by Ron Daly It's June, 2009 - do you know where YOUR capital is?
Odds are you've been coping with your minimized budget and your overall losses for these last eight months and you've had to forgo talks of better things - more hiring, membership drives, company functions, employee appreciation, raises, etc. Maybe one of the things you've minimized is your "Green" initiatives. It's easy to move away from an initiative that's mostly voluntary when you have imperative financial issues to tackle.
I think it's time to kill two birds with one stone..not literally, of course. Part of saving the environment is not throwing rocks at birds. I'm talking about using your green initiatives as a means of saving money.
Green-vangelist Andrew Winston wrote on the Harvard Business blog:
Not only should companies not put their green efforts on hold, they should accelerate them in targeted ways to save money quickly and prepare for the future. Those who navigate these tricky waters the best will emerge from the downturn in better shape than their competitors.
And furthermore:
Getting lean, particularly on energy and resources, will save money and reduce carbon impacts (as well as making you more competitive when energy prices inevitably rise again). Thinking through your value chain and getting creative about how you can help your customers manage their environmental impacts and lower their costs will help you grab market share in tough times. And it will likely do much more to address environmental challenges than focusing only on your own environmental impacts. Getting your people engaged around a dual mission — save the company money and preserve our collective bounty and assets — will help boost morale in tough times and keep your company going strong. ("Why This Is the Right Time to Go Green", blogs.harvardbusiness.org, June 2009)
I had this information tucked away in an e-mail and thought I'd share it here on the site. Apparently, trees can be assigned a dollar value based on the amount of carbon dioxide they absorb, the amount of run-off they filter, the amount of oxygen they make, etc. Your average Red Cedar is worth about $120,000/year, considering the price of oxygen it produces (numbers/values from the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation institute). That's plenty of money, and that's just one tree.
Planting trees is a great way to drive up member participation and enrollment. Let members contribute a small amount of money from their share accounts and contribute to a tree planting day that you've organized. Or offer it as an incentive for signing up for eStatements, a la "sign up for eStatements today and we'll plant a tree in your name!"
Bottom Line - the economic downturn has tested our structures. If ever there was a time to start changing the game, it's now. Why not implement measures that will save you money overtime, such as optimizing your lighting and power and reducing water flow in your facilities? Why not encourage employee carpooling and create Green-themed giveaways? Make the changes now and enjoy the benefits long after you do.
Shell FCU recently was named business of the year by the Deer Park Chamber of Commerce. DigitalMailer wants to send its congratulations to a credit union that has set down deep roots in its community of members.
Why are they Business of the Year? Something tells us it's a matter of commitment.
To The Environment:
A look at Shell FCU's website shows they're big fans of a natural, eco-friendly look. At the bottom right-hand corner of their page is a logo showing their participation in the Green Business Alliance. On content pages, links to their eStatement enrollment page encourage members to "go green" with DigitalMailer's eStatements (see below).
To The Community:
From Shell FCU's press release:
In addition to time spent at work, employees also volunteer for the credit union’s FCU "Furthering Community Unity" Team. The FCU Team consists of Shell FCU employees, members and local individuals who participate in events such as blood drives, walks, runs, food drives, Habitat for Humanity and other charitable events. In 2008, the FCU team logged over 347 hours and donated more than $8,900 to help others. As of April 2009, approximately 465 hours have already been donated.
Imagine increasing your electronic statement enrollment leaps and bounds with a single e-mail. Sound impossible? Not with DigitalMailer's "One Click" campaign.
After nine years of creating and implementing electronic statements for credit unions across the country, we've seen and heard some great promotional offers to encourage eStatement enrollment. iPod, Camera, Wii and PDA giveaways are pretty standard, as are plant-a-tree promotions and monetary incentives. Folks who sign up are happy with their statements and credit unions are happy with the savings.
Recently, we started a new campaign which lets members sign up for eStatements by clicking on a single button in an e-mail. One click is all it takes to enroll in eStatements and move away from costly paper and printing. We recognized after creating a number of these campaigns that several key steps could be rolled into one. By verifying an email address, sending an email with the legal agreement attached, allowing the member to read through the agreement and sending their "opt-in" agreement to the credit union, we would be cutting out unnecessary steps, thereby saving time and money.
