For some time, the $321 million Granite Credit Union struggledwith its payment protection service, unsure of how it could makethe offering more attractive to its members.

Mary Woodard, vice president of branch administration at theSalt Lake City cooperative, brainstormed ways of promoting paymentprotection before checking into an online lending forum with thehope of finding some inspiration or, better yet, some specificideas.

“One of the things I found is that it's so easy to get caught upon the idea of how things should run,” Woodard said. “With thingslike payment protection, it's important to keep things fresh.”

Offered by CUNA Mutual Group nearly a year ago, the LDP Zone isan online extension of the company's lender development program.The goal was to provide additional information to credit unionsthrough best practices, polls and surveys, a resource library,articles and a discussion board, according to Maripat Blankenheim,media relations manager. More than 60 CUs are activeparticipants.

“Although we, of course, hoped credit unions would find theinformation useful for their lending programs, we were pleasantlysurprised by how they embraced the site as their own,” Blankenheimsaid. “The site quickly evolved into a place where credit unionlenders and staff engage with each other for problem solvingthrough the discussion board, sharing their own best practices andposting questions for their peers.”

The outlet proved to be the resource Woodard needed to improveGranite CU's payment protection activity. At a December managers'meeting, they perused ideas and discovered a contest that rewardsemployees. After a few custom tweaks, the CU is gearing up tolaunch its version of March Madness, a quarterly challenge thattaps high-performing staffers as coaches of teams. Each teammateearns points for selling payment protection. If they aren't able tosell, they have to explain to the “referee” why they didn't,Woodard explained. Even before the contest kicks off, paymentprotection sales are already up.

“One of the things I'm hearing [in the LDP zone] is figuring outwhy some members say they don't need certain products and servicesand sharing ideas [on how to get them to reconsider],” Woodwardsaid.

Over the past year, some of the discussions have changed partlyas a result of the slow economy and members losing their jobs, saidJake Hillman, training administrator at the $290 million SOFCUCommunity Credit Union in Grants Pass, Ore. Where manyconversations were once about behavioral issues or teamperformance, now it's more economic problems.

“It's been a good outlet for people to confess their concerns,”said Hillman, who regularly participates in the online discussionboard and has submitted several articles for other CUs. “On theflip side, people are posting success stories. It helps to haveexamples of 'here's how we've done it.'”

Hillman works closely with SOFCU's managers on leadership andcoaching. He often turns to the LDP Zone for answers when questionsarise about lenders who are not doing what's expected of them.Hillman recently came across a query from someone who wondered whatto do with an employee that used to be a top performer, was movedto another area and became an underperformer. Peers also uploadcoaching and training PowerPoint presentations for others to see.And, then there are always questions about how to make the somewhatdry subject of lending more appealing. It can be a challenge asmany credit unions focus more on being compliant.

“The issues with things like Regulation Z and open-endedlanguage-people freak out about all of this. But I think we have toremember why we're doing it and that's to help the member,” Hillmanexplained. “We're trying to take them to a better financialplace.”

Both Hillman and Woodward like the ability to post anonymously.Hillman said some might get intimidated if they knew a question oranswer was coming from a billion dollar CU. Or a smallercooperative's inquiry might not be taken as seriously. In thebeginning, Hillman was concerned that the online forum “would bejust another social networking site,” mimicking other outlets thathave “turned into big complaining sessions.”

“We haven't had those issues,” Hillman said, adding 80% of theGranite's lending staff use the site and 30% of those are activeusers. “This is more of a roundtable. You find people who havesimilar issues.”

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