Being the Parking Overflow

Today was a special day because I got to watch my girls perform what they learned at ballet camp all week.  The little ballet school was overrun with proud parents and grandparents so parking was a bit tight.  A lot of us ended up parking at the credit union next door.

Of course there is a sign in that parking lot saying that the parking is for credit union customers only and that unauthorized vehicles would be removed at the owner’s expense.  Standard stuff.

The credit union has been good to the ballet school.  The credit union has ample parking and the occasional overflow from the ballet school doesn’t impede their business in any way.  No one expects to have their car towed away (and towing away a couple dozen cars wouldn’t be good PR).

Today the ballet parents took up quite a bit of space and I wondered how the credit union management felt about it.  Obviously it would be a mistake to take any action against a crowd of parents who were only there for 45 minutes to watch their kids perform.  But is there some way for the credit union to make itself actually look good rather than being a silent participant?

Two ideas popped into my mind:

  1. Leave flyers on windshields congratulating the kids on a successful ballet performance and offering some kind of "My First Bank Account" program for the ballet kids.  Maybe offer each kid a little treat when they make a deposit on ballet performance day.
  2. Become an official sponsor of the ballet performance.  The credit union is right next door.  Banking there would be convenient for parents, and parents with enough disposable income for ballet lessons are desirable customers.

Admittedly I don’t know much about the banking / credit union world, but if potential customers are already in your parking lot, it’s an opportunity to reach out.

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