| Title: | DCU |
| Notice: | 1996 BoD Election results in 1004 |
| Moderator: | CPEEDY::BRADLEY |
| Created: | Sat Feb 07 1987 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1041 |
| Total number of notes: | 18759 |
Something I've puzzled over for quite some time, and something that Phil Gransewicz and I have discussed comes to mind as DCU prepares to fee the membership: DCU has a large membership, but when you look at the Digital employee population as a whole, the percentage who are DCU members is small. This means that DCU has *tremendous* growth potential that it has yet to realize. And they're right under DCU's nose. What I want to know is the following: What is the Board and DCU management doing to attract new members and bring in new business? How does a fee structure help to attract and bring in new business? It seems to me (although I'm just an engineer and couldn't possibly know as much as the finance people who run DCU), that if it's more money you want, more members is at least part of the answer. Presently, DCU is easily differentiated from a commercial bank by a number of features: no fees on basic services, no silly account minimums, on-site service available at some Digital facilities, and No Stupid Banker Tricks. Slapping a complex, relationship-driven fee structure on members makes DCU seem a lot more like the "competition" that DCU is so worried about. Why not create a program to attract new members: "Open a DCU account, set up direct payroll deposit, and transfer $N from your current high-interest, hi-fee plastic to our spiffy low-interest, no-fee credit card, and DCU will waive the costs of printing your first batch of checks." or something akin to that? How about special interest rates to first-time-DCU-borrowers to get some of that available loan money in play? The business is out there folks...you just gotta decide you want it bad enough. If *I* were sitting there with $100 million to loan and no takers, I'd be bending over backwards to bring in more business. Just a thought... ./chris
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 701.1 | I agree | STAR::BUDA | I am the NRA | Mon Sep 20 1993 12:17 | 11 |
RE: Note 701.0 by AOSG::GILLETT I agree with your ideas and have been asking these same questions to DCU people. The ideas that you and I agree on are for the LONG term. It takes time and energy to get new members. But the long term is where the bucks really are. You get more people involved and using the CU. - mark | |||||
| 701.2 | We must be BEST | ASE003::GRANSEWICZ | Mon Sep 20 1993 18:18 | 27 | |
The credit union makes most of its money on loans to the membership.
So the key to a succesful credit union is the successful sale of loans
to its membership.
IMO, you can take two approaches, simply be "competitive" or be "best".
Competitive will get you some of the people, some of the time. Members
will recognize that you are the same as everyone else, with small
differences which may or may not clinch the business. Membership loyalty
will be very soft.
Or you can decide to be "best". "Best" means you price your product a
tier below the competition. Since DCU has many advantages as a credit
union, I don't see that this should be a problem. What you sacrifice
is SOME interest income due to lower rates. But what you gain is
increased VOLUME of loans. And more importantly, you gain MINDSHARE.
You are driving home the fact that DCU has the BEST, there is no need
to shop around. Membership loyalty will harden driving up repeat
business down the road. There is NO long term success without repeat
business IMO.
To sum it up, don't be greedy. There are many highly successful
businesses out there now that are doing it and having no problem
finding people to do business with them. I see no reason why the same
approach shouldn't work for DCU. But then again, isn't this what a
credit union should be in the first place???
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| 701.3 | BOHICA | STAR::CRITZ | Richard Critz, VMS Development | Mon Sep 20 1993 18:26 | 8 |
RE: .0 > ... If *I* were sitting there with $100 million to loan >and no takers, I'd be bending over backwards to bring in more >business. This is certainly true and is far superior to asking your members to bend over and grab their ankles, which is what is happening instead. | |||||
| 701.4 | Just a little reminiscing... | IMTDEV::BRUNO | Father Gregory | Mon Sep 20 1993 19:20 | 8 |
I remember back when I was new on board at Digital. Several people
made comments that loans were difficult to get at DCU. The general impression
seemed to be that DCU wasn't very interested in lending money to its members.
It was fine with me, I hate debt anyway.
Greg
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| 701.5 | AXEL::FOLEY | Rebel without a Clue | Tue Sep 21 1993 10:36 | 10 | |
Another twist on this issue... I see the enaction of fees to be a failure of the DCU management to sell that $100 million in loans. How much revenue are fees supposed to bring in and how much would $100 million in loans bring in? mike | |||||