“High Rates, Bad Service, and Outdated Technology”
by Bo McDonald
I flipped on the television one evening during a recent trip to Denver for the CUNA Community Credit Union and Growth Conference. Since we’re close to the election, almost every ad I saw was political. OK, there were a few auto dealer spots mixed in too. But the majority were political…and all were negative.
These ads didn’t spell out why to vote for a certain candidate, although they had a lot of reasons to vote against the opposition. While many of the reasons don’t rationally add up, some took the truth and made vile statements against their opponents.
Here’s one of the ads I saw while I was in Denver last week.
Do you honestly believe that this candidate said “I think I’ll support dangerous predators, that seems like a good thing for our community.” I’ll bet not. Likewise, I haven’t learned a darn thing about the guy who ran this negative ad. What does he stand for?
Many times credit unions like to go on a bank-bashing rage. (And it’s true; there are plenty of things we can bash them on.) But when we use our time to knock our competition, we miss an opportunity to tell the credit union story. An opportunity to say why our credit union is better than a bank. It makes us feel good though, doesn’t it? “Give it to those nasty banks.” We rally inside of our heads. However, we haven’t addressed the needs of those we want to speak to. “Hey, we know those banks are charging rip-off fees, but let me tell you about my credit union…”