One of the most important aspects of the credit union is the environment in which we work. There is no sense in fooling ourselves, without the best people we don’t have much of a hope of being a healthy credit union. All of our own work histories can easily point to jobs where it wasn’t much fun coming to work because the place was full of jerks and jerkesses. A key element in any workplace is teamwork. This is what makes the organization great instead of just good.
We speak of product, price and service with a sense that all three are commodities. Price certainly is the attribute of a commodity, product I will leave for another blog entry and service is what can really set the credit union apart from anyone else.
What makes an organization? The people. And service is the people who put that human envelope and character on your product. They deliver the product in the most vital of fashions, with the human aspect. The delivery of the product, the timing of the delivery of the product, the atmosphere in presentation of the product, the setting and the venue all point to peripherals of service. And teamwork is at its core.
With all great ideas come great execution. The ability to get things done for people in this business is very important. The execution comes when people work together for that common goal, to deliver great service. The ability to work towards that collective goal out of a sake of service and caring is a challenge to the “sales culture” which in fact by it’s nature of competitiveness can erode the “service culture”.
Our motto at work is “Where neighbours bank”. We work hard at making a difference. For example, and forgive me as this is a pet peeve of mine. line-ups. Ask anyone what they hate and it is a line-up. So why do we credit unions who pride ourselves as being member focused and service orientated allow habitual line-ups? I think it because we don’t have the teamwork in place to get rid of the line-up. We need to focus on the member and by making sure the line-ups are minimal or non-existent this gives adequate proof that we are. That is the ingredient that seems to be missing. People working together can accomplish much and there is a beauty in not being afraid to try something different. That difference in what you do will define who you are. That difference is teamwork and the delivery of great service. No job is too small or too unimportant for anyone in any organization to do. People notice that and isn’t that what the delivery of service is all about?
I love this picture of a group of employees at a high tech company. They look like a team. Maybe our next staff picture should be taken like this one.
Tinfoiling 
Teamwork is the key. When everyone’s running together, we can accoimpish so much more. The Flywheel concept from Good to Great really hammers some of that home to. When you get everyone pushing in the right direction, you can start to move the flywheel. And the longer you push as a team the faster you can start moving.
Boy, do I have opinions! I’ve been thinking recently about this: to what extent do we (banks/credit unions) still operate on outmoded paradigms? A Call Center is an example. Could we re-work, re-envision a call center from the ground up? As it is, call centers are essentially an industrial-revolution based method of service delivery. Yes, there is a lot of high tech and metrics, but that’s basically just a tarted-up factory. The member becomes a call – becomes a Widget to be processed. The employee becomes a widget maker. And the more efficiently we complete the widget-making process, the better.
What would happen if we took a cue from the cel phone industry? I’m thinking of the telus adverts a few years ago, showing people floating in the air and other wild images, pointing out the Freedom of cel-phones. (of course, some people don’t see cels as a source of freedom at all!, but it conveyed a real sense of Cut Loose).
I honestly don’t know what that would look like.
Any genius out there up for creating a whole new paradigm of customer service? Steve Jobs? Matt Cutts? Anyone?
You make a great point Nancy. I sometimes wonder about these algorithmic solutions. They eventually take a life of their own and become the major concern instead of what they were meant to solve. Ask anyone about call centres. In fact take a poll. I would be willing to bet most have had a terrible experience i.e. long wait times and that is there total perception of that service.