ANAHEIM, Calif. — Tuesday's speakers at CO-OP Financial Services' THINK 2011 Conference left conference attendees with lots of ideas about how CUs can and should build stronger relationships with existing members.

One was Jeanne Bliss, founder of Customer Bliss, an expert on customer service and making helping companies move from being average companies to being "beloved companies." She discussed the ways companies or credit unions could interact with their members in a ways that will make them truly love and become evangelists for their CUs.

Bliss made it clear that what she was talking about were things CUs could do to make themselves truly member-centric and not just claiming to be member focused.

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Meanwhile, Porter Gale, vice president of Virgin America, described in vivid detail the ways that social media can both underpin and develop those techniques and interactions that Bliss discussed.

Gale told a story to illustrate the immediacy of social media.  A traveler on a Virgin Atlantic flight tweeted (all Virgin Atlantic flights offer wireless Internet access) that he had been trying to get a sandwich on the flight but had not been successful.

Someone at the airline following the Twitter feed saw that, called the pilot and the traveler got the sandwich. That traveler will be loyal to Virgin Atlantic forever, Gale said.

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