By Ray Birch
YAKIMA, Wash.–The annual member survey doesn’t cut it anymore, according to one credit union that now monitors member feedback daily, moving swiftly on smart comments to make process changes.
“If you are not listening to your members regularly—what they say about your organization, your people and your service—then you are out of touch with your membership,” said Mina Worthington, CEO of the $715-million Solarity Credit Union. “The annual survey is not a good temperature check. You need ongoing feedback as to where you are at every day.”
Worthington’s comments follow a recent statement by Mastercard’s John Ainsworth, who asserted that many credit unions are “out of touch” with their members, in this case on payments.
It’s also a time many analysts are advising credit unions to improve their digital service delivery to keep pace with consumers’ changing retail experiences, driven in part by the fintechs.
Worthington agrees with the digital service pressure being placed on CUs today.
“These days members’ expectations of service are changing quarterly based on their retail experiences,” said Worthington. “They think Amazon served me this way, why can’t my financial institution serve me the same way.”
Listening Program
Solarity has implemented what it calls a robust, omni-channel member listening program across a number of member touch points, including mortgage, in-branch, call center, and mobile. Insights from member feedback are delivered in real time from staff to the Solarity Member Outreach team and the executive team, which drive both operational and strategic changes, Worthington said.
The entire leadership team, from the branch managers to Worthington, tracks Solarity’s progress each day. The result has been more satisfied members and a Net Promoter Score that has jumped 40% since the effort began more than a year ago.
“To start with, we had a Net Promoter Score that many of the big banks would envy, and we have seen that score rise to a point where we are now within the top 5% of all financial institutions in country,” said SVP and Chief Experience Officer Ralph Cumbee, who declined to release the actual score to CUToday.info. “And this year we continue to improve our results.”
Solarity also has been named one of five recipients of a customer experience (CX) Customer First Award from InMoment, which recognizes an organization that upholds a customer-centric business model. The other winners of the award are Petco, Rite Aid, Tiffany & Co., and Caesars.
Worthington emphasized how people respond to surveys is changing, having a big impact on the effectiveness on an annual poll.
“I think that members who answer surveys once a year are potentially a different demographic than those who are now just entering the credit union,” she said. “Our younger members are our next generation of borrowers, so I think it is important we reach out and make it easy for members to be heard.”
While the high Net Promoter Score is great, what is most valuable, said Cumbee, are the member comments.
“What is actionable are the comments, and we get good and bad,” said Cumbee, who described the “listening” channel as feedback straight from member contact staff, as well as surveys that are sent to members when they open a new service or conduct a transaction that results in the change of data. The CU’s core system automatically generates the survey. “Frankly, there is more value in the comments from people who complain than from those who praise us.”
What Cumbee feels is unique about its monitoring of member feedback is how quickly Solarity gets back to members about their comments.
“We have made a huge effort to close the loop and to get things done when we find out there is a problem,” said Cumbee, who explained that at the start of the effort there were many small member pain points and “stupid rules” that needed fixing. “For example, with some of this low-hanging fruit we would get a comment in one day and by the following afternoon have the entire process changed. Then we’d get back to the member who made the suggestion, thank them, and tell them what we changed.”
For example, Cumbee said a member made Solarity aware that the way tellers accepted cash and how it was entered into the system slowed down the entire transaction.
“We then found a better way to do this,” said Cumbee. “Get enough of these small little wins and they add up to a big change in the member experience.”
Solarity Salute
The immediate feedback not only goes to members, but to staff as well, said Cumbee. When the credit union receives a perfect Net Promoter Score the CU’s system triggers a “Solarity Salute” email that is sent to the entire organization, which Cumbee said motivates the team.
It’s simply time for more credit unions to get in close touch with quickly changing member needs, emphasized Worthington. She noted how banks’ efforts to improve digital service delivery are working in the face of their bad reputation.
“Wells Fargo is growing despite all the negative publicity they have received,” said Worthington. “Amid this consumer disfavor with banks, banks are growing, I believe, because consumers perceive them as being able to get the job done, while consumers think credit unions might be missing the mark—not being able to get the job done. I think we need to move our organizations in the direction our members expect us to go.”