The 5 mistakes credit unions make in measuring & managing member service
by: Denise Wymore
I was speaking to a group of marketers a few years back about member service as a differentiator, and how to choreograph wow experiences. It was after lunch and my next set of slides was on the Net Promoter Score. Before I began I asked for a show of hands, “How many of you were satisfied with the lunch we served today?” It was classic conference room chicken with two sides, iced tea and cheesecake. Almost every hand went up. Then I asked them to vote with their fingers, “On a scale of 0 fingers to 10 fingers, how likely is it that you will recommend this lunch to a friend, family member or co-worker?” No one held up all ten fingers. Most were five fingers or less, essentially creating a negative Net Promoter Score.
The point of this is to show how misleading “satisfied” can be in surveys. By only asking the satisfaction question you lure yourself into believe that you’re great. When in fact, you might not even be that good.
I’m satisfied with my credit union when I can get in, get out and no one gets hurt. To get me to promote my credit union the experience requires so much more than just completing the errand.
Here are the 5 most common mistakes credit unions make in measuring and managing member service.
- The Annual Survey. I’m married to a credit union CFO and I know for a fact that he measures ROA daily, monitors loan and share volumes weekly, reports on net income, expense, loan balances, share deposits, etc. monthly. There is nothing in his department that is done only once a year. So why, if we are in the service business, would we choose to measure member service on an annual basis? The ideal would be a quarterly relationship survey (a random sample of the entire membership) and weekly transactional surveys (new account opening, new loan, call center, teller transaction and mobile banking). That’s the recipe for a successful voice of the member program.