CU*Answers recently announced that during the past 12 months it had provided consulting services, participated in and facilitated 20+ Board of Directors Planning Sessions across the country. CU*Answers objective is to work in a collaborative, consultative manner with any credit union desiring to have an industry peer help look at themselves internally, isolate improvement areas and develop a blueprint for better serving members and improving staff productivity; through the use of technology.
A key component of these sessions is for a CU*Answers leader to assist credit unions in determining the “culture” within their member community and plan for the future in a new, strategic manner; one that encourages entrepreneurial thinking by staff and Board of Directors, documenting goals (including timeframes for completion) and accountability for completing assigned tasks.
The overriding objective is to better understand the “member experience” and then focus upon what a credit union can do to create an environment which fosters and delivers greater Member Value. “Can you get members to see themselves reflected in your credit unions services” is a challenging question that every credit union should consider, and be able to enthusiastically answer based on their targeted business vision and member audience.
Additionally, credit unions must often consider that their ability to generate higher income per member is often times a key differentiator between large and small credit unions, and that every credit union should understand their efforts for addressing this important issue. For instance, in many cases, smaller credit unions are able to attack this issue head-on by being more flexible in their ability to adapt to change. This can be an important component for smaller credit unions successfully delivering new, popular technologies faster to market as compared to their larger counterparts.
Throughout these planning sessions, CU*Answers quickly learned that credit unions who are able to embrace these ideals and honestly critique themselves can improve the manner in which they perform business for better serving members and helping ensure their on-going success; even during difficult financial times.