What does personal service really mean when a credit union has over 63,500 members?
Weokie Credit Union’s Mission Statement is:
Change lives in our community, one person at a time, by being the best place our employees have ever worked and our members have ever banked.
A Nurturing Voice
The CEO, Jeff Carpenter, gave permission to demonstrate how this is done, one member at a time, in this story from his March 2024 report to his team:
“Marlene is an elderly member who has been the victim of several recent frauds. The team got together to determine what WEOKIE might do to help (and not upset the member or violate privacy concerns). We determined that WEOKIE should try to get Marlene to add one of her children to her account, to help monitor the activity.
“It was also decided that Rhonda would make the call and Jeff S. would be there to assist in case things went sideways. Jeff’s take on the call:
“Rhonda reached out to Marlene this morning while Melinda & I listened in the office. She did an EXCELLENT job speaking with Marlene and conveying WEOKIE’s concerns about her account activity and how we can best help her to keep her accounts safe.
“After several minutes and a lot of small talk to gain Marlene’s trust, Rhonda was able to get her to agree to add her daughter added to the account to help with her finances. When I say small talk, it was over 50 minutes of conversation! It was like having a long discssion with a grandparent. You just let the conversation take its own flow and slowly steer it back to the intended purpose. Rhonda did awesome in this aspect. Her Nurturing Voice truly shined in this interaction.
“Rhonda maintained ownership all the way through by following up with Jessica at Main to: provide the details, including Marlene’s vulnerabilities to fraud; the estimated time when the two members might come in; a commitment to follow up when the meeting is set; a request to be notified to facilitate a warm hand-off; an explanation about the Risk department’s approval of the exceptions with a clear understanding of expectations of the member; and how our role impacts the member’s well being.
“This effort involved six employees and shows the role of teamwork, several of our monitoring tools, and our commitment to making this credit union the best place Marlene has ever banked!
“Special thanks to Joseph for sharing this member story and how Rhonda, Diane, Jeff S, Melinda, and Victoria worked together to take great care of Marlene.”
The Takeaway
That’s every credit union’s potential secret power: serving every member, one at a time.