Pleasing Everyone at Your Credit Union

In all my free time I’m in my third year of being a Girl Scout leader, Brownies specifically, for my daughter. It’s a definite labor of love for my daughter, her friends and the whole Girl Scout experience. But it definitely has its rewards and I enjoy doing it – except for today. Today I’ve gotten a series of emails from a mom who’s upset that her daughter is unable to attend our field trip this Saturday. 

As sorry as I am that her daughter has to attend a soccer game versus our field trip, I keep coming back to the phrase “you can’t please everyone.” Are you trying to please everyone at your credit union? Finding out it’s near impossible? I share in your frustration. 

The smartest and most time-effective solution is to obviously find out what the majority wants and do your best to please them. If you’re not sure what the majority of your members want, or it’s been a while since you’ve asked them – you might want to find out. It could be something as simple as an online poll on your website or something more detailed like member analytics. Either way, as long as you start asking and keep asking members what they want – and what they don’t want. What you learn can help shape your credit union’s goals, strategy and marketing plan.

Unfortunately, like in the case of my cranky Girl Scout mom, you won’t please everyone. Hey, nine out of ten girls are coming to our field trip, which I think is pretty great. But it only takes one unhappy person to make a lot of noise. And sure, it’s easy to tune them out, pass their emails on or ignore (or worse delete) their negative comments on your Facebook or Twitter pages – but you know that’ll just make things worse.

With the “people helping people” mission firmly installed in our credit unions it’s best to address these squeaky wheels head on. Find out what your credit union could do better/different/from now on to avoid future squeaky wheels. And by all means, please respond to their calls, emails and social media posts as soon as possible. It reinforces your credit union’s transparency, brand and mission. Plus, it might even take a little squeak out of that wheel.