Neville Billimoria says that customers don’t want a bank—they want a trusted advocate. He tells Liz French how this credit union is meeting that need.

Mass marketing is on its death bed—at least in the financial industry. Some financial institutions have moved beyond catch-all TV, radio, and print ads to campaigns aimed at cultivating long-lasting relationships with customers—by pigeonholing them into categories based on age and income level. But in today’s increasingly fragmented market where individuals’ needs vary dramatically, the relationship model can only go so far.

So what’s the next step? According to Neville Billimoria, senior vice president of membership and chief advocacy officer at San Diego-based Mission Federal Credit Union, consumers want a trusted advocate, not a bank. “Advocacy is acting in your customers’ best interest. When you deliver on that promise, you engender trust and loyalty, which almost guarantees you a valuable, life-long relationship as opposed to a transient one based solely on price,” he said.

“This may mean sending a customer down the street for an auto loan. Even though we lose that piece of business, that person will remember that we acted in his or her best interest and come back to us.”

Getting to know you
Mission FCU was founded in 1961 as the Public School Federal Credit Union, serving members of San Diego’s education community. In 1978, it expanded its charter to include anyone involved in education, including PTA members, students, and faculty and staff at public and private schools, universities, and colleges in San Diego. In 2003, the charter was once again expanded to include all San Diegans.

With 22 branches serving 135,000 member-owners, Mission FCU knows well that the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to customer care doesn’t cut it. Instead of clustering customers together by age or income level, Mission FCU’s advocacy model drills down to smaller sub-groups of customers with specific needs. For instance, in a traditional business model, a financial institution might market the same products to all 40-year-old men with annual incomes of $70,000. However, one person fitting this description might be starting a second family, while another may be a bachelor planning for retirement.

“By pigeonholing customers based on age and income, you get a skewed image of what their needs are,” said Billimoria. Mission FCU takes the time to understand the changing needs and goals of its members. It starts with a consultative process, then based on what products are available, educates and advises customers so they can make well-informed decisions for life.

To manage an effective advocacy business model, Mission FCU relies on customer- managed relationship (CMR) technology (as opposed to the typical customer relationship management technology). The software ensures that the credit union approaches customers how they wish to be approached. For example, if a customer indicates that the best time to call is between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., that information is noted in the system. “We’ll never call you during dinner. That serves your best interest, as opposed to what I want to do, which is push a call to all my members in the evening to solicit them for a particular offer.”

Atypical advertising
Reaching specific customer groups can be tricky as the marketing landscape has expanded far beyond television, radio, and print media. Mission FCU studies how and where customers receive marketing information and tailors its message for each group. “We do our best to discern where our membership is investing its time and energy to deliver the right messages to the right people,” said Billimoria.

In the past, Mission FCU sent out the typical credit union message, touting low rates and service as advantages over a typical bank. But banks have since closed the gap, and the credit union has had to adapt. “Today, marketing is about de-averaging the value proposition. It is up to us to find out how our members define value and deliver it.”

The organization has obviously done a good job. In March 2006, it won highest honors from the Credit Union National Association Marketing and Business Development Council for its “Your mission is our mission” advocacy campaign. “In the past, Mission FCU focused on serving the education community, and we did a good job marketing directly to those groups, good enough to make us one of the largest credit unions in the country. But it’s time to let everyone know we provide the same level of financial services and education to all residents of San Diego County,” said Billimoria, who has been with the company five years.

Three-dimensional bottom line
Billimoria doesn’t see one bottom line for Mission FCU—he sees three. Of course, the credit union must meet its financial obligations for shareholders, but it also aims to fulfill social and ecological missions. “Our approach is similar to tithing in that we give a certain percentage of our earnings back to the community.”

Although the credit union gives back to the community in numerous ways, it holds fast to its roots: education. Studies show that a staggering number of people have never been taught basic household accounting. In the past, the credit union sent branch managers to local schools to teach these skills to teens and young adults, but it wasn’t long before Billimoria realized that this method wasn’t effective on a large scale. “We could only touch so many lives.”

As a result, the company developed an online education program based on standard high school curricula. Billimoria explained that most high school teachers would hesitate to take time away from the standard curriculum to teach financial planning, but “we are teaching students what they need to know as part of their testing requirements. That is a great example of advocacy—understanding the needs of the educator, not just the student.”

Over the course of 2007, Mission FCU aims to distribute—not sell—the program into as many markets as possible. “We are in an environment where people haven’t had this hard a time saving since the Great Depression. If we can help people save money to achieve their life goals, what’s not to like about that? That is the altruistic side of our multi-dimensional bottom line.”

The third leg of Mission FCU’s triple-bottom line is ecological responsibility. When San Diego was ravaged by firestorms in 2003, Mission FCU donated $50,000 in scholarships to students affected by the fires and offered its members a total of $298,000 in reduced- or no-interest home rebuilding loans. And after the tsunamis of 2004, Mission FCU generously donated to several East Asian credit unions to get them back up and running.