Nexus Connection

New Home for Nexus Connection

2011-04-29T12:00:16-05:00

Way back when, CUES Nexus Connection was launched as a conference blog. A few years later it was revitalized as a purveyor of all things in credit union social media and marketing. Now, it's taking a final step, and merging with the CUES Skybox blog. Now, you can find great tidbits and deep insight all in one place.

Check out the refreshed CUES Skybox, with its complete and searchable Nexus Connection archive, at cuesskybox.squarespace.com. (Be sure to update your RSS feed!) And, if you got updates to Nexus via e-mail, you should already have gotten a combined Skybox/Nexus update delivered your inbox.

We welcome your feedback and comments.

Oh How I Wished for Digital Signatures

2011-03-08T12:22:59-06:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

The Friends of the Mendon Public Library here in Mendon, N.Y., elected new officers at the February meeting. Yours truly is again president, but we have a new treasurer and secretary, which means it's time to update the signature cards on our checking and savings accounts.

We gave it a shot last week. The new treasurer called and said I should stop by the organization's bank (I know, I know, but it's a big library supporter) and sign the card. She'd stop by later and pick it up and take it to the secretary to sign.

We got our wires crossed.

The treasurer arrived before I did and picked up the cards. Since her son was home with a bad ear infection, I couldn't stop over to her house to sign ... and she leaves today for her vacation.

Needless to say, we're going to deal with it when she gets back.

I imagine that a digital signature arrangement--especially one that allowed each of us to sign from our own desktops--could have made this process much easier.

Has anyone had personal experience with online account opening/signature card updating? I'd like to hear how it could be done a simpler, better way.

Can Your Kids' Account Compete?

2011-03-01T14:10:20-06:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

I've been thinking a lot about what John Oliver presented at the inaugural Director Strategy Seminar last month. And, I've been watching my 7-year-old get really excited about Web-based games.

These seemingly separate trains of thought actually have some direct bearing on each other. Bear with me.

President of Laurel Management Systems in Palm Springs, Calif., Oliver told attendees that they needed to look at the customer experiences members were having in the larger marketplace, not just with other financial institutions. Members' overall experiences--the ones they're having with amazon.com and Zappos, for example--are setting the tone for all other experiences.

My 7-year-old has been playing--every minute that I'll let him--Poptropica.com, "a virtual world in which kids explore and play in complete safety. Every month, millions of kids from around the world are entertained and informed by Poptropica’s engaging quests, stories and games."

Poptropica has a number of features that credit unions interested in capturing my son's financial business might want to keep in mind:

Great graphics and animation.
Always-on technology. My son actually gave up on Club Penguin, Disney's social network for kids, after a few days because its servers were consistently too full and too slow.
Kid independence tactfully supervised in the background by adults. Information for parents is clearly displayed and written on both Poptropica and Club Penguin.
A fun financial learning place. The little guy has been saving "dubloons" and even took and paid back a loan to support purchases necessary to his success in the game. No offense, but he's learned way more about money here than from our credit union.

Anyone out there going after kids' accounts? If so, how are your graphics, technology, and financial learning games? What are your best strategies for meeting the high expectations of today's kids, and for involving their parents? How are you teaching them useful money lessons?

The Branded Interview

2011-02-16T09:35:08-06:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

As a long-time magazine editor, I thought I knew most of the tricks for handling media interviews. (I even discussed some of them recently in this CU Broadcast interview.)

But last week at CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange, I learned something new: When you're answering a reporter's questions on behalf of your organization, don't say "I" or "We." Rather, brand your organization by using its full name whenever possible.

For example, say "ABC Federal Credit Union believes deeply in the importance of information security and protecting member privacy" rather than "We believe deeply in the importance of information security and protecting member privacy." Especially when the interview positions you as a subject matter expert, this is a great way to bring your brand into the interview.

This great tip came out of the session presented by Mark Bernheimer, founder and principal of MediaWorks Resource Group, Los Angeles. Watch for more coverage of his session in an upcoming issue of Credit Union Management magazine.

Read more posts from CUES Symposium.

Some PR Advice: Editors Want to, Well, Edit

2011-01-24T08:49:29-06:00

By Lisa Hochgraf

I got a big surprise a few weeks back when I got a PDF press release from a credit union public relations person. Since I was interested in the content of the release, I wrote back, asking for the release in Word, which I find easier to copy and paste into my electronic ideas files. (I also find Word files more editable if I'm directly using the release in one of CUES' publications.)

