Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
Early this month evening I flew to Madison to be at CUES headquarters for my 10th employment anniversary luncheon (see the photo here). In Detroit, I had to literally run from one plane to the next.
Thankfully I made the flight, still labeled as a Northwest jet, but with clear signs of the Delta merger present. When I thanked one of the flight attendants for waiting, she said, "It's the Delta way. As Northwest, we would have left. But Delta waits for people."
Wow! Am I ever a proponent of the Delta way!
The experience got me to thinking about the marketing aspects of mergers. So let me ask you some questions, especially if you've ever merged with another CU.
- How did you preserve the best in the member service culture of both credit unions? (The Delta way is definitely my choice in terms of helping passengers make connections, but I'd guess there are Northwest culture characteristics worth preserving, too.)
- How did you talk about the merger with members? (There were updates in the Delta in-flight magazine on my Northwest flight.)
- What plan did you have (and at what cost) for converting your brand image to the remaining credit union? (It seems like yesterday that Northwest was repainting planes to match its new brand look, and now Delta is repainting them again.)
