Even in this age of hyper connectivity with social media onTwitter and Facebook, the most important ingredient for growth andefficient operations can be recognized from explicitly definingcore values and culture.

Sounds easy, but it takes tremendous attention to detail.Creating such a culture is essential to an organization'sefficiency, productivity, and ultimately their growth.

Neches FCU creates their culture through three key areas:signature service, appearance, and communication. “SignatureService” is our Neches FCU brand standard for serving ourmembers. We are trained on a recurring basis and areevaluated and annually tested on our Signature Service skills.

When it comes to communication, we cover mediums like employeeintranets, email, social media, and memos. However, nothingreplaces good, old-fashioned personal interaction. We still haveweekly manager, staff, and departmental meetings. We've been doingthis since the days of only having one branch. We will build oureighth this year. This is where we compile the importantinitiatives, goals, and successes for the week. We briefstaff on the promotions and special events for the coming week andwe review how our loan goals and new account strategies areworking.

We encourage staff participation and review our tagline of'Family. Friends. Community.' We work countless hours in civicorganizations and community involvement. Part of our staff'scriteria for annual evaluations is their performance with workingat credit union endorsed events. All employees are required toparticipate in a set number of festivals, events, parades, chapterdinners and other events.

We share stories of credit union events and really try to go outof our way to thank employees for helping us achieve our goals.

We also conduct regular training sessions to reinforce ourbrand. Recently our training department held an excellent sessionthat compared our Signature Service to being in a band. This reallyhelped enforce the idea that nobody is successful alone. Our teamis vital all the way through the organizational chart.

The training emphasized that to get a standing ovation we mustback up our tagline. That means come to perform, set the stage,connect with our audience, leave our baggage at the door and pickeach other up.

In order for the marketing efforts to be successful, it is veryimportant to achieve a genuine level of employee buy-in andaccountability. Linking marketing and strategic decisions aids inthose efforts to create the most seamless and logical connectionpossible between the two.

We have to communicate what our mission and brand is all of thetime. Our efforts are designed to show how meaningful eachindividual's efforts are to that ultimate mission. Here, Ireally believe our community involvement efforts set us apart fromthe rest. If you visit our booth at a festival, it's going tobe a “wow” experience.

What we're not doing is sitting in seats and goingunnoticed. Our involvement with civic organizations is alsoextremely important. Whether it's local charitableorganizations, local youth sports, or high school financialliteracy, we really do try our hardest to make a positive impact.

Just as we have a commitment of signature service to ourmembers, Neches FCU has a strong commitment to its employees. Wetreat our members like family. Our coworkers are provided apositive and energizing workplace. We have a strong commitment toour community to give back and help sponsor as many organizationsas possible.

Signature service means serving members with pride,personalizing our service to meet their needs, solving members'problems proactively and caring about their financial needs. 

Jason Duplant isvice president of marketing at Neches Federal Credit Union in PortNeches, Texas.