How Do You Serve Your Chicken?

There is a Chinese food restaurant in my neighborhood that is my husband’s and my “go to” place when we have a night where do don’t feel like cooking.  Out of the eight or so Chinese places that are within 10 minutes of our house, we like going to this particular one the most. 

The reason we like going there so much is because the place is clean, the people are friendly, and they are flexible with how they let you order traditional items on their menu.  For example, we love General Tso’s Chicken, but hate the heavy breading and greasy fried meat found at most places.  Here is our typical order:

General Tso’s Chicken

Unbreaded, steamed/boiled white meat

Extra broccoli

With as many times we have ordered this dish in our health-conscious way, we have probably received the finished product in that many ways as well:

• No broccoli
• Extra vegetables, but no broccoli
• Chicken was fried with breading
• Chicken was fried without breading
• Very little meat and lots of vegetables
• Big pieces of steamed chicken with the perfect amount of sauce and broccoli
• Chicken with runny sauce
• Do you see my point now?

I never know what I’m going to get when I order that particular dish, and, as long as my chicken isn’t fried, at the end of the day I don’t really care that much.  But if I decide to change, I would do so quietly.  I just wouldn’t go back again.

It's All About the Service Delivery

There IS a relation between me ordering my General Tso’s “my way” Chicken and banking with my financial institution.  What happened if I mailed a check to be deposited into my checking and it went into savings instead, thus causing an overdraft?  How many times do you think that would happen before I decided to change institutions? 

Your service delivery is everything.  And, while each person’s comfort level and anger threshold is different, you need to make sure your entire team is ready to treat every interaction and transaction like it is your last with that member.  Listen to them, make sure you do exactly what they ask for, exceed their expectations, and give them a reason to come back.  Otherwise, you may be quietly losing members or customers without them giving you a chance to find out why.

Amanda

Want to gauge the service delivery in your financial institution?  MarketMatch can help!  Our process creates and transforms the actual “voice of the customer” into clear knowledge-based strategy and ties service delivery strategy to the customer experience and brand promise.

Contact me to learn how we can help turn your challenges into opportunities with guaranteed ROI on your efforts. 

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Tell the World Your Goals to Hit Them.

Any runner will tell you, "If you want to stay motivated to train for a big race ... tell everyone your goal."

What's true in running is typically true in life.  And what's true in life is almost ALWAYS true in business. 

Last year, we had a client with a core objective of growing loans.  We looked at their current portfolio, recent growth trends and local market conditions and determined that funding $100,000,000 in new loans in one year was a reasonable goal.  Now, the exercise could have stopped there ... but it didn't.

We weren't happy with simply posting an internal goal and measuring, we wanted the world to know.  So, on January 1, we bought ads telling the area that we were lending ... In a time when big banks were perceived as reining-in their approvals, we were lending ... In a time when the economy was beginning to recover and larger purchases were once again an option, we were lending.

Through the entire year, we carried the $100,000,000 theme. If we talked about an auto loan, we mentioned our goal.  When we touted our mortgage expertise, we mentioned our goal.  Whether we talked to new members or old, we mentioned our goal.  One thing was bluntly clear to the community, our members and staff ... come what may, we were going to lend $100,000,000 before the end of December 31!

Tell the world when you set it,
tell the world when you hit it!

And it worked!  Our $268 million credit union client funded 3,590 new vehicles, 548 homes, helped 185 small business grow and assured that 417 students went to college.  In all, we loaned more than $105 million in 2012. 

You can read about it in this link to the CU Times.

And this year, through refined targeting and improved processes, we expect to do even better!

How did they accomplish what so many institutions are vying for?  Consistency!  

• A consistent and clear message to staff
• A consistent message all year to the community and members

As marketers, we too often feel a need to change up creative with every single media buy.  This case proves just the opposite.  Pick a message and run with it!  Month-after-month; day-after-day.  

Tell the world your goal this year and watch it happen!

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With more than 177,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

Weave the Web ... Draw the Flies

A lone spider in a swarm of flies, but no web, starves.

We had the pleasure of spending part of our week with a new client.  In many of our new engagements, we start with a “Discovery Phase,” where we analyze the client’s financials, product usage, branch experience, corporate culture, competition and markets.  This particular client was not uncommon.

As marketers, conventional wisdom says that it is our job to drive traffic.  That’s because we are the “great communicators.”  And to be honest, I can’t disagree.

But, because we are the great communicators, it is also our job to manage internal communication.

While we have a ton of data yet to collect and analyze for our new client before seeing the whole picture, it is obvious that, given their corporate culture, the focus should be on internal communication before we pursue external initiatives.  In short … weave the web BEFORE we draw the flies.

