A woman needs $800 for a used car so she can get a new job across town…
A single mom walks in your branch two minutes before closing on Friday, racing straight from work so she can deposit her check and pay her utility bills that will keep the water on that weekend…
A high school student lays the foundation of healthy financial fitness when she learns to set a budget and balance a checkbook…
A man, laid off from his job, needs 30-60 days of understanding while he gets back on his feet…
A family needs assurance that they can afford to have the two-car garage in the nicer school district…
Your team is amazing!!! Every single day, they are changing lives.
90% of the time we’re just a “to-do,”… crammed into a honey-do list somewhere between, “take the dog to the groomer,” and, “pick the kids up from school.”
Our members usually want us to be fast, friendly and simply not screw up their balances.
But the remaining 10% of the time is where the magic happens. That is when people care! They need the house …. Want the car … Misplace a debit card … Need some understanding. Ten percent of the time, your team are FINANCIAL FIRST RESPONDERS!
You will improve service and increase retention when you build a culture around these life changing moments.
- Begin each department or branch meeting with 5-10 minutes of member “life changing” sharing
- Create a process of sharing “life changing” stories on an intranet page or email list serve for the entire staff to see
- Recognize and reward the “life changing moment” of the week
This is a focused, on-going effort that can lead to more satisfied employees, more fulfilled members, higher returns and an entirely new credit union culture.
Focusing on all of the way that your team helps people will:
- Remind them how important their jobs are
- Have them looking for the positives in the more difficult or time-consuming interactions
- Allow every team member to hear the other staff’s stories
- Provide more stories for the staff to share with members
Do you remember the first time that you ever skinned your knee? The first time you saw your own blood? You thought you were gonna die! It was the most excruciating pain you’ve ever felt and you just knew it was never going away.
It’s kind of the same thing with any first-time experience. Whether it’s good or bad, any time we do something for the first time, it is stressful.
One of the most important jobs we have is to lower the stress level for our members. To assure them that we have everything under control, because we do this every day.
Forget skinned knees … an ER nurse can look at the most horrific of injuries and make the person feel calm. Because they have seen it before. They’ve handled it and seen that everything ends up alright.
Your staff are no different as financial first responders. They can lower a member’s blood pressure with a simple statement like, “We had someone go through this last week and everything’s fine.”
It normalizes everything for the member and assures them that they are in good hands.
All you have to do is share the life changing moments stories among your team and with your members.