07/31/2008

A veritable buffet of consumption choices.

By Tim McAlpine

You now have five ways to consume our blog content.

1. Standard fare—visit our blog page
   Stop by from time to time to see what's up. Chances are you'll miss some stuff though unless you remember to check in a few times a week.
    
2. Fancy dining—subscribe to our RSS feed
   + http://feeds.feedburner.com/CurrencyMarketing
   Add this feed to your RSS reader of choice. I use Google Reader, but there are many others to choose from. If you are not sure what RSS is, click here to watch a video from Common Craft that explains RSS in Plain English.
    
   If you have been a long-time RSS subscriber, you may be subscribed to an old feed. If you can switch to this feed, I'd really appreciate it. Feedburner offers great tools for bloggers to analyze feed traffic.
    
3. Roadside diner—subscribe by E-mail
   This is a brand new feature. Submit your e-mail in the field in the right-hand column and all new blog posts will be automatically e-mailed to you. It's like magic! You can also unsubscribe at any time.
    
4. Fast food—follow me on Twitter
   + http://twitter.com/CurrencyTim
   I post links to a number of my blog posts on Twitter. If you follow me, I will definitely return the favour.
    
5. All you can eat—follow me on Friend Feed
   + http://friendfeed.com/CurrencyTim
   Not only will you see every new blog post, you'll also see other people's blog posts that I have shared plus any other content that I have added to the ever-expanding Interweb! This option is not for the faint of heart!

Thanks for following along and partipating! It is an honour to have such loyal readers and to have met so many great people through blogging. I just received my 800th comment last week. Every single comment is so appreciated.

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07/30/2008

Are banks playing by the rules?

by Nala Henkel

We once worked with a credit union client on a complex system of cross-referrals slips to get around barriers imposed by Ficom that keep credit union members separate from the insurance side of the credit union business. It was interesting to see banks have the same challenge.

In a Globe and Mail article titled "A piece of drywall away from being..." Tara Perkins wrote "If a customer walks into the banking side of the RBC location in Oakville and asks an employee if they know where they can buy some car insurance, the employee's likely to squirm. Responding with "we sell insurance," or "next door," or even just pointing to the insurance office, could be breaking the law. They're instructed to hand over a generic brochure about insurance that does not promote RBC."

So I thought, let's test this. My assumption is that even though there are no bank insurance offices near any of the bank branches here in Chilliwack, since it's a Canada Bank Act law, the response to my scenario should be the same.

My scenario:

"I need to buy life insurance on my home equity line of credit and other insurance on my home. Can I get that here?"

Let's see how the big 5 did:

• RBC: They had an insurance brochure in their rack, which they helpfully gave me. The insurance discussion would be handled over the phone, with payments for premiums withdrawn from my RBC account. However there was no hesitation to tell me about their insurance services, and while the insurance brochure was very plain, it definitely wasn't the "generic brochure about insurance that doesn't promote RBC," since "RBC..." is on the top left corner of every page.

• CIBC: I got a pretty blank look at my home insurance question. She didn't really have an answer for that. About home equity insurance, I was told I could only get insurance on their own mortgages. She said she could get me a brochure about it, but the way the desk was attached to her leaning arm, I didn't think it would be soon in coming.

• Scotia: If I bring my mortgage/LOC over they can insure it (life, disability, etc.) I made a point of relating how my credit union has a separate branch for insurance and would I have to go somewhere other than that specific branch, or could they look after it right there, and they assured me they could.

• TD: No life or disability insurance available. They can provide credit insurance on mortgages and lines of credit. I think this is a 'ding-ding' for TD! However, when I visited a different branch, they had wicket posters advertising insurance. Huh?

• BMO: Hey, they told me they weren't allowed to talk about insurance in the branch! And when she tried to find a phone number for me on her computer, there wasn't one. BMO obviously takes this insurance separation seriously. I asked why she couldn't talk about insurance and she replied 'I guess because we aren't an insurance company?' with a question in her voice. She was so nice about helping me, though, that I wanted to reward her with one of the BMO mints hanging out on her counter. But I knew it would blow my cover.

