Thanksgiving 2005. The scene was the Mississippi Gulf Coast, a land that still looked for all the world like a war zone, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, the storm that hammered Mississippi and Louisiana just three months before.
Where homes once stood, FEMA trailers were in their place. Homes that survived, more often than not, were patched with blue tarps or boarded windows. The Gulf Coast was a long way from normal for this holiday season.
My friend worked as an editor and columnist at a Pascagoula, Miss., newspaper. A random call from a desperate reader told a heartbreaking story in a community that could fill a library with tragic stories.
The woman and her son- an adult with autism – were living under a blue tarp on what was left of their porch. Most of their house was gone. Local churches had delivered meals. But with cold weather coming, the mother and her son needed shelter, real shelter. And bureaucratic red tape had kept her from getting a FEMA trailer for temporary housing.
My friend told her story in the pages of the newspaper, and within a week, she got her trailer.
When Thanksgiving came, my friend and his family delivered Thanksgiving dinner to the family’s new trailer. A dry eye was nowhere to be found.
All of it was a story of hope amid the heartbreak.
The marketing lesson here is simple.
Take time to listen.
When your customers come into your lobby, listen to their stories. It may be about a neighbor, a friend, a fellow parishioner, or even a stranger. Or maybe even themselves. And there may be a way you, or your bank or credit union, can help.
There are those who would argue that banks and credit union are not in the social service business.
My response is that community bankers, while wanting profits for their shareholders, are special because they put people first. And there’s no better way in this holiday season – and throughout the year – to demonstrate that caring than to follow a lesson as old as the Scriptures.
Treat others as you would want to be treated.
There’s a second lesson in all of this, aimed at those Scrooges who may be reluctant to reach out.
It comes from the fictional Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch, from Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.
I can’t quote it exactly, but in essence, Finch tells his young daughter Scout that you can’t really understand a person until you’ve climbed into their shoes and walked around in them.
Community bankers, take time to walk in your neighbor’s shoes.
And make a Thanksgiving story of your own.
Please LIKE, COMMENT or SHARE this article and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
