ANAHEIM, Calif.–There is one group that’s even more important than members when it comes to making a card portfolio successful—the employees. That’s why one credit union is so focused on making sure its staff has bought in first.
Meghin Margel, director of Contact Center Sales with BECU in Tukwila, Wash., which has 22% market share in the Seattle area for consumer accounts, told the CUNA Lending Council annual conference here BECU had previously offered a card that was confusing to many in its markets—not to mention its own employees. Now, BECU has simplified its offerings with two cards: a standard Visa that has no fee and is primarily for revolvers; and a Cash-Back Visa (it moved away from rewards card) offering 1.5% cash back and no fee.
BECU’s contact center makes both inbound and outbound calls, averaging 274,000 inbound/outbound calls per year and doing $650 million in new loans annually.
“How do you sell a card? Make it simple,” said Margel. “If your front line staff can’t understand your offer, it, your member won’t. My simple test is you have to be able to explain it to the soccer mom in the minivan who is sitting in traffic.”
For its contact center staff BECU is a big believer in incentive programs, which are paid out quarterly. “If you want balances on your cards, then incent the sales staff to get balances on the cards,” said Margel matter of factly.
But she also emphasized making sure the credit union’s brand is consistently promoted. In BECU’s case, that means emphasizing how much it returns to its communities every year.
Credit Card Sales
Saying it’s all about the people when it comes card sale, Margel urged using role playing—acknowledging no one likes to do it—but saying it’s also effective. “Tell me the why,” said Margel. “If they don’t feel confident, they won’t sell it. Let them know why it’s important to your credit union that you sell credit cards.”
Margel said feedback must be given to employees throughout the process, both to individuals and to the team, including on how the campaign is going. BECU holds quick “huddles” every day during which it shares that information.
A Big Offer
BECU is currently running a large preapproval campaign with 165,000 preapproval offers in the market right now that it is supporting using its outbound sales team.
“We do know that if we talk to someone on the phone they are twice as likely to go with the offer than someone who looks at it online,” Margel said. “The ‘Remind me Later’ members are the perfect ones to call back.”
Recognition
Staff love recognition, said Margel, but they all like something different. To find out what motivates people, “ask them,” urged Margel, noting cash is most frequently used at BECU. She also recommended the credit union change up the offers with some frequency.
Annual goals of the credit union typically aren’t of interest to sales staff, as “annual is too much time,” she said. Instead, she said when employees set their own goals they are almost always higher than the ones the CU sets.
She also encouraged holding contests that are fun and employees want to be a part of.
The Word From the Trenches
Margel said BECU collects feedback from its call center staff on what they have found is most effective in selling cards to members. The contact center staff’s recommendations include:
- Make the rewards offering simple to understand; if it is complicated members don’t see the value easily.
- No foreign transaction fee is a big one for the membership. “Even if the member doesn’t regularly travel overseas as, they like to think they might and want a card ready to go when they do.”
- Don’t send preapproval offers too frequently.
- Have ongoing preapprovals. “It is hard to reach out to members when the offers come in big chunks. Smaller amounts, more regularly, help.”
- Personal choice and more styles of plastic are popular.
- Members want online/mobile systems for payments after setup.
- Things that sell most easily are 0% balances transfers and 0% first year; no credit inquiry on preapprovals, and no annual fee.