Bancography: White Sands FCU among top CUs
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Financial institutions that stay true to their core values and deliver for their customers have the strongest brands, an analysis of all American banks and CUs revealed. Among the top 10 credit unions, divided into five with assets less than and five with more than $1 billion, was White Sands Federal Credit Union in Las Cruces, NM. White Sands President/CEO William Jacobs is also the chair of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico board of directors.
In the first of its biannual brand value index report, Bancography determined the top banks and credit unions in the country based on a mathematical formula that backed out all tangible assets, and adjusted for franchise values such as affluence, competition and market, leaving only the strength of the intangible values, which it refers to as the brand.
“It is a quantitative ranking of brand and we were able to examine every bank and credit union in the US,” said Bancography president Steve Reider. “If we can’t attribute the value to the tangible assets and we can’t attribute it to the franchise location, then how are you getting this income, how are you getting these deposits? And the answer has got to be brand.”
Reider explained further that the brand is far more than logos, advertising strategies or how branch buildings look, and are instead the “values that the institution stands on.” Commerce Bank of Missouri, which made it into Bancography’s top 10 mid-sized bank rankings, Reider pointed out, also recently won the J.D. Power and Associates award for highest customer satisfaction at a financial institution. “That can’t be a coincidence,” he concluded.
Financial institutions that proved they have a personal relationship and rapport tended to score very highly, especially those that served a particular niche.
“They don’t play the rate game. They are absolutely competing on relationship attraction rather than pure rate-based premises,” said Reider. “If there is one way I can unite the top ranking banks, [it] is that the overwhelming majority of them have pretty focused marketing strategies from a segmentation standpoint. They aren’t trying to be all things to all price points to all people.”
But as the merger frenzy continues in the financial world, Reider sees an interesting dichotomy between growing to survive and establishing a strong brand.
“It raises a question, I believe, about how you maintain that service promise and that focus even as you expand to new line of business segments or new geographic segments,” Reider said. The rankings did not include institutions that have averaged negative operating earnings over the past three years, those operating below regulatory capital adequacy thresholds, and those without traditional retail banking operations. It also only examined financial institutions that have been in operation for three years or more.
“One of our goals in deriving this is to promote some discussion about what it really means to have a good strong, brand out there,” said Reider. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc.
Strong brand ranking doesn’t surprise White Sands CEO
(from September 8 edition of Credit Union Journal)
Word of mouth has been White Sands Federal Credit Union’s best marketing campaign as nearly three quarters of its new accounts have been generated by referrals, CEO William Jacobs said.
“That’s really become our business development — we take care of our members and they refer people to us. That’s as simple as it’s come down to.”
Its service quality has not only earned additional accounts but also a strong reputation in the area has it has been ranked as the fourth strongest credit union (under $1 billion in assets) brand in the United States, according to a Bancography study. Jacobs took the accomplishment in stride, noting the credit union has always kept its eye on the ball when it comes to taking care of its members and establishing a positive presence in the community.
“It really doesn’t surprise me and the reason it doesn’t surprise me because a lot of credit unions try to find that new business, and we made a decision years ago that we were really going to take care of the business we had and let it grow from there,” he said.
There have been a number of bank mergers in the area, Jacobs noted, but those changes have only served to make White Sands stronger as it became better known as an establishment within the community.
“We became very service oriented,” he said, noting the credit union’s policy of opening its doors a few minutes early and closing a few minutes late to accommodate any members who might be on a tight schedule. “That sounds really kind of basic but it really made a difference for us.”
To give back to its members further, and increase the probability of them spreading the good word about White Sands, the credit union set up a number of rewards programs for repeat processes. Those rewards, combined with an increased focus on customer service, helped to gin up more loyalty, Jacobs believes.
“We really went back to basics and took care of people in the lobby. Nothing is worse than walking into any financial institution than seeing this beautiful lobby and there are two people there,” said Jacobs.
Building up a brand is the exact same way one would go about building up a reputation and a strong rapport with the community, according to Jacobs. He urged other institutions that are looking to grow and expand their reach to look first at their existing membership and how to better serve them.
“I truly believe that we tend sometimes to take our eye off what we currently have as we search for that new book of business,” he said. “Build that business from what you have and the other will come with it, but neglecting what you have will get you in trouble.”