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The value of membership

I can’t say I really saw this whole crisis coming, but my former fellow credit union loan officers and I did see some of the horrible lending practices performed by banks this past year. I am very surprised the feds didn’t jump in sooner. I literally saw credit reports with no credit except for a mortgage. Who gives a mortgage to somebody with no credit?

And so we turn to credit unions! Most credit unions are much more cautious with their lending practices and are run by volunteer boards, who are elected by the credit union members. That means instead of your lending and banking institution working to make investors and other fat cats happy, your credit union is working to make you happy. The longer you are a member and the more you are involved, the better.

They will tell you all their members receive equal treatment. Wrong! But that’s a good thing. Read on…

With banks, you might get treated well if you have a large deposit or a large loan with them. Credit unions simply want to see that you have a committed involvement and partnership with them. Afterall, credit unions are basically a group of people pooling their money together and then lending from that pool to members of that group. If you contribute to that pool, you’re a valued member of the group. If you borrow from the pool and always pay the loan back as agreed, you’re a valued member.

Simple in concept, right? Right.

Service to the member

Ever go into a bank lobby and feel like a piece of meat? They just jump on you trying to sell you the product of the day. They are like little financial knats. Why? Because many of them are either paid on commission or are required to meet quotas. They have to sell you that 7% cash back checking account with all the fine print that you’ll never catch. Not designed to benefit you, but to make the bank and the investor’s pockets grow.

Now go to a credit union and although they still offer similar products, they listen to you and sell you what you need. All designed to benefit you, the member.

Get involved with your local credit union. You will probably find they even offer higher yields on savings and lower rates on loans.  Take all your savings there and all of your loans. You will be appreciated and you will receive better service. It’s just natural for them.

For the last two months, I’ve been working in support at an Austin software company. My background for the previous ten years has been with credit unions and consumer lending. Being exposed to the other side of upgrades, installs, downed servers and even the occasional bug has been exhausting. The big surprise though has been the overall weak customer relationships. Thankfully, that is a higher priority for my new job, but I have been exposed to an industry that I don’t think grasps the concept as a whole.

Pick up the phone!

Seriously, it’s going to take an extra three minutes, five at the most, to pick up the phone and call that customer instead of emailing them. Take that time to invest in a relationship that will compound into buzz for your company and forgiveness for occasional whoopsies.

Customers will be content with your knowledge and strong product. Customers will be committed if they see you take time with them on each issue and feel they are a priority.

If you must email, write like you’re being graded

We all get in a hurry when hammering out those quick emails, but this is another place where extra effort and time can make a difference with your customers. It can be difficult – especially with those impatient clients – but a simple spell check and proof-read will help to keep your emails clear. Think back to high school. It sounds ridiculous, but you remember all of the book reports. You had to use proper paragraphs, no run-on sentences and you had to be descriptive.

The simplest things – poor punctuation, spelling, sentence structure – will be noticed. You know the phrases and spellings that look questionable when proof-reading. When in doubt, grab your dictionary or use a different word or phrase that sounds more natural to you.

If you find yourself questioning the quality of your writing, read a book or newspaper. It sounds elementary because it is. Better readers become better writers.

Did you say the magic word?

Please and thank you are obvious ingredients for emails or phone conversations, but take it a step further. Toss in a good joke (keep it professional, obviously). Ask about the weather or the kids. Find something to make the conversation, and thus the relationship, slightly more lighthearted.

Restate the customer’s concerns and close the call with a commitment of time or other expectation you will meet and make them feel like you have taken ownership of their problem. Make sure your commitment is always to make their problem your own personal problem.

You just did something you yourself expect from others

In summary, go beyond just providing service. Build relationships. Make your company one of the rarities. Your customers will thank you.

Go check out the latest Stubby Studios creation, Amplifiedheat.com.

I had a few IE6 problems with PNG images. I tried Supersleight and other remedies, but nothing was working for me because of the PNGs being used in the navigation. Then my friend Tim Thompson turned me on to Unit Interactive’s PNG script. The navigation images and all other PNGs are now displaying properly in IE6 and the links are functioning. Check it out the next time you have to use PNGs. It was the most effective solution for me and a very light script.