This is obviously a complex subject, governed by complex legal documents written by legislative types intent on job security. Why does it matter whether or not I can buy insurance from my f.i.? Wouldn't that be doing me, the member/customer, a service?

If anyone wants to enlighten me on why this is such a complex topic, feel free. But I'd much rather get a kick-ass no-bake brownie recipe.

Subscribe today + RSS + Blog by E-mail + E-newsletter + Follow me on Twitter

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07/29/2008

Podcast 12: Credit Union Innovator Bryan Sims

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 12 of Credit Union Innovators. My guest is Bryan Sims. Bryan is the 25-year-old founder and CEO of brass|MEDIA Inc. Bryan founded brass when he was 19, working out of his dorm room and parents’ garage in Corvallis, Oregon.

In a high school business class in 2000, Bryan wrote a business plan for a teen investment club. Starting the club at his high school, it quickly grew to the largest in the nation, investing nearly $25,000 of students’ allowance money and part-time job paychecks. After high school, Bryan wanted to spread a message about the importance of understanding money that would speak to young adults, not at them. A few years and lots of hard work later, his vision is now a reality.

Bryan’s company, brass|MEDIA Inc., publishes brass|MAGAZINE, a lifestyle money magazine produced for young adults, by young adults about the money side of life™. brass|MAGAZINE has over 465,000 readers across the country, is distributed in 39 states and currently employs 35 people through brass|MEDIA Inc. The newest brass initiative, the brass|STUDENT PROGRAM, takes brass|MAGAZINE into high school classrooms to every public high school in New York and Wisconsin.

You can listen by streaming audio here or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

 
Some links to get to know Bryan even better

+ brass|MEDIA website
+ brass|MAGAZINE website
+ brass|SHOW website
+ brass|TV website
+ brass|STUDENT PROGRAM website
+ Bryan on Twitter

Fast facts about Bryan

• Favorite magazine? brass|Magazine, Fast Company, Inc.
• How tall are you? 5' 9"
• Future goals? Write a book and produce a movie
• Facebook or MySpace? Facebook
• People with facial hair? No opinion
• Favorite music? Country, rap and hiphop
• Bacon or eggs? Bacon
• What did you do in Maui? Lost luggage and went snorkeling

Watch an amazing keynote speech delivered by Bryan

Looking for innovators

If you know a credit union innovator who I should interview, please e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

Production notes

+ Interview recorded with Call Recorder and Skype
+ Intro recorded with a Blue Snowflake microphone
+ Edited in Audacity
+ Hosted on Evoca
+ Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
+ Music is A Song for Jake by Oregon Chad licensed through Creative Commons

Leave an audio comment

Leave an audio comment on my Skype voicemail.
+ 1-206-792-9470

NOTE: If you are listening on this page and want to post a comment, there is a good chance the CAPTCHA will time out. Make sure to hit the 'Post Comment' button twice. Copy your comment to your clipboard just to be safe. Thanks!

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07/28/2008

Young & Free licensing update.

By Tim McAlpine

It's been 55 days since we went public with our offer to license Young & Free. I have had a lot of folks asking how its going. Since I've been very open about our Young & Free journey so far, I think what I will do is give an update on our blog from time to time.

The interest has been overwhelming. To date, a total of 72 individual credit unions and 6 groups of credit unions from 7 Canadian provinces and 31 US states have come forward and filled out the interest form and signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Fielding interest has turned into Nala's full-time job. The dialogue she is having is fantastic and is forcing us to answer many questions we hadn't thought about and tighten up how the program will work as we roll Young & Free out across North America. Let me tell you, credit unions certainly do their due dillegence when making a big decision like this and we certainly appreciate that!

In addition to our founding partner, Common Wealth Credit Union gearing up for the September launch of its year two spokesperson search, we have two new credit unions that have signed plus a number that are extremely interested. Watch for the launch of the first US Young & Free Program in the Fall. Exciting times are just ahead!

