By Lisa Hochgraf
Back in 1984, if you needed to manage a spook, you called "Ghostbusters," or at least that's what happened in the movie by the same name.
Deciding who should be called when it comes to assigning responsibility for delivery channel management at your credit union can be a far more difficult decision.
Today at the CUES School of Product and Channel Management in Schaumburg, Ill., presenter Terence Roche said deciding who's accountable for various areas of reponsibility associated with delivery channels is quite a challenge, because channel management crosses over many business areas.
Roche, principal with CUES Supplier member and CUES strategic provider Cornerstone Advisors Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz., asked attendees to assign primary responsibility for several areas of channel management to either retail, lending, operations, marketing, channel management--a new department charged with the task--or information technology. In the exercise, only one department could be chosen for primary responsibility.
Below is Roche's list. See who you'd call on to take responsibilty for each. Then compare your answers to those given by the 35 attendees of the school.
1. Monitor market trends and new technologies.
2. Monitor vendor product offerings.
3. Monitor member behavior, demands.
4. Maintain the channel roadmap, an implementation guide based on channel strategy.
Here's what the attendees chose: 1. marketing; 2. channel management; 3. marketing; 4. channel management.
"Go back and be clear in your shop" about who is charged with each responsibility, Roche said, acknowledging that sometimes it will vary by channel. "The more you say 'channel management,' the more you have a new position in your credit union."
Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor.
Terence Roche will also speak about best practices in product and channel management at CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network, Nov. 6-9 in Las Vegas.
