ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ken Schmidt, former communicationstrategist for Harley-Davidson Motor Co., outlined for credit unionexecutives attending Card Services for Credit Unions' 2013conference the way the need to change their communication withmembers to motivate them into loving their credit unions.

The problem with the financial service industry is that so manyinstitutions are, as far as the consumer is concerned, essentiallythe same and the ways that credit unions so often use tocommunicate their difference to the public is by appealing to logicwith facts about interest rates and fee policies.

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“People almost never make decisions based on logic andfacts. That's not the way the world works,” Schmidt saidThursday in his session at the Vinoy Renaissance. “Peoplemake decisions based on emotions. I like you or I don't likeyou. I want that or I don't want that. I trust you or I don't trustyou,” he said.

Credit unions instead need to focus on humanizing theirinteractions with the public, not treating them as customers oreven members, but treating them first as human beings – and thatmeans noticing them and listening to them.

Schmidt outlined how Harley-Davidson had fallen from marketdominance to the verge of bankruptcy in 1986 when analysts said thecompany had stood by and let Japanese manufacturers like Honda eatthe iconic American motorcycle maker's lunch.

Schmidt disagreed with that. “We didn't let them eat our lunch,”he said, “we stood there and fed them our lunch,” he said.

Backing away from that brink and coming back to a strong marketposition again, even with a product that is priced more expensivelythan competitors, meant that Harley-Davidson had to learn whatexactly it was that its customers were buying when they bought aHarley and how important it was to let their customers tell themthat.

“How many of you are going to fill out the little, 15-questioncustomer feedback survey in your rooms before you leave,” he asked,barking, “don't lie, you know you won't” at the few people whoraised their hands.

But if a hotel staff person, face to face, were to ask some ofthe same questions, almost everyone would answer them, he said.“Why is that,” Schmidt asked.

Because asking the questions filled what has become the largestunmet emotional need in the U.S. right now, the need and desire tobe noticed and reassured that we matter to someone else, heargued.

He used Facebook as an illustration, contending that Facebook'ssuccess was built upon a human failure. Facebook hassucceeded because it has enabled people in a digital way to findthe notice and affirmation in at least a digital way that they areunable to find face to face, he said.