Amplified Heat has always been a favorite for my wife and I. Back when I was still playing in other Austin bands, we would frequently play shows with them. I’m proud to have now built their new home on the web.

The band is a power trio of actual brothers. Fans of 60’s blues rock will like them. Fans of loud and rowdy music will love them. Check out the website and buy a CD or at least send them some love.

Lutherans Song – by Lost and Found

The song is a little inside, but Lutherans should find it funny.

Lost and Found were the only Christian band I ever enjoyed growing up in the Lutheran Church. I’m still Lutheran today and Lost and Found still gives me a good laugh. If you ever have the chance to go see them – they still play at Churches and Christian Colleges – no other Christian band that I’ve ever seen has their amount of character and relativity.

The YouTube embedding code is not available, so you’ll have to click on the link above.

Abigail and Porter in their backyard

I’m not one for long stories. Check out Shannon’s blog for more on the kids. I think surviving the past two years actually calls for a drink, so I’ll share the recipe of our favorite cocktail with you. A toast to our hilarious kids and their loving, beautiful mother. My wife calls these “Depressings,” because it is very sad when you get to the bottom of the glass.

Caprioska:

1. Fill old fashioned glass to brim with ice cubes.
2. Add 1.5 to 2 shots of vodka.
3. Pour contents into shaker.
4. Add about two tea spoons of sugar.
5. Cut one whole lime into 8ths and squeeze them into the shaker.
6. Drop the lime rinds into the shaker.
7. Shake contents until the ice is muddled and the shaker is freezing to the touch.
8. Pour all contents back into the old fashioned glass.
9. Top the drink off with a splash of sprite. (DON’T STIR)
10. Sip with a straw.

Porter and Abbey will have to settle for a limeaid.

At some point late last year, my wife was looking for some place to donate clothes to. Shannon has worked at shelters before, so when she took the clothes to Angelheart, it was only natural for her to start volunteering there. Not too long after she became involved with them, I was tapped to rebuild their website, which wasn’t much more than text on white background at the time.

Once I met the group of people I was going to work with, I knew this was going to be an easy project. They were very open to new design ideas and brought only the best ideas and experiences of their own to the table.

Please visit the site and if you don’t give to Angelheart, give to a children’s shelter in your area. These kids need someone to tell them that they’re loved. Angelheart and shelters like it depend on the generosity of their communities to be able to care for these children and give them hope for the future.

After months of work and cross-browser issues, the website for my first client, Lutheran Foundation of Texas, is up.

For them being my first client ever, this was a huge project to take on. There was a large amount of content and the amount of pages required a horizontal dropdown menu, which was done using CSS. Some light JavaScript was required to get the dropdown to function in IE6. Most of the code for the menu was learned through Eric Shepherd’s article on Hybrid CSS Dropdowns published by A List Apart.

Take a look around lfot.org and let me know what you think.

The Stubby Studios blog is finally working. I’ve been so busy with the Lutheran Foundation of Texas website and other projects that I haven’t been able to nurture Stubby Studios as needed.

Visit the portfolio page to see other examples of my work built with hand-coded XHTML and CSS.

Take a look around and feel free to leave a comment.

Check out the new trick at the-bests.net.

Change the entire layout of the page by selecting either of the new buttons provided at the top of the page. The technique was provided as open source back in 2001 by Paul Sowden in an article he wrote for A List Apart. Since then, the style switching technique has gone on to increase accessibility and fun across the Web.

You’ll also see the style switcher used on a site I am creating for Lutheran Foundation of Texas. Many of the visitors for LFOT’s website are not aware that modern browsers are capable of increasing default font sizes, so with the style switching JavaScript I was able to provide a feature allowing users to increase the font size with the touch of a button. The same feature has popped up on many government and college websites since the technique was presented in 2001. The new Lutheran Foundation of Texas site will go live in January and will be featured here at Stubby Studios as part of my portfolio.