Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

I thought I'd try something new.

I frequent Sweetgreen, a restaurant that offers healthy foods from local farmers. They have an app that allows you to pre-order your lunch and then pick it up. I gave it a shot.

When I arrived, there was a shelf with all of the lunches ordered via the app. And there was my lunch with my name on it!

After picking up the salad, I asked a woman behind the register if I needed to check in before I picked up the grub.

Her: Nope. Just grab it and go.

Me: What if someone steals my lunch?

Her: (Laughs) We'd make you a new one. But that hasn't happened yet. And if it does, we'll tweak how we deliver lunches. 

Now, if I were designing the process, I would have concocted an SOP that would have somehow verified the identity of the customer. All I would have accomplished would have been: 1) creating more work; and 2) diluting the customer experience. 

It reminded me of my days at Penn State. Whenever the University created a new "quad," they put in a few sidewalks. But not a complete set.  The result was a series of paths that destroyed grass.  I always thought it was strange until I spoke with one of the workers.

They stopped trying to guess where to put sidewalks. Instead, they waited to see where students walked or rode their bikes. Then they put in sidewalks. The result was a strange set of sidewalks that seemed disorganized but were anything but.

 

I'm guilty of thinking I know what consumers want. I often anticipate problems that don't exist or highlight features that aren't needed. 

Sometimes, the best plan is to see what people do before investing too much time and energy trying to guess at what they'll do.

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Let me cut to the chase. If your credit union isn't a member of NAFCU, I'd love to chat. I'm proud of my colleagues and I know we would provide true value to you and your team. If you aren't a member, let me know. 

Email me at ademangone@nafcu.org. Or ring me at (703) 842-2278.

All I ask is to take up 3 minutes of your time. I think it would be three minutes well spent.