By Ron Jooss
Not too long ago, Mary Arnold, our publisher here at CUES, forwarded me this post by Tim McAlpine from the Currency Marketing blog about what Tim calls a "new breed of financial service offerings … that may well pass the credit union movement by."
I'm sure some of your members already use the free personal financial management services (Wesabe, Mint and Jwaala) and the alternative lending sites (Prosper, Zopa, Lending Club and Bill Me Later) that he discusses.
And I'm sure you can find out who they are. Why would you want to? Because these sites are your new competitors. Besides learning about them yourself, you should learn why and how your members are using them.
Here's how: I used to work in a credit union call center. When your members call in to have their accounts serviced, your reps are going to view all their transactions. Chances are better than good that some of your members will have transactions with these new online service providers. Ask your MSRs to casually chat with your members about what they do with these services. Your MSRs have to make small talk while they're processing transactions anyway. Any good MSR is a master at this. And believe me, these members are going to be itching to talk about these online financial service providers. This is also a great way for MSRs to sharpen their relationship-building skills.
In his book Purple Cow, Seth Godin describes people who have an otaku, a Japanese term for "something that is more than a hobby but a little less than an obsession."
The people who use these new Web applications have an otaku about their online banking. They are early adopters, as Godin would say, the critical group of consumers who "turns on" the majority of consumers. Early adopters love to share their experiences. They live on the edge of your competition, where you're very likely to find your next great innovative idea.
Entice your call center people to spot members who use these alternative personal financial management Web sites. Promise your staff some time off the phones doing alternative projects if they can spot a certain number of them in your members' accounts. Believe me, this will motivate your MSRs to develop a sixth sense for finding—and providing you with—these leads.
Start a "skunk works" group in your credit union with the goal of partnering, or exploring the possibility of partnering, with these new providers. You might even invite the members you've identified in to chat with you over coffee and bagels. They would love you for it. And, they'd tell all their friends how highly their credit union values their opinion. The next time a new banking technology hits the Web, they won't even knock on your marketing department's door. They'll walk right in.
Ron Jooss edits the General Management and Board sections of CUES' Credit Union Management magazine.
