Member Loyalty Group

Author Archive for Michelle Bloedorn

Easy is Hard

In the just published Filene Research Study on Net Promoter Scores in credit unions, we had the opportunity, in partnership with Dr. Laura Brooks from Satmetrix, to explore the state of member/customer loyalty in financial institutions. In the credit union/bank loyalty face off, it was no contest. Credit unions outperformed banks hands down.

What was really interesting was the “deep dive” into the differences between the highest and the lower scoring credit unions. Among a number of differences, our research showed a large gap between high-performing and low-performing credit unions in “Ease of Conducting” business.

Life is crazy. People are busy. Members don’t want to call to renew a CD. They want home banking available whenever they are. They want their transactions processed quickly. And most importantly, they want instant communication and information about everything they do with you.

Members regularly use providers outside of the financial services industry as their point of reference for all of their service experiences. They buy a paperback from Amazon or order a movie from Netflix where they interact with a spiffy online interface and can receive emails that tell them where their stuff is at any moment in time. Not surprisingly, they are pretty disappointed to find out they have to wait weeks or months to “process” their mortgage loan and days to get a call back if they have questions.

High Net Promoter credit unions are addressing this reality and put a strong focus on trying to make their processes as friendly, responsive and thoughtful as their tellers. They spend resources on making doing business with them easy and consistent. The importance of this focus takes on long-term implications when you look at the credit union loyalty average by age.

Across all credit unions, there is a notable decrease in loyalty scores as age drops. An evaluation of the comments and supporting data show that the “ease of doing business” expectation gap is key factor in score difference.Maintaining and increasing member loyalty in 2010 and into the next decade will require keeping up with a high – and rapidly rising – service delivery bar.

If you are not a member of Filene Research, you can buy a copy of this report by clicking here. If you are already a member, your copy has been sent to you.

Feedback is a Gift

Early in my career at Baxter Credit Union, I committed a faux pas during an interaction with one of our partners (vendors others may call them – but most are truly partners at BCU.) Mike Valentine, the CEO, very pointedly called me on it. He could see my obvious unhappy reaction because he said “Feedback is a gift. Please take it as such.” It felt a lot more like a lump of coal than a gift at the time, but over the next few days I thought about his comments and he was absolutely right. Adjusting my approach in similar situations has served me well in the years since. He really did give me a gift by pointing out my “opportunity for improvement.”

I appreciate the time he took to help me. People are unbelievable busy. They have zillions of things vying for their time and energy. Those who invest their time to tell you how you can get better truly are giving you a gift. One of the big surprises in the Net Promoter Score results among Member Loyalty Group credit unions is the huge amount of constructive feedback provided by Promoters. These members love their credit union, rating it a 9 or 10 when asked if they would recommend it to a friend, colleague or family member. However, they know things aren’t perfect. They love their CU warts and all.

While many people focus on comments from Detractors, the volume and richness of the Promoter feedback often outweighs that of Detractors. Just like in your personal life, the people that care about you the most give you the best stuff. Promoters genuinely want to help their CU get better, so they will give very specific instructions on how to do that. This is especially true through the email channel where it is easier for members to provide really detailed advice – much more detailed than you often get from Detractors who aren’t as invested in your success. Just a few examples from Promoters:

“At the Hwy 20 location I absolutely hate leaning over the counter in the great room to do business – too impersonal and no privacy! Perhaps two personal banker cubbies could be created.”

“I would like to be able to make a credit card payment on a future date. It appears that the only way to do this now is through bill pay, which seems to take extra time and there is a lag between the payment date and when the credit union receives my payment.”

Often, the members really seem pained to have to correct you and want to be careful of people’s feelings:

“Make sure everyone knows what the procedure is for purchasing vehicles in Illinois…. I am not complaining though, I am completely satisfied with the process!!”

Their thoughtful observations are intended to help make you better. Multiply these examples by the thousands of responses that are generated annually by a good Net Promoter program and you have some very powerful information. Through careful listening and well-chosen actions a credit union can truly use this insight to mold services to match perfectly to their member needs and create real competitive advantage.

