How can your business stand out today?

That’s the question St. Cloud Financial Credit Union asked itself ten years ago, and their answer led them to become the fastest-growing credit union in Minnesota.

I co-authored a book with their CEO about their growth strategy and I want you to have it.

You see, ten years ago SCFCU was like many other businesses. They had friendly, efficient service, competitively-priced products, and satisfied customers.

But they weren’t growing like they wanted to, and changes in their customers and the broader economy were making growth even harder to come by.

So they knew they needed a new strategy. Why? Because the old strategies weren’t working anymore. What got them to where they were, wasn’t going to get them to where they wanted to go.

Their competitors were lowering rates and spending billions on the latest technology. All of that was conditioning customers to look for products and services that were fast and cheap.

These efforts to engineer the human connection out of retail banking were also taking place in other industries:

• We ship 1.6 million packages a day from Amazon
• We order food online instead of calling the restaurant.
• We use telemedicine instead of going to the doctor’s office.
• We interact with chatbots instead of people.
• We tour real estate virtually instead of visiting the home ourselves.
• We attend church and make our donations online.
• And more. And more.

The result is an “epidemic of loneliness in America” according to a recent report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They found that one in three Americans reported feeling “serious loneliness.”

That meant that the marketplace was perfectly primed for the strategy we outlined in our book. What is that strategy?

To make a meaningful difference through human connection.

It sounds easy, but there was a lot to it, and it took a lot to change the mindset of the employees.

But today, the strategy is part of the credit union and it’s as meaningful to the employees as it is to the members.

This book outlines the history of their strategy and the hundreds of stories of human connection it generated.

It just might be the growth strategy that you are looking for.

It just might be the experience your clients are asking for.

It just might be the engagement your employees are longing for.

Click here to get the book. It’s my gift to you because I believe it could make all the difference for your clients and your employees. It’s what I believe to be the best strategy for standing out today.