I’m going to be very, very blunt here. Way too many credit unions have terrible web sites, and frankly, I’m tired of it.

I’m not talking about subtle things only geeks care about — I’m talking about some real train wrecks that make the credit unions look like amateur operations.

Here’s the real problem: potential new members won’t do business with you without doing their due diligence. These days that means they’re Googling your credit union and looking at your web site. They want to get an idea of what you’re like, check out your rates and fees, see if there are any specials, and generally pick up your vibe without the need to travel to a branch or talk to anyone. They also check out online reviews, if there are any.

It’s not just young people and geeks, either — pretty much everyone these days understands that they can Google your credit union’s name and find info.

Basically, they’re trying to figure out your quality – whether you’re credible, competent, pricing level, etc., service quality — without a lot of effort. (They also want to test-drive your home banking, which very few credit unions allow. But that’s another rant for another day…) Without cues from environment (nice clean uncrowded branch) or interactions (smiling, efficient tellers), you’re left with only what you see on the screen. And in way too many cases, it ain’t good.

If you have a crappy web site, it’s costing you a lot of members and a lot of business, and making your marketing much less effective.

In fact, I would argue that it’s 2012; fixing a subpar web site should be a far higher priority than remodeling or adding another branch. You can build a great web site for less than it costs to remodel a small bathroom, with far greater benefits to your credit union’s brand and membership growth.

It’s a no-brainer, really.

Why yes, as it happens, we build great credit union web sites, and if you have a crappy web site we’d love to hear from you. But mainly, we just want credit unions to have the world-class web sites they deserve.