward to really focusing and setting priorities for my work and myself for 2010. I get excited about so many things and setting priorities allows for more focus and accomplishment. There have been some great articles about setting priorities and saying 'no' recently. Its an important thing to keep in mind. I'd like to dub 2010 the year of the do-er.

Thank you, Stacy for being the first Chatter of the Week! Don't miss her on the CU Chat Up radio show on Wednesday, January 6th!