Sunday, January 12, 2025

SECU: What Difference Does It Make Anyway?

 deep-snow-554956  ... problem or opportunity?

Been having a real struggle with how to proceed in explaining the question: "Is The Party Over For Credit Unions?" [link]. It appears to be a serious question for all credit unions; and if true, what does that mean for the future of SECU and its member-owners? Always many subtle twists and turns in looking to the future, but the signals and signposts are plentiful - increasingly hard to miss!

Have tried to establish a baseline for this discussion by outlining how and why credit unions were created and how they have evolved from highly limited, employer-based benefits to broader, federally-insured consumer financial institutions (see above post for background links).

But the bottom line is simple, if you really don't believe there is a distinct difference in purpose, practice and principles between a credit union and a bank - then game over, fold up the tents. And by the way, its quite alright if in fact there is no longer a difference between the two. Fine, okay but let's all stop lying about it and move on! 

Found a starting point in yesterday's comments:

"Anonymous January 10, 2025 at 9:48 PM Unfortunately a huge number of SECU managers believe that employees should risk their safety in order to avoid causing our members a minor inconvenience. It has always been this way."
 
What does that little blurb (and several others!) have to do with the "purpose, practice, and principles" of SECU - a credit union? Well first, the issue of snow, when to close, etc is an age old issue - always creating friction ("It has always been this way."). As a credit union, SECU always thought about the needs of its local members who were enduring a bit more than "a minor inconvenience" in being out scraping the roads, remaining on duty at state hospitals and prisons, keeping critical government services running, handling emergency calls on North Carolina highways or with the National Guard. The members were real people - neighbors, friends, our employers - not just faceless digital numbers. (Anybody can do digital - mostly impersonally, often poorly!)
 
If SECU members needed help, the credit union was going to try to have their back - it was an attitude, it was a commitment, it was something more, something different. Individual employees were also top of mind, if they felt endangered they could and should stay at home; they were in the best position to determine that risk. 
 
And of course, with North Carolina being a large state, local managers always had the call to monitor local conditions and act accordingly. It didn't snow in half of North Carolina this week... local decisions are not "uniform" for a reason and local decisions are usually superior - despite what "Raleigh" might think!
 
✅ And if you want to create a "brand", create a "culture",  establish a reputation for service, not become a "commodity", show that you are different, show that you actually care....
 
😎 Then "tell those stories" of remarkable commitment and service. Noticeably different, a step above.  Like the one about the SECU senior manager who walked through a serious snowfall to her local fire department and charmed the firemen into giving her a ride to work in their fire truck!!! ... more importantly just let those firefighters tell that story (and they did!) all over western North Carolina.  How legends are made... SECU employees chose to lead, to act, to care, and believed their work was important.
 
There once was a credit union difference in purpose, practice and principles. Will there be going forward  for credit unions? Let's take a look.

 

That story sure beats a "We are SECU" SuperBowl ad!