Can you handle the truth?

That is one of Jack Nicholson's signature lines from "A Few Good Men" and one that applies to all of us in credit union land. Can we handle the truth...and what will we do with the true when we hear it, see it or experience it? Do we dismiss as an isolated incident, do we say that's not our area and ignore it or do we take action?

FORUM does a tremendous amount of surveys to our members. We attempt to open channels of communication to get feedback even outside of surveys. Part of our brand is "Your Voice" so we promote that we want to hear from our members. That is all the easy part. The difficult part is what do you do with the truth when you have it. Many of the surveys go out with my name on them. The conversations I have with members because of that are always enlightening. From phone calls to late night email conversations I always find that members give the truth according to them. And that is where I think many companies fall down when hearing the truth. They don't realize that consumer perception is the truth even if it is not accurate. That is the tricky part of finding the "truth". Whose "truth" matters? In a service business, the only truth that matters is the consumer's truth. That is where change is most difficult...dealing with a member "truth" that isn't entirely accurate from the credit union perspective.

You may ask what made me post about this. It is that I am currently dealing with one of those "truths" in our CU that another department doesn't believe. Change is hard, especially when it is based on not completely accurate information.