Credit unions get it
Posted by Brent Dixon on May 24th, 2006
Last month, HomeStreet Bank, a private bank based in the Northwest, kicked off a viral campaign in which they anonymously invited bank customers to post their frustrations on the site www.mybankdoesntgetit.com.
And man, people had beef. People eagerly seized the opportunity to go on and share stories about why their banks were missing the point and missing them.
What’s more (here’s the fun part), members are using it as a soapbox to promote credit unions. Check out this snippet of President/CEO of Group Health Credit Union, Joseph W. Veneziani’s letter to the editor of Puget Sound Business Journal:
After reading through several peoples’ rants about their bank on the Web site, I was struck by the positive comments about credit unions. People who feel their bank doesn’t “get it” are saying they are moving their account to a credit union! For example: No. 93 said, “I have since opened an account at a credit union, and I closed my bank account today—with a smile.” No. 2 said, “All this makes me want to do all my banking at a credit union!”
Members are chomping at the bit to play evangelists to the credit union movement. All credit unions need to do now is give them a mouthpiece.
Thanks to our friend Jamie Chase from the Washington Credit Union League for sending this our way.
Great tactic for this bank -> but not sure that a CU could do something similar?
My hunch says that if a CUs started a similar viral campaign saying “banks don’t get it” – but XYZ credit union does – it would give ammo to the Bank vs. CUs war in the press? (And probably digress into to taxation…)
I love the viral tactic though – and it is always terrific to see satisfied/happy credit union members spreading the good word!
V, you’re right. Trying to build something like that has backfire written all over it (think the Chevy user-generated ads from a few months ago. Yikes! Here’s one of the thousands not used like GM thought they would be).
CUNA’s News Now covers mybankdoesntgetit.com
http://www.cuna.org/newsnow/06/system053106-10.html?ref=hed
Really!
Coming from the credit union that does not get it! People are leaving right and left from there… perhaps they should look at the bosses and ask themselves do they really get it. The place sucks to work at.