By Frank J. Diekmann
Like fingernails on a chalkboard, there has always been one hackneyed, banal phrase that appears in many press releases and manufactured quotes that has long had me reflexively reaching for the delete button before I read any further.
But I will admit to at least pausing now for a brief second before I send certain releases to that great email trash bin in the sky, given all that is taking place. Although I still hit delete.
That phrase is “in these uncertain times.” When I see those four words as the lead in any press release or statement from some executive, I know that as right as rain, hurtin’ for certain, all that glitters isn’t gold, there’s a string of vapid cliches to come.
The great irony of the “in these uncertain times” cliché is all the times through which it has persevered. During my career the times have seen deregulation and a Y2K bug and the emergence of dot.coms and real estate crashes and economic slumps and fintechs and pandemics and too much other uncertainty to list here, yet an endless stream/never-ending story/infinity and beyond list of PR hacks have never stopped going to the well for the plug-and-play “in these uncertain times” reference.
Really, in your management career, has there ever been a time when you looked around and found yourself thinking, “Well, at least the times are certain”?
Are You Standing?
And yet here I am now acknowledging that what has led to the pause before pulling the delete key trigger is the COVID pandemic. If ever there have been uncertain times, this is it. It’s difficult to find another era when credit union leaders have faced more uncertainty. Can you think of one? It’s almost as if it’s not so much about what to plan for as it is what not to plan for. As one respected analyst told CUToday.info recently about 2022, he saw no way to forecast beyond the first half of the year.
Go ahead. Stand up and take a bow if during your 2019 planning session you took seriously any suggestion that in 2020 your main office would shutter, most of your branches would close and that members would surge to use those e-services for which, previously, all the incentives you had been offering and marketing you had been doing had done little to move the needle. I assume you’re still sitting.
Even in late 2020, when perhaps you had removed the masks and held an in-person planning session, you had at least the one piece of certainty, and that was that it didn’t appear this pandemic thing would last much longer and credit unions and the world had this thing behind us and it would soon be back to “normal.”
And yet what is looking back at you right now? It pains me to say it, but it’s “these uncertain times.”
Certainly, There are Questions
Here’s what we can be certain and not so certain about.
The certain: The old (and by old, I mean two years ago) days of using the branch for most transactions are over as convenience only bends in one direction and digital platforms are only becoming more and more friction-free.
The uncertain: How to best reconfigure the branch and branch personnel for a maximum return? (There are some CUs that will tell you you don’t need branches, while others are adamant they’re integral. That one may not be an either/or and two or more models will likely coexist.)
The certain: Fintechs aren’t some AOL-like unicorn that will ultimately fade away.
The uncertain: What will CUs learn from fintechs and how will they best partner with them?
The certain: The concept of primary financial institution (PFI), once the (pick your cliché) gold standard and marketing holy grail, is now just that, a concept.
The uncertain: Pardon the contradiction, but how many PFIs will the average consumer have and which will your credit union capture? Are you the transaction account PFI? The lending PFI? The top-of-wallet card PFI? You now exist in a swipe-from-one-app-to-the-next-app landscape; why should/would the consumer or member now swipe toward/away from you?
What About Your Story?
The certain: The fundamental philosophy behind credit unions of mutual self-help and cooperative finance may sound so early 20th century it conjures up fedoras, but it is incredibly relevant to many consumers (especially younger people) in the 21st. It aligns with their “values,” as so many like to say.
The uncertain: How will you effectively articulate that abstract concept and tell that story so that it’s understood and relevant and real?
The certain: New offerings such as BNPL and cryptocurrency and mobile payments are here to stay.
The uncertain: You may not be able to stay in front of those types of products/services, but you will need to at least be in the race. What’s your race plan?
In short, in 2022 the only thing certain is… Well, you know.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of several new book, including the brand new “The Last Lyric,” a humorous satire about a murder investigation at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in which every line of dialogue is either a classic pop/rock song title or lyric. Available on Amazon, Apple iBook, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Mr. Diekmann is also author of a non-fiction compilation of the very best & worst he has seen and heard in covering more than 500 CU meetings and conferences, “501 Name Tags: How Everything You Need to Know About Business Can Be Learned at a Conference & Forgotten in the Trade Show.” It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Lulu, and Smashwords.