"One of the good things about this campaign is that members don't have to go to an enrollment page, type in personal info such as account number, SSN, email, name, etc. They click the button and we find the info in the CU system. No need to exchange personal info at all." --Traci McNamara, Account Manager, DigitalMailer
Two credit unions that are currently using the "One Click" campaign:
Hudson River FCU decided to use the "One Click" in conjunction with a $100 offer to draw in new eStatement users. Since sending their e-mail in April, they've increased total eStatement use by 15%! Hudson River plans to run the same campaign in May and June, and with similar results month to month they stand to save over $14,000 with eStatements.
Belvoir FCU has offered eStatements for the past seven years. Introducing the "One Click" campaign in the middle of April, they've experienced a total 5% growth, and are running the campaign again in May. Even more interesting, there's no offer attached - people just click to sign up! Belvoir will be running the same "One Click" campaign through june. If they have the same success in June, they will be saving an estimated 50% of their total cost by switching those paper statements to e-mail!
Something to take away from this campaign and its successes :
1) When members know it's easy to get started with eStatements, they'll go for it.
2) Your eStatements can lead to great savings. The more enrollments you have, the more you save on printing and postage.
3) It can work with a special offer or without.
4) You can get the campaign for your CU and get started right away!
The economic crunch has really "put a hurtin' " on employment. This is especially important to people in my generation, many of whom are just leaving college and need to find a job somewhere...anywhere, even. But people my age have been given a bad rap in the media - labeled as spiritless and pouty in the workplace, seen as always needing their hands held, regarded as a distraction more than an asset. As recently as a week ago, people were talking about Gen-Y as a drain on productivity and workplace efficiency (click here to read).
From that same article:
"Managers have reported a lot of problems associated with this – primarily that these employees have unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback," he said.
"Basically entitlement involves having an inflated view of oneself, and managers are finding that younger employees are often very resistant to anything that doesn't involve praise and rewards," he added.
But this article from the Wall Street Journal actually makes Gen-Y seem...well, moderately competent and not stupid and whiny. Hooray! We've got at least one supporter.
From the WSJ article:
"Many Gen Y-ers are also becoming ... 'good workplace citizens.' That is, rather than demanding to be catered to, they're instead becoming prompt, dressing more appropriately, following up on obligations, and using better judgment. 'They're also shifting their attention from peer relationships to building rapport with managers, customers, vendors, and other decision makers...'"
Not only are my fellow whippersnappers becoming more professional, they're REALLY starting to take an interest in their finance management. According to this article from PlanAdviser.com, more and more Gen-Ys are asking for advice on retirement savings and benefits through work. The downturn has really taken its toll, shaking my generation lose of their false sense of entitlement and showing them that now is the time to straighten up and fly right.
Now, the question: what will you do with this information? Because if you're a Credit Union, one that's touting your capacity for smart savings and money management, you need to talk up your ability and your willingness to help young folks get their lives in order. Quit with all that "We're so dope and fly and fresh and jiggy!" talk. It's doing you no good. Make your message clear and plain - that you're willing to help the youngsters make smart decisions about their money and smart investments for their retirement. PNC has managed to make a go of it, signing up 20,000+ folks for its "virtual wallet", 70% of which were Gen-Y aged (click here to read all about it). You can do this, too. Just offer a smarter, easier way to "get" finance. A smarter, more humble Gen-Y will thank you for it.
A Faster Horse: eStatements can be a "need" more than a "want"
by Ron Daly
Henry Ford was rumored to have said:
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said 'a faster horse'".
I'm sure that Mr. Ford wasn't out to say the people who buy/use your services are short-sighted or small-minded. It's just that they often want the familiar to get better. But bring them something with all they've wanted and more and they'll wonder how they lived without your innovation.
EStatements are a service of DigitalMailer, one that we find ourselves recommending more and more these days as a means of saving money. Most of the credit unions we work with have the same initial reluctance - that the members won't be comfortable with electronic statements and they won't be open to the idea of receiving statements through the Customer Communication Center. What you wouldn't believe is that customers really do love their eStatements - and CUs like the convenience and control of advertising inside the eStatement space.
I could go on for an hour about eStatements and the CCC. In fact, I do - in our newest webinar:
The Customer Communication Center: A Better Mouse Trap
In which we teach you how to bring eStatements into the fold, improve your marketing through online channels and save money, save money, save money.
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