We have also turned down one very keen bank. This felt good! We will not license Young & Free to banks. Period.

As I've stated before, I believe this program can add ten of thousands of new members to the credit union movement. Thanks to all of your interest, this dream has a real chance of becoming a reality. Thank you.

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07/24/2008

BarCampBankBC: Help us pick the shirts.

By Tim McAlpine

We are now inside two months to go until BarCampBankBC. If you haven't signed up yet, I encourage you to head over to the Wiki and sign-up today. Plan to be in Vancouver for September 20 and 21, 2008.

Today's BarCampBankBC interactive challenge for you: help us select the T-shirt design. The design with the most votes gets printed.

 

 
Some of you are no doubt wondering what the heck this BarCampBankBC thing is. One of my organizing partners, William Azaroff, does a great job of explaining the BarCampBank phenomenon in his recent blog post on NetBanker.

If you are on the fence and wondering if this type of event is for you, I encourage you to get off the fence and give it a try. You won't regret it.

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07/23/2008

Get 'em while they're young and pissed!

By Tim McAlpine

A Generation Y and X study has concluded that 53% of those in Gen X (30-42 years old) and 61% of Gen Y (18-29 years old) had either changed their primary financial institution (PFI) or considered doing so in the past two years. That compares with 20% of the Silent Generation and 37% of Baby Boomers surveyed.

Some of the key findings:

The survey indicates that young people can be more impatient, less tolerant and harder to please than their cohorts in the older generations. It also found that younger customers are more likely than older customers to find fault or have problems with their primary financial institutions. For example: 37% of Gen Y and 36% of Gen X believe they would get better customer service at a different bank;   22% of Gen Y and 21% of Gen X reported being upset in the past year about high fees, compared with 14% of Boomer and 6% of Silent Generation respondents; and    18% of Gen Y and 17% of Gen X reported being upset about a lack of ATM locations, compared with 11% of Boomers and 3% of the Silent Generation.

This report should be very encouraging to credit unions. With the average age of credit union members pushing 50, attracting young people is definitely on credit union leaders' minds.

The biggest issue I see is that while young people are open to change, credit unions aren't doing enough to get on young people's consideration list. So unfortunetly that change is more than likely to be from one bank to another bank.

Since young people are not in love with their primary financial institution, credit unions have a great opportunity to step up and be that alternative that young people are obviously craving.

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07/23/2008

Podcast 11: Credit Union Innovator Shari Storm

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 11 of Credit Union Innovators. My guest is Shari Storm. Shari is the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Seattle's Verity Credit Union. She has been with the credit union industry since 1998.

Shari's staff at Verity has been using a corporate blog since 2004. They have found it to be an excellent way to communicate with members on a level never before possible. Their early foray into this medium earned them an "Innovator of the Year Award" from NetBanker in 2006.

Shari has an undergraduate degree in speech communications from the University of Washington and earned her MBA from Seattle University. She teaches "Using Social Media to Grow Your Business" at the University of Washington’s Experimental College as well as through the Corporate for Capital Development’s "Women's Networking and Entrepreneurial Training" programs.

Her accomplishments include participating in over 60 media interviews on consumer issues, teaching free enterprise in the communist country of Belarus, working on Filene’s prestigious i3 team, and raising three daughters. She will also be publishing a book on how motherhood is the perfect management training (Thomas Dunne).

You can listen by streaming audio here or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

 
Some links to get to know Shari even better

+ Verity's corporate website
+ Verity's blog
+ Shari's website
+ Shari's book blog
+ Shari on Twitter

Fast facts about Shari

• Where do you live? Edmonds, Washington
• What do you take in your coffee? All sorts of things
• How tall are you? 5' 7"
• How many hours of sleep last night? 4 hours
• How long in the CU world? 10 years
• What's on your iPod? The Bridge

Looking for innovators

If you know a credit union innovator who I should interview, please e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

Production notes

+ Interview recorded with Call Recorder and Skype
+ Intro recorded with a Blue Snowflake microphone
+ Edited in Audacity
+ Hosted on Evoca
+ Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
+ Music is A Song for Jake by Oregon Chad licensed through Creative Commons

Leave an audio comment

Leave an audio comment on my Skype voicemail.
+ 1-206-792-9470

NOTE: If you are listening on this page and want to post a comment, there is a good chance the CAPTCHA will time out. Make sure to hit the 'Post Comment' button twice. Copy your comment to your clipboard just to be safe. Thanks!