The PR person granted my request, but surprised me by writing back: "Typically we release them in PDF format so they're uneditable."

Uneditable?

Oh my. Please be kind to the editors you're hoping will cover your credit union's news. Send them a very editable press release so they can easily adapt it for their publications.

I also recently talked about how CUs can work well with editors in this interview with Mike Lawson at CU Broadcast. I was nervous; but I tried to apply this good advice for on-camera interviews.

What are your best tips for dealing with being nervous during an interview? And what works for you to get press coverage of your CU? I hope you'll add "send editable files to editors" to your bag of tricks.

Extreme Makevover: Business Edition

2010-12-06T09:51:22-06:00

By Theresa Witham

Recently, while catching up on my knitting blog reading, I stumbled upon an American Express small business promotion.

American Express's Project RE:Brand pairs small business American Express customers with small business marketing companies (also American Express customers) to provide a brand makeover. So far, three small, family-owned companies have won a re-branding session with a different marketer. Each rebrand plays out in a series of videos on the American Express Web site. The first video series features a yarn company owned by a husband and wife looking to revamp their advertising. I started watching the videos as a knitter but soon started thinking as an editor who covers credit union marketing and business lending.

I think credit unions that offer small business loans and services should steal this idea. Pair up with a local ad agency or branding consultant (or maybe even a CUES Supplier member?) and run a contest in your market. The prize: a session, or two or three with the marketers, sponsored by your credit union. Pitch it as an Extreme Makeover: Business Edition to your local media. It could be a unique way to get the word out about your small business products.

First Financial Federal Credit Union has already found a unique way to reach out to small businesses, winning CUES Golden Mirror Awards recognition in the process. The CU surveyed local businesses about what they were looking for in their business banking, by sending out 7,000 over-sized postcards with personalized URLs. The incentive for filling out the PURL survey was a chance to win $5,000 worth of radio advertising on the area's most frequently listened to station. Check out the CU's GMA entry form here.

Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.

Putting on the Ritz

2010-11-12T10:03:00-06:00

By Lucy Roidt

A highlight of this month's Alabama Council meeting was the presentation by Jeff Hargett, corporate director of learning and content delivery for Ritz Carlton. He did a fantastic job providing tips for great credit union service based on the culture at Ritz Carlton.

Some highlights of Jeff’s presentation:

Treat co workers with respect.
Employees who are engaged do a better job--they don’t "just" show up to work.
All employees make mistakes and that’s OK so long as they learn from those mistakes.
Customers want resolution, so find out the answers and call them back.
Culture is not one aspect of the game. It’s the game.
You have the ability to show how to treat people with respect. Just do it.
Good service requires discipline.
There’s only one of me. That’s who I am.
Let’s get our manners back right now!
Some employees are like CAVE people: Continuously Against Virtually Everything!
Excellent service begins in your heart.
There needs to be more of a human contact with members and co-workers; e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, texting are appropriate at times but should never take the place of personal contact like a phone call.
No company, person or business is perfect.
The experience a potential member has will always be remembered. Make a commitment to provide good service.
The Ritz Carlton motto is: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

Lucy Roidt is CUES' executive education and councils manager.

We're all Talking but Is Anybody Listening?

2010-10-25T17:02:48-05:00

By Tim McAlpine

Credit unions are writing blog posts, posting videos, tweeting tweets, updating statuses and generally blasting out messages any way possible through all these "free" social media channels. We're all talking, but is anybody listening? Or more specifically, is anybody interacting?

It used to be that we counted success on the Web by the number of hits, then we moved on to average time on your site, unique visitors or video views. But now it seems that everybody is striving for interactions. These days, people are obsessed with:

How many comments per blog post?
How many retweets or mentions on Twitter?
How many comments or likes on Facebook?

This shift makes sense in our modern age of conversation. According to Wikipedia, "a common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value."

If you were to take the pulse of all the credit union social media activity, you'd quickly find there is not a lot of social interaction for the co-creation of value going on. In fact, Jeffry Pilcher from the Financial Brand recently researched numerous blogs at credit unions and banks and discovered that many seem to be accumulating digital dust bunnies in the comment area. Even most long-standing blogs received less than one comment per post.

My take on the situation is that blog comments, retweets, mentions and likes are hard to come by. You have to put something extremely creative, humorous, controversial or emotional out there to summon a reaction. Not typically words associated with credit union content! According to Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research, 70 percent of people who participate in social media are simply spectators—those that watch videos, listen to podcasts or read blogs.

