Member Profile: Bobbie Garner

Unlike retail businesses, at an online business like EverythingCU.com, we don’t get regular in-person interaction with our customers. Which is one of the reasons I love speaking to CU leagues and conducting hands-on social media workshops for them. And it’s also the reason why I particularly loved the phone call I had today with EverythingCU’er Bobbie Garner.

Recently I got to meet Bobbie in person at the CU Water Cooler Symposium in Indianapolis at the end of October. Bobbie had just attended the first-ever EverythingCU Webinar Roundtable, so it was pretty cool to meet her in-person just two days later. At the Symposium, Bobbie told me that her credit union was really liking their new Beehive online budget tracking tool from EverythingCU.

Recently, I got to chat with Bobbie a little bit more, to find out how Beehive was working for her. She told me that she was excited to be using it for her 2011 budget, and that the credit union had looked at other options, but none was as easy-to-use and inexpensive as Beehive. It turns out that Bobbie works part-time for the credit union; and the marketing budget is coordinated between four people; herself, their full time Community Relations Specialist who is a recent college grad, and two other executives at Health Care Professionals FCU.

In the course of the conversation, Bobbie also told me that the budget that she has to work with at Health Care Professionals FCU is much more than her budget last year, thanks to EverythingCU’s Marketing Budget Report. She said that by using the “Export to Excel” function of several report pages, and turning them into graphs, it was clear that her credit union’s marketing budget was well below comparable credit unions. The CU Marketing Budget Report is also extremely inexpensive, and we keep it that way on purpose, both for selfish and altruistic reasons. We hope hundreds more credit unions take advantage of it; selfishly, because if CUs use it to get their budgets increased, we hope they spend some of those ‘extra’ dollars on us, but also altruistically in that we truly love to further the credit union movement, and increasing marketing budgets will spread the good CU word even farther.

Bobbie also mentioned that the EverythingCU site is a wonderful resource in its own right, and how she reminds the credit union’s Specialist to always check the Document Center before creating a new document from scratch since there are more than 1400 documents in that library!

Basically, we wish we could plant a tree to grow more clients like Bobbie and HCP FCU… they are big fans of EverythingCU (and we’re big fans of theirs), and they use many of our products: the Executive Membership, webinars, the EverythingCU CU Marketing Budget Report, and most recently our Beehive Online Budget Tracking tool. We’re thrilled that they are getting great value from being a part of this online community!

Getting your member testimonials online

EverythingCU’s PlumWall continues to draw new member testimonials for the credit unions that have deployed it.

Here’s some of the latest stories that have been shared online:

Heartland CU in Minnesota:

“While on vacation there was a glitch with my Heartland VISA card. I can’t stress enough how the quick actions of Heartland Credit Union allowed my family and I to have a fantastic, uninterrupted vacation! An issue that has taken me days to correct at other banks was fixed within minutes! That outstanding level of customer service and attention to detail is what will keep customers loyal to Heartland for years and years. Thanks again to the terrific staff at Heartland CU.”

“Amy and Carol have always been great to work with. I have been a member for 15+ years and Amy just closed an auto loan for me super fast. It’s nice to see efficiency in motion & the personal touch they give. Many thanks!”

Innovations FCU in Florida:

“I recently switched to Innovations FCU because I was extremely dissatisfied with the customer service with my previous local credit union. I was very cautious….I checked out the online site first, then called the main branch to ask questions. The representative was extremely helpful. I have been banking with them for over 2 months and so far the experience has been extremely positive. No matter which of the 3 branches I have been to…. the customer service has been Wonderful! I use the online banking service… Great response when I had questions. I have been recommending Innovations to my family and friends!”

Centra CU in Indiana:

“Orchids to Rachel and Greg at Centra Credit Union, Edinburgh Branch for helping me so much when I discovered fraudulent activity on my account: Rachel for getting my card closed so quickly and Greg for refunding my account as soon as possible”

Fantastic that potential members are learning about the benefits of being a member of these credit unions!

PlumWall™ Explained

For those of you missed my free EverythingCU webinar, PlumWall™ Explained, I’ve put it online on SlideShare.net for your viewing pleasure. The last portion of the slidecast includes outstanding questions from you, our members, and my answers to them. Enjoy!

PlumWall Explained

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Describing a credit union

Last week, some great conversation kicked up on EverythingCU about how to describe a credit union in 30 seconds. (Thanks, Butch!)

My own opinion is that describing a credit union is much like the fable of the six blind men and the elephant. Each of the blind men touches a different part of the elephant and comes away with a different idea of what the thing is.