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07/22/2008

Bad practice: your credit union should not send form letters in tough situations

By Tim McAlpine

As a companion to the new good practices blog category, I also have a new bad practices category. If I see something that every credit union should NOT do, I'll call it out. I won't name the credit union though.

Bad practice: Send your valued mortgage holders a form letter to inform them that their agreed-upon mortgage rate has increased. In this case, the credit union (my credit union) decided that it needed to increase all variable-rate mortgages that were tied to prime rate by 0.25 to 0.50%. It served notice in the form of a confusing notice-of-change document sent by mail.

My advice. If your balance sheet position requires you to make a huge decision that affects thousands of members, use some tact and call every single affected member and talk them through the reasons that you are making this very tough decision. Show your loyal members that you actually care—don't send out an official notice that leans on the fine print in the mortage agreement.

Now that's a bad practice that will give credit unions a bad name.

Got a bad practice that needs to be outed? Send your example to tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca. I'll keep your name and the credit union's name out of it. Let's wipe out bad practices that tarnish the credit union movement's brand.

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07/20/2008

Good practice: your credit union should send personalized notes.

By Tim McAlpine

This is a new blog category. If I see something that every credit union should do, I'll call it out and give credit to the credit union that is doing it.

Good practice: Send your new members and existing members personalized thank you notes. This is so simple and yet so powerful.

Where did I get the idea? Gene Blishen from Mount Lehman Credit Union. It's not surprising that Gene was just named Gonzo Banker of the Month!

Got a good practice that needs to be promoted? Send your example to tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca. I'll give props to the credit union. Let's promote good practices that live up to the credit union movement's brand.

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07/18/2008

Podcast 10: Credit Union Innovator Denise Wymore

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 10 of Credit Union Innovators. My guest is Denise Wymore. Denise is a sought-after speaker, published author and credit union culture consultant based in Cochita Lake, New Mexico.

She has been involved in the credit union world for 28 years, starting as a teller and working her way up to Vice President of Marketing for Washington's First Tech Credit Union. In 2000, she struck out on her own as a consultant and hasn't looked back.

Her latest work of passion is bringing the Net Promoter Score to the credit union industry. Her dream is to have a standardized tool to measure member loyalty. Her dream is becoming a reality with the newly formed CUSO, the new Member Loyalty Group. If you get the opportunity to see Denise speak or to meet her in person, do it. She is a terrific advocate for credit unions.

You can listen by streaming audio here or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

Some links to get to know Denise even better

+ Denise's website
+ Denise's blog
+ Denise on Twitter

Fast facts about Denise

• How's the corn in New Mexico? The corn is good
• Favorite colour? Yellow
• Favorite computer? Mac
• Hair colour today? Blonde
• How long in the CU world? 28 years
• Favorite brand? Apple iPhone
• What's on your iPhone? Monkey Ball, Bloomberg and Tikibar TV
• How tall are you? 5' 4"
• Why not banks? The money for shareholders thing

Looking for innovators

If you know a credit union innovator who I should interview, please e-mail me at tmcalpine at currencymarketing dot ca.

Production notes

+ Interview recorded with Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and Skype
+ Intro recorded with a Blue Snowflake microphone
+ Edited in Audacity
+ Hosted on Evoca
+ Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
+ Music is A Song for Jake by Oregon Chad licensed through Creative Commons

Leave an audio comment

Leave an audio comment on my Skype voicemail.
+ 1-206-792-9470

NOTE: If you are listening on this page and want to post a comment, there is a good chance the CAPTCHA will time out. Make sure to hit the 'Post Comment' button twice. Copy your comment to your clipboard just to be safe. Thanks!

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