By Brian McLaughlin
As part of the process of setting up my new consulting business, I contacted my attorney to assist in the development of an LLC membership agreement. I had a meeting with him and, in the course of the meeting, he pointed out that I would need an engagement agreement and a few other operating documents. He then asked if I had yet identified an accountant for the business and whether I had an up-to-date will. He then referred me to another member of his firm to help with my estate planning and an accountant for my business. I was quite aware of what he was doing and really appreciated his thinking of those things when I was more focused on just what I needed at the moment.
Well-run credit unions approach members the same way as my attorney approached me. When members, or potential members, come in and ask for a particular service, front-line staff do not merely act as order-takers, but try to understand what the members’ needs really are and what other needs they have that are either not being met or being met somewhere else. Every member contact should be seen as an opportunity to deepen the relationship and enrich the member’s experience. By ensuring a member receives the right type of account or the loan appropriate for his or her needs, the bond between the member and the credit union not only becomes broader, but deeper as well.
Unlike banks, which tend to be focused on transactions and selling particular “hot” products, it is in the nature of credit unions to build relationships. This simple fact serves credit unions well when considering a move into member business lending. Rather than MBL being a diversion from the mission of credit unions, it is a logical extension of this concept of member service, giving front-line staffers a place to refer members, within the credit union, for help with business services needs that have been identified.
In short, member business lending fits CUs' relationship cultures perfectly. Read more about how one credit union assessed its member business lending opportunity in the column I wrote for Credit Union Management magazine's July "Loan Zone" column.
Brian McLaughlin is a senior banking management professional with over 20 years of experience managing various sized banks and a large credit union. He has more than 35 years of business banking experience. Prior to starting his own firm, Tullamore Consulting, he was chief lending officer for $4 billion ESL Federal Credit Union in Rochester, N.Y.