Very few people actually interact. It's intimidating to put yourself out there on the Internet and have people judge your writing and thinking! This is why most people simply lurk.

For these reasons, I highly suggest incorporating lightweight ways for your visitors or followers to interact in your social media initiatives. Opinion polls, ratings or public voting on contests are all great places to start.

The Power of Voting

At Currency Marketing, we have incorporated contesting and public voting into all our social media marketing programs. We've found no better way to drive traffic, word-of-mouth buzz and online interaction. Those participating in your contests become your promoters, pushing your brand and messages into circles you could never reach.

Here are a few scenarios to consider when designing your voting system.

Limited voting. One vote per e-mail or IP address. This tends to the most fair.
Unlimited voting. No limits on the number of times voters can vote. This tends to drive the most traffic.
Limited multiple voting. One vote per day or week to encourage repeat visits.
Number of "retweets" on Twitter or "likes" on Facebook. This gets your message into the large social networks.

Regardless of the vote type, you can assume a small percentage of people participating in your contests will try to game the system, so it's very important to build safeguards into your voting system to thwart off the hackers. You should include the ability to track IP addresses and sense machine voting. You may even consider requiring your voters to confirm their vote by e-mail.

Voting is a lightweight way to encourage interaction and drive traffic. We've also seen contest voting as a great way to drive comments and build that "social interaction for the co-creation of value" that we're all looking for.

We Want YOUR Vote

Our six Next Top Credit Union Exec finalists have been putting their hearts and souls into blog posts and videos since June and now they are coming together at CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network on Nov. 8 to present the progress of their projects to all the attendees.

The winner, who will be named Nov. 10, will be determined by:

50 percent on-site judges,
25 percent attendee votes and
25 percent online votes.

Online votes is where you come in. Please visit http://www.nexttopcreditunionexec.com/vote on Tues., Nov. 9. We will be accepting one vote per legitimate e-mail address from bright and early in the morning until 5 p.m. Eastern. Check out the final presentations and have your say in who takes home the title of Next Top Credit Union Exec. You can even leave a comment on the blog if you're so daring!

Tim McAlpine has been a credit union member for over 15 years and is president and creative director of Currency Marketing. Tim is a passionate credit union advocate best known for developing the Young & Free Program that credit unions from around North America are using to connect with new Generation Y members. Make sure to subscribe to Tim's blog and to follow Tim on Twitter!

Way More Than Just a TV Screen

2010-10-07T13:37:00-05:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Last week I had the pleasure of getting out of my home office (in the basement) and having lunch with Sharon Kloceck-Ibbotson, creative service team leader for Kiosk & Display. The company is based in Atlanta, but Sharon's located here in Rochester, N.Y. (Ironically, I met Sharon last fall while in the swine flu line with our children--and that meeting was a factor in the post "Screen Time: When is it Welcome?")

In that earlier post, I mentioned that a former boss of mine had posted to Facebook something to the effect of "Do I really have to watch TV while I pump gas?" Sharon's response to that would be, "Absolutely not." In fact, she suggested to me yeserday that showing CNN on the screens in a CU's branch lobby does nothing to support the CU's brand.

Instead, Sharon has a vision for how digital screens and kiosks should support a CU's market image. She sees today's digital screens as a place not for CNN and not just for advertisements, but also as a community information place--a place where people can find out what's the big event in town this weekend. And at the event, what time is the frog jumping contest?

Once members are seeing useful content, advertisements become a manageable addition. Being an editor, this made me think of magazines. If the content is really good, people pick them up and read them -- and then they also see the ads. Sharon recommends to her clients that they include guidelines for their "animation" brand in their overall brand guide.

So how does one measure the ROI of having a content-advertising campaign on digital signs in your branch (or oustide, if having a very bright display works in your location)? Sharon says some CUs have used the signs to sell tickets and others to promote T-shirts. So the number of tickets and T-shirts distributed gets you close. Sharon recommends considering some sign-only promotions with measurables like the tickets or T-shirts to really gauge whether the screens are pushing the traffic.

Oh and did you know that a digital signage/kiosk campaign can tie in directly with your CU's social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter? That was news to me, too--and I'm inspired to learn more about the capabilities of digital displays. They're clearly way more than just TV screens these days.

What cool stuff do you do with digital signs in your branches?

Our Day to Shine … Golden Mirror Style!

