Promise & Delivery

Most of us can probably list off an exceptional shopping or service experience or two, or an equally disappointing one. I was recently picking up some restaurant gift cards for my sister and at one her favourite East Indian restaurants. As I waited for one of the staff to make up the gift card, I chatted with one of the owners about the interesting selection of East Indian drinks they had displayed above the bar. As he delivered the gift card to me he also reached into the cooler and gave me a complimentary East Indian Cola. Small gesture, but one that pretty much guarantees I will be taking my wife there for supper some night soon (the food smelled very good as well :-).

I didn’t expect it. We likely all have a generic perspective on what we expect from a shopping or service experience, but what expectations do we create with our members and prospective members from how we position ourselves in the marketplace? More importantly, how well do we  live up to that expectation?

Over the last few years I have been telling the story of Promise & Delivery, and how important it is for our credit union, or any organization for that matter, to ensure that they are tightly aligned.

Promise refers to what we tell our members and prospective members to expect from us as a financial services provider. You might also refer to it as your value proposition or brand promise. Much of what my team in marketing and communications does is related to making the promise and translating that into messaging in our campaigns, promotions, advertising, communications, products and programs.

Delivery is the fulfillment of that promise. It’s the help, advice, products and services that our member-facing staff provide to our members.

To be successful, the promise and implied benefits must not only be competitively relevant and unique, compelling and believable, we must be able to deliver consistently. Without a tight alignment between promise and delivery we are at risk to over-promise and under-deliver.

My challenge for young leaders is to think about ideas for improvement and innovation in promise and delivery. Many of you have great ideas to share not only on the promise, but also on the delivery part of the message. We owe it to our members that as a system we continue moving forward in our overall execution of both. So, my question to you is…what’s your view?

Jacques DeCorby

Executive Vice-President, Marketing & Communications
Conexus Credit Union