Holes in the web allow prey to fly right by.  Here's what you can do.

Connect the parts: Like a spider web, your corporate structure needs to be tightly woven together.  If you have gaps in your branch network or between business units, you’ll miss opportunities. 

Look at all of your branches.  Do any of them feel forgotten or on an island?  If your corporate location is the “main office,” what are the rest of your branches … minor?

Do your business units have the best interest of the entire organization at heart or are they focused on their individual goals.  Do you have “mortgage customers” or “bank customers / credit union members”?  There is a HUGE difference.  How about referrals?  Can your tellers identify a proper Wealth Management prospect, for instance?  Do they know what to ask in order to qualify them?  Do they want to?

I don’t care if it takes a truckload of TNT … blow up the silos!  Get every corporate entity reading from the same playbook, looking out for each other’s interests and communicating.  An employee doesn’t need to be proficient in every product from every business line, but they should have a basic knowledge of what each product is, who would benefit from them and who they can contact quickly to get help.

Consistency:  A successful web is evenly disbursed from top to bottom.  And the fly will get treated the same no matter which part they fall into.

Think about it.  McDonald's didn’t become the world’s largest food chain because they are gourmet.  They are successful because you know what to expect.  A Big Mac tastes the same in Ohio, Florida or Florence, Italy.

The same should be said of your branches.  I should get treated the same at the corporate location as I do at your smallest, most rural branch – or your largest, busiest branch. 

You can accomplish this through tight, consistent hiring standards and a well communicated and demonstrated corporate culture.  You can also assure consistency with ongoing training and uniform sales tools across the institution.  Set service standards that become the backbone of your culture and that every employee must live up to.

Review, Repair, Rebuild: For the last month or so, I’ve been watching a spider on my back porch.  Every 2-3 days, this little sucker is repairing or completely rebuilding her web. 

It’s basic nature that things change.  Through market conditions or internal factors, gaps may open in your web.  Create a process to review the web periodically to determine if areas need to be reconnected or if changes are so great that we need to reconfigure the whole darn thing to catch the most opportunities.

If you focus on drawing flies before the web is sound, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunity and experience wasted effort, resources and budget. 

First, weave the web – then draw the flies.

For a case study from a community bank in Lawrenceburg, KY, click here.

With more than 130,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues.  Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

Here are the conferences where you can find MarketMatch.

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MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

See our story here. (click)

Chat with me LIVE! (click)

Or email me directly (click)

937-426-9848

A Boy and His Dogs (5 Ways to Create Loyal Customers)

We started a fun new chapter of our lives last Friday when we got two new dogs.  Yes, TWO!!!!  What was I thinking?!?!

It got me to thinking … we’re starting new relationships from scratch.  Kind of like you do with customers every day.

So here are a few things that I’ve learned about loyalty from my dogs … and who knows loyalty better than a pooch?

Kindness

This one goes without saying – well, until now.  But, like pups, customers respond to a kind voice and gentle demeanor. 

Consistency

Dogs and customers both have a short memory.  They are most likely to remember their very first and very last encounter with your institution.  So you and your staff must be on stage and on-point with every single interaction.  You can “say” you have great service, but it’s the consistent application of great service changes behavior and breeds loyalty.

Immediate response

Things don’t always go as planned.  With our youngest puppy, I’m ready to hang a sign in the house that says, “XX Days Accident-Free.”  For the record, this morning the sign dropped back down to 0.

When “accidents” happen, address them immediately.  Errors are an opportunity for you to pro-actively address an issue and actually build a better relationship.

For more on this topic, click here for our blog “Turning Oops into Opportunity.” 

Focus on the experience

Certainly my dogs are becoming loyal because we love them.  But having fun certainly doesn’t hurt!  Every day, we make a point of playing fetch and wrestling and letting them chase the kids (in a fun way).  My shepherd and I are quickly becoming great trail-running partners. 

I’m not expecting your customers to want to chase a Frisbee, but understanding what drives your customers – when they’re not in your branch – will help you to build a better relationship.  How do you accomplish that?  LISTEN.  You need to talk to your customers about their lives, not just their banking.

Positive reinforcement

Whether you're teaching Fido to sit on command or training a customer to use their debit card more times per month, rewarding good behavior works.  You don’t necessarily need a detailed rewards program – though there are many great ones out there.  But a simple personal touch, like a hand written “thank you” note for every new account opened goes a long way.

By following these five, simple ideas, you can become the Dog Whisperer of your customer loyalty program.