2010-10-04T13:48:54-05:00

Posted by Lisa Fawcett

I didn’t arrive to work ready for this … 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31. My CEO, Tony Carnarvon, has everyone in our main branch paged over the loud speaker, asking us all to come to our lobby. We all crowd in … noticing that there is coffee and cake to be had! The day is looking good already! Tony thanks everyone for coming down and announces that we have something to celebrate, and to join us is Fred Johnson, the president and CEO of the Credit Union Executives Society. Tony opens an office door, and out comes Mr. Johnson. We had no idea that Tony had locked him in there! I got goose bumps as he walked out, and I realized … something’s up!

Mr. Johnson took center stage and invited me and my marketing team up to join him. He said that he had not done this before, but when CUES asked him to hit the road and award the Golden Mirror Awards, he agreed. He proceeded to announce our awards, one by one, and hand out the distinctive trophies, which I passed down to my team members. Five awards in our hands! We were lookin’ good! Mr. Johnson commented that all of my team members’ hands were full, but that I didn’t have anything to hold. He fixed that! He then announced that we won the “Best of Show” for our Project 100 initiative and handed me the heavy crystal award! WOO HOO!

I was overwhelmed. What a great feeling for me, my team and our credit union! I’ve been to glitz-and-glamour award ceremonies, which are nice, but generally at those you are the only one from your credit union amongst other credit union people from all around the country. This presentation was much more personal and exciting! It was so awesome to have my entire marketing team on hand, our CEO, and all of the credit union employees who came to the lobby to share in the excitement of Fred Johnson’s award presentation. It was definitely our day to shine … Golden Mirror style!!

After the lobby party ended, my team went to our board room to watch the judges’ video that Mr. Johnson left for us. It was so rewarding to hear why the judges selected Project 100 as their choice for Best of Show. I want to thank the judges who put in a tremendous amount of time and effort reviewing the entries in all of the categories, and express how honored we are to have stood out amongst all of the incredible entries that they saw this year. Truly an honor.

Oh yeah … so…What is Project 100? In a nutshell, Project 100 was first created in 2009 to address Southeast Michigan’s severe economic downturn, and to promote the spirit of giving in our local communities. It involved a few Co-op employees hitting the streets in local communities randomly distributing $100 bills to people with only one request. Think about what you can do to give in your local community. Its impact went far beyond what we had originally expected. Check out www.whatisproject100.com to see the initiative in action.

To see all of the winning 2010 CUES Golden Mirror Awards entries, visit cuesgma.org.

Lisa Fawcett is the Marketing Director at Co-op Services Credit Union.

Pictured above: Bryan Feldpausch, Lisa Fawcett, Fred Johnson (CUES' President/CEO), Anthony Carnarvon (CSCU President/CEO), Beverly Outland and Jay Jackson. Bottom row: Kathy Hurt, Jeremy Cybulski

Marketing in the Mall

2010-09-27T08:30:00-05:00

Posted by Erin Templer

I saw something last weekend that really caught my attention, and I knew immediately that I had to take a picture of it and post it on the Nexus blog to share with everyone.

While I was in Green Bay, Wis. doing a little shopping, I saw this ad for Pioneer Credit Union painted on the wall.

It’s a little tough to tell from the photo I took on my phone, so I’ll explain what I saw as I walked into the mall. In the entrance, along a huge portion of the wall was this mural with three fun house mirrors and it read, “What shape are your finances? Stretched, Shaky or Phat! Take control. Switchtopioneer.org.”

I can’t remember ever seeing anything like it before. The mural stood out and spoke to the audience at the mall perfectly. And, better yet, the fun house mirrors made it interactive. It really stopped me in my tracks, which is quite the task when I’m shopping.

Props to Pioneer CU for this fun and unusual marketing approach. Switchtopioneer.org is also a great site. You should check it out.

How have you been able to think outside the box to get your credit union noticed?

How do you Define Sales and Service Culture Success?

2010-09-22T12:34:00-05:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Return on investment has always been important to credit unions. But in this tough economy, making sure investments pay off is perhaps an even greater focus than before.

Last week during CUES School of Sales & Service in Vancouver, British Columbia, presenter Mike Neill talked about how credit unions can best measure whether their sales and service efforts are delivering as they should. Neill said CUs should use multiple measures, plus make sure they are serving as members' trusted advocates.

First, the measures:

Loan balance per member
Share balance per member
Product penetration for members within the first 90 days of membership
Product penetration
Checking penetration

Being a member advocate is also key to sales and service culture success, according to Neill. And being such an advocate doesn't mean helping with transactions. It means helping members do such things as:

Buy a house.
Send a child to college.
Pay for a daughter's wedding.
Drive the car he or she wants to drive.
Reduce the time it takes to pay bills.

