I recently wrote my Credit Union Management magazine coverage of Arkadi Kuhlmann's session at CUES Experience. (It'll be in the July issue, which just went to press, but I'll also be glad to send an advance e-copy to any reader who e-mails me.) I couldn't fit all of the wonderful, philosophical ideas Kuhlmann, chairman and president of ING DIRECT, shared about serving "Main Street" into the 750 words a magazine page will accommodate. So here are the inspirING leftover quotes, for your consideration and comment:
How do these journeys start? Ever since I got out of school, I've always thought about "What is the opportunity to make a difference, to fulfill one’s destiny?"Having a bank account is a privilege. We close 5,000 accounts every month. We love to tell rich people, "Take your money out and go back to the big banks." In our shop, we actually fire customers.People want to talk about money. In a two-minute phone call, 30 seconds are spent on banking; one and a half minutes are spent on talking about money and values.
Have one great concept, one service feature and get that message through the clutter.
Why you'd want to have a relationship with a bank is beyond me.
I would never do CRM, customer segmentation, customer profitability. Whoa, you're an important customer, so you get this. Everybody is the same, and you don't come up with lots of different products.
Redesign the products, redesign the service, redesign the customers. We don't really design products around the customers.
Why don't we do something that's positive for individuals and the company? Let's get Americans to save more. Feeling down? Don't go buy a new dress or get your hair done. Put some money in an account. That builds self esteem.
The less you touch your customer, the less opportunity you have to screw things up. You have to figure out how you want to promote yourself to the customer and how you want to measure.
Whatever everybody else is doing, we're going to do the opposite. And this is tough because there are some smart people out there doing good things.
I want people to save more money. I want people to have an affordable mortgage. I want to be measured by that. I want people to think better of bankers. I signed up for building a franchise. I want to change the way Americans bank. I'm not in the game to make money. I want people to work with me, people who think we have a mission, that we can make it work right.
When I get down in the dumps, I get on the phones and talk to people about their accolades and joys.
I was worried that people who had a lot of savings might not use the phone or the Internet. I asked my mom what she thought about that and she said, "Well, we're old but we're not stupid."
Who's in the photo? From left, Christopher Stevenson, Dawn Poker, Kuhlmann and Fred Johnson. Christopher is CUES' professional development manager and a chief blogger on this site; Dawn is our SVP/chief learning officer; and Fred is our president/CEO. Yours truly was behind the camera.
