A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

This blog originally published in 2018, but is being dusted off today in honor of the February 14 holiday.

Valentine’s Day is a holiday to lavish flowers and chocolates upon your significant other or crush. Years ago in grade school, we decorated shoe boxes and provided every classmate an identical mass-produced valentine. It was fun, and we looked forward to it; but I realize now, it wasn’t very sincere. If the message wasn’t on a conversation heart, we didn’t say it!

How does this relate to credit unions? Your members LOVE you, your employees LOVE working for you, and the industry extends its arms and helps people who need it every day. But, how do you tell them what they mean to you? Do you lower loan rates and hope they notice? Is it a thank you from the CEO in the annual report that no one reads?

This mushy holiday might be a good opportunity to think about messaging to your membership how grateful you are for THEM and to thank them for trusting your credit union to be their financial partner in life. Why not? You can’t just assume they know — and even with so many methods of electronic communication available, don’t forget about those in-person contacts to say “we appreciate your business” too. I always appreciate that extra touch as a consumer, and even more so as a member/owner.

And speaking of conversation hearts, the messages have evolved a bit over the years. I saw one recently that said, “You Take the Remote.” That, and maybe one that says “I’ll Cook Dinner” might just be the epitome of true love!