"I believe we have to differentiate on being a trusted member advocate," Neill added. "You can't help dominate in that market because no one else wants to play in it."

Also read "Try out Being a Sales & Service Coach."

Training the Sales Coach: Effective Confrontation

2010-09-21T07:47:08-05:00

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

In my last post, I talked about the great ideas the attendees at CUES School of Sales and Service-Canada had last week for training a ficitious new teller who wasn't getting up to speed on cross-selling.

Here are some tips from presenter Mike Neill, president of Michael Neill & Associates, Atlanta, on how to most effectively confront an employee about improving his or her performance, should training not be the right course of action, or be ineffective with that particular employee:

Remember, people are good.
Tell the employee what behavior is inappropriate.
Express some positive attribute of the employee.
Tell the employee the impact of their behavior.
Ask them to provide you with a solution.
Agree on a solution.
Monitor the behavior.
Let the employee know you have noticed the improvement.
If the behavior does not change, re-evaluate.

When's the last time you had to confront a sales and service employee about their behavior? What words did you use?

Try out Being a Sales and Service Coach

2010-09-20T11:51:21-05:00

From left: CUES member Rene Rudder, service quality leader, Barbados Public Workers' Co-operative CU Ltd., St. Michael, Barbados; CUES member Mandy Gerhold, manager, Lambton Financial Credit Union, Sarnia, Ontario; CUES member Kaley McLeod, regional manager/sales, Prairie Centre CU Ltd., Rosetown, Saskatchewan; CUES member Andrew Solnordal, regional manager, G & F Financial Group, Burnaby, British Columbia; CUES member Richard Moore, manager/branch operations, Lambton Financial Credit Union, Sarnia, Ontario; CUES member George Nahodil, EVP/retail delviery/marketing, Members 1st Federal Credit Union, Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and Mike Neill, president, Michael Neill and Associates, Atlanta. Not pictured: Laurie Wiest, VP/human resources/training and development, The Summit Federal Credit Union, Rochester, N.Y.

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

The (above) attendees of last week's CUES School of Sales and Service in Vancouver, British Columbia, were a sharp bunch. Presenter Mike Neill, president of Michael Neill & Associates, Atlanta, couldn't have been more pleased with their responses to how to help a fictitious new teller get better at cross-selling to more effectively serve members.

In the rest of this post you can read the same exercise attendees worked with, consider attendees' responses, and add your responses in the comments.

Here goes!

1. Read the exercise.

Mark is newest teller at your branch. This is his first job working at a financial institution, so he’s had a lot to learn. He is enthusiastic and friendly with members, and he works hard to be accurate in member transactions and in balancing his cash drawer. He had a full week of training when he joined the credit union and additional training in one- and two-day workshops since then, including a two-day session on cross-selling skills. Mark also works regularly with a peer mentor, Sara. It is Sara’s job to work one on one with Mark a couple times a week on basic teller skills, including demonstrating how to cross-sell; Mark also turns to Sara whenever he has a question.

Mark was expected to meet sales goals of 50 products beginning his second month on the job. During that month, Mark cross-sold five products. In the following, and most recent, month, Mark cross-sold 15 products.

You are scheduled to meet with Mark for his first quarterly evaluation next week. In all other aspects of his work, Mark performs well for a new employee and he passed his product knowledge assessment (just barely, but he passed.) You are concerned about his cross-selling totals.

"Come up with one training option for him," Neill asked the group. "You don’t want to repeat something he’s already had."

2. Consider attendees' responses.

First, Mandy Gerhold suggested having Mark write down what he had tried to do already to close a cross sell. "See what worked and what didn’t," suggested Gerhold, manager with $180 million Lambton Financial Credit Union, Sarnia, Ontario. "Talk it over."

Then, from Laurie Wiest, VP/human resources/training and development at $467 million The Summit Federal Credit Union, Rochester, N.Y.: "Probably the manager needed to step in and do some observations, focus on the mentoring of the cross-training, encourage some different perspective and other cross-selling techniques."

Finally, this comment: "We need to have someone else mentor from a big-picture point of view," added George Nahodil, EVP/retail delivery/marketing for $1.8 billion Members 1st Federal Credit Union, Mechanicsburg, Pa." Mark needs to look at the big picture and see why what he’s doing is important."

3. Add your own responses in the comments! What training would you offer Mark?