Credit unions are like the elephant in this story. What a credit union is to you is different depending on what matters to you. Some love the low rates on loans. Others love the great rates on savings vehicles. Others don’t care about the rate on their loan, and are just thrilled that they CAN get a loan. Others love the personal service. Others don’t give a darn about personal service. Some love the convenience. Others love the INCONVENIENCE. (seriously, I have had more than one person tell me this conducting focus groups for credit unions. The “don’t tell my spouse I have this fund” account.) Some love the electronic services. Others love coming into a branch. Others love both. And believe it or not, some people love it because it’s a cooperative. Others love it because the money stays local, and makes the community better. Many could care less that it’s a cooperative, because “ownership” means nothing to them. Some love the no- or low-fees. Others love that the CU does what’s in THEIR financial best interest, even when it’s not in the CU’s best interest.

And that’s just off the top of my head.

WARNING: The rest of this message is a blatant sales pitch for EverythingCU’s new PlumWall product. BUT I only say it because I 1000% know it to be true, and I would be remiss in my duties to further the CU movement if I *didn’t* put this out there:

All of the above statement is exactly why we created PlumWall for your CU to utilize. It’s been one hundred years, and we haven’t come up with a universally agreed upon explanation for a credit union, nor a single brand statement – BECAUSE THERE ISN’T JUST ONE.

So let’s STOP looking for the “one right answer” and let our members tell everyone how THEY see it… because people relate to other people like them, and trust other people like them by a factor of 100-to-1 over any marketing that an institution puts out (especially a big scary financial institution). This is why single-SEG CUs are so successful and why no one comes running in the door when a CU goes to a community charter.

PlumWall lets your members tell others, online, why they love the CU. I can’t wait to read more of your members’ stories about how fantastic your CU is.

FREE PlumWall Informational webinar, July 16

For credit union professionals, I will be holding a short, free informational webinar about our new social media/ testimonial product, PlumWall on Thursday, July 16, at 2 pm Eastern/1 pm Central.

You are probably already at least somewhat familiar with social media. Have you set-up a blog, created a facebook fan page for your credit union, or opened a twitter account to little fanfare? Perhaps you are wondering how you can get involved with “social media” but are concerned about losing control, or IT is shutting down access to certain sites.

Or perhaps you are looking for ways to get more out of your limited marketing budget. You know that online marketing is very low cost compared to traditional media, but don’t know how to leverage it for maximum effect. Maybe you are a fan of member testimonials and member referrals and are looking to put them online, quickly, easily and inexpensively?

Well, EverythingCU.com has the answer for you. With PlumWall, not only have we taken the “scariness” out of social media, we’ve made it as easy as pie for you. PlumWall makes it quick and easy to share member and employee stories online, and puts the whole thing TOTALLY UNDER YOUR CONTROL.

At this short webinar, I will be answering all your PlumWall questions! If I doesn’t know the answer, I’ll make something up that doesn’t sound too far-fetched. We anticipate this info portion of this webinar will last 30 minutes, followed by as much Q&A as your heart desires.

View PlumWall in action on Innovations FCU’s web site.

View the Info page about PlumWall.

Attend this webinar and learn:
• How easy it is to put your member stories online with PlumWall
• How quick and easy it is to get your PlumWall up and running
• About the control panel that puts YOU in charge of everything posted on your web site
• Techniques to increase PlumWall participation
• The answer to any questions you have about how PlumWall works for you, your credit union, and your membership.

Hope to see you there! I’m thrilled that attendance is already running high for this webinar – 67 CUs are already signed up at last count!

Announcing PlumWall

“It’s not about the CU story you tell your members — it’s all about the story your members tell themselves about doing business with your credit union.”
— Ron Shevlin, Aite Group, at BarCampBank NewEngland 4.5.08

There is something new on the EverythingCU home page, and in the navigation bars, called PlumWall.

“What the heck is a PlumWall, and what have you crazy EverythingCU people done now?” you may be asking yourself.

Here at EverythingCU, we’ve understood the power of testimonials for a long time. Heck, it’s the main reason we get out of bed every morning and continue to work to keep your community the amazingly neat and clean place that it continues to be.

Now we have harnessed the power of the web, World 2.0 and social media to allow CREDIT UNIONS and their MEMBERS to share the joy, power, and beauty that is the CREDIT UNION MOVEMENT with one another.

PlumWall enables you to easily upload your member stories and testimonials about your CU. We all know you have LOADS of them, especially loan officers who are literally changing people’s lives for the better. EVERY loan officer has at least three or four VERY special stories they keep on their office wall. Well, it’s time to bring them OUT IN THE PUBLIC for ALL TO SEE!

So check out PlumWall, and see if it’s a fit for YOUR CU’s web site.

Here’s a link to more info.

Here’s a sample of what it looks like, using EverythingCU as example

Here’s what your control panel will look like.

We know it’s not perfect out of the gate, and have room to improve it, but at least it’s a fresh start to make sharing member testimonials online really easy. Feel free to email me any questions, comments, or feedback, or call my cell phone any time at 413-535-0621! We’d love to set it up for you!