St. Canice’s Credit Union Uplift Members with Tik-Tok Flash-Mob

Community 3 min read

21 Apr 2020

There’s a saying that when the storm doesn’t bring a rainbow, get up there and paint your own on the clouds. In the most trying times, it can be the small gestures or someone’s contagious positivity that nudges us on.

Across their common bond, St. Canice’s Credit Union is remaining open to serve their community and is staying as positive as possible while they do it. As well as ensuring members have all the financial supports needed, the staff have been keeping channels updated with feel-good content, including weekly Tik-Tok videos of their flash-mob type dance routines, which have gained over 24,000 views so far. They've been so uplifting, in-fact, RTÉ covered them on their '5 positive things happening right now' update. 

Roisín Gilroy, Head of Marketing for St. Canice’s Credit Union, said it’s important to stay as positive as possible. ‘We’ve been sharing weekly videos, increasing our monthly prize draw, sharing positive stories of local businesses as well as blogs with advice and activities to help families during this time. It all helps, to try keep staff and members going.’

‘Of course, we’ve also put in place a range of measures to ensure our members are financially supported during COVID-19 – if they need to talk to us about loan repayments, they can call or apply online. We’ve also waived current account and debit card fees for the first quarter of the year up to 31st March, increased staff on our phone-lines to help transition members to doing business over the phone and online, or to answer any queries they might have.’

Tik-Tok

The credit union staff, who are working tirelessly the last few weeks, are posting weekly Tik-Tok videos of the group dancing in sync on the office floor which have built up significant views. But more importantly, it increases the team spirit even further.

Donations

A story shared by the credit union and also picked up by local media, told how two local businesses donated products to protect staff against COVID.

‘McDonalds and Supermacs had to shut, so they took all their surplus hand sanitiser and hygiene spray and donated it to our staff here. It was a really lovely gesture. A few weeks ago, it was so hard to get that stock. It was a heart-warming story and we wanted to share it to our members too.’

Monthly Prize Draw

The credit union, who usually have a monthly prize draw of a car and €5,000 in cash, extended these prizes in March to include an additional 50 winners, winning €1,000 each – to achieve a monthly total of €80,000 in prizes. 

‘We thought, as well as a pick-me-up, it was something that could help so many more members at this difficult time,’ said Roisin.

Online Banking and Current Accounts

The credit union are encouraging all members to use current account and online banking services as opposed to visiting the office. New measures make it easier to use these services - members can now receive their pin for online banking by text as opposed to post and can set up automatic, recurring payments on debit cards, making it easier to pay off loans. The credit union has seen a surge in online users, which have grown by 12% in the last three week period. 

The credit union has also refunded current account and debit card fees for the first quarter of the year up to the 31st March and are promoting the benefits of contactless payments with the debit card.  

Help-Line

St. Canice’s have increased the number of staff fielding calls on their main phone line.

Members with queries regarding loan repayments, online banking, or financial support can call 056-7722042. Members can also request a loan repayment break through their online form here.

You can check out St. Canice's Facebook and Instagram pages here. If you’d like to get in touch with your local credit union, you can do so here.