Project Brief

 

The project involved us working with Tynedale community bank, their aim was reduce the stigma of credit unions of being a “poor man’s bank”. Also raising awareness and engaging with the community of going to them instead of going to payday lenders and loan sharks. Their main idea was to offer both loans and savings to the people across the Tynedale area. When people deposited their money in savings would then be used locally to help the community, this would be then be an alternative to loan sharks and payday lenders because it will have low interests and better security.

 

Research

 

We did some initial research of looking of what credit unions actually are and how they operate. We’ve found out that unlike banks, they are non-profit making money cooperative and it’s owned by members that can borrow from collective deposits at low interest rates. They reward their members with left over profit with low interest’s rates and higher savings account interests rates. They are run locally or regionally which means they prefer to build relationships with their customers within the community. They encourage people to save what you can and only borrow of what you can afford to repay.

 

Prince Bishop Community Bank

 

We went to Prince Bishop Community Bank, we asked them many questions such as how did they operate and how they got to the sustainable position that they are in now. They said that their main marketing tool to reach to people was word of mouth which meant that they would go to local schools, community or social events. They said they were willing provide Tynedale community bank the resources such as the marketing tools and funding until they believe that it can be able to stand on its own feet.  However they would like to see new services and marketing methods in order for them to reach the people in Tynedale area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communities

 

One of the researches that I had to do was to look at the existing community groups and societies that were in the Tynedale. The reason to do this research was that when we go into the towns that were in Tynedaye, we would know which places to go to when we have to conduct our survey with the people. We would later decide to go to these community groups and be able to conduct our survey with larger groups of people and get their understanding of what of they think about credit unions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going to Hexham, Prudhoe and Allendale

 

We went to these towns and asked the locals a few questions such as do they what are credit unions or how often do they go to their bank branch. Asking these questions gave us a better insight of how the locals communicate amongst each other such as the local Co-op shop was the best place for gossip in Allendale or Hexham already has a credit union which the Northumberland credit union and they have an touch point within the city centre. We’ve also found out that a lot of people mistake credit unions to loan sharks however credit unions are completely the opposite of them and they’re to help people that are struggling to pay off the loans from the loan sharks.  This showed the lack of understanding of what credit unions actually are. When we showed the client our findings, even she was shocked and surprised that people thought that credit unions were loan sharks. 

 

How to get people to take out loans

 

When working with Sophie and Cameron, as group we had to come up with new ways of services they could convince people to bank with the Tynedale community bank. In order for them to be trustworthy, we suggested to them to show the people where their money is going, this means that have no hidden secrets. Also creating market stalls that can be touch points for them, this will help people find where they are and having volunteers working with them that are from that specific town. Making it personal, so assigning an advisor to a specific customer. For example so when that customer comes in for a query, they will get their specific advisor and this will create a better communication amongst each other. 

 

Awareness

• Setting up stalls at local markets and also doing public stunts within the community which will hopefully get people talking.

Accessibility

• They could manage their bank account using a mobile app. This will help them to transfer and move money to pay off the loan quickly and easily.

Advertising

• They could also have local newspaper publish articles about Tynedale and what they have done for the community.

Personal

• One-to-one service to their customers for example having one staff member deals with a set of clients. This allows that staff member to be up-to-date on all of their clients and their issues. The customers would also feel that person actually cares about them.

Incentives

• Having incentives in place would be appealing for people to take out loans such as rewarding some that have been paying their repayments on time. Having competitions within the community to win prizes and giving away free giveaways. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary

 

Working in this project has made me realise of different methods that we used to come up with the solutions and how we went about when conducting our research. The method that we used was instead of researching on the internet of what the Tynedale community looked like, we chose instead to actually go into these towns and actually talk the people within that community face-to-face. This gave us a bettering understanding of what they think about the Tyendale community bank and how they will like to see changes or improves that could done to their community such as renovating an old iconic building or building a new park for the children.  Then still using our old methods such as big paper exercise and having big groups meetings of how we should reach our objectives. I believe this project was a great opportunity for us to actually talk to our stakeholders that were involved in this and finding out what they actually wanted which then resulting us to change our approach of the project.