Our mothers always taught us that when someone gives you a gift, you should send them a thank you note. The same applies to our members who give us feedback. The best ways to thank them are to let them know you heard their suggestions and, where possible, do something about it

10 Letters a Day

Several recent articles about President Obama pointed out that every day he gets a purple folder with 10 letters from Americans that are representative of the thousands of messages in the days’ mail. He personally reads the letters and the writers receive a presidential response. Sometimes even a call. He does this to “stay in touch with the people who elected him” and to make sure he doesn’t get stuck in a White House bubble that distances him from the real issues people face. He gets letters from people losing their homes or jobs, letters from parents of soldiers in Iraq, people who vehemently disagree with his bailout of the banks, etc. “We pick messages that are compelling, things people say that, when you read it, you get a chill,” said Mr. Kelleher, the Director of White House Correspondence. “I send him letters that are uncomfortable messages.”

Years ago when I was working at a large credit union, our entire senior team would sit in the Call Center once a year for two hours stints during National Customer Service Week and listen to member calls. It was intended to show appreciate for the reps, but an interesting thing always happened: Management team members would get wildly fired-up about the problems they were hearing from Members on the phone. Managers, often shocked, would say things like: “Did you know that direct deposits didn’t hit until 10 am this week and we bounced member checks?!” or “Did you know we don’t give payment envelopes with the payment coupons on indirect loans?!”

Many of the issues had been languishing on lists of items to review or fix, but when leaders heard the complaint coming directly from the Members, it suddenly seemed criminal that the problems hadn’t been resolved. There would be a big bustle of activity for the next several weeks as everyone raced to correct the things they’d heard the members grumble about. Eventually, the memories of our time in the call center would fade and we would settle back into our senior management bubble. Team conversation would revert back to more high-level, less member-centric topics. ROA, net income, board meetings and strategic planning sessions.

There is an old management saying “You can expect what you inspect.” Because we historically have not had tools that give us a daily feel for the “pulse” of the member, we tend to focus primarily on the things we do have tools to collect information about. Financials, Sales Figures, Delinquency. Many are outcomes – not necessarily drivers – of the business.

With a solid Net Promoter program, managers at all levels of an organization can get daily feedback from member in the members own words. Information that can truly balance the scorecard. What works? What doesn’t? What causes pain? What do they love? The voice of the member is powerful stuff and virtually impossible to ignore, especially when you make it part of your daily focus. It drives quick action to improve the member experience. It makes you better than your competitors.

Until there are formal tools in place in your organization to routinely collect member feedback, reading 10 letters (or listening to 10 calls) a day seems like a decent start. That is 2,600 letters a year. That is a lot of feedback. How many members do you communicate with each day? Do you need a purple folder?

Little Shop of Horrors

Relax – you won’t feel a thing

There is a relatively new, high-profile dentist in Chicago. She started her practice not far from my home with a direct marketing campaign that was extremely well done. Great branding. An appealing, immediately recognizable name, good graphics and compelling price and service offers. Something you rarely see from a dentist. They drove a TON of business with their amazing campaign. So much in fact that she quickly hired another dentist and opened a second office not far from the first one.

In the short time the practice has been open, it has the second highest numbers of dentist reviews on Yelp – the very popular review site that is widely used here in the windy city. It also has close to the lowest score in the dental category with gory and frightening comments like:

“I could go on with many other stories, like the time she drilled through my lip then yelled at me and stormed out of the room as blood was running down my chin. (Seriously I couldn’t make this up, I have pictures to prove it)”

“It started to feel like I was in an abusive relationship”

“The cleaning and treatment HURT (I had trouble swallowing the next day from being jabbed with the anesthesia needle), the visit was expensive even with insurance, and I was billed for a procedure which I had declined.”

There are many more just like these. Even though there are a few good comments sprinkled in, you would have to be a brave soul to venture into that office. In the past, they could have gone for a long time and possibly improved their dentistry skills before word got around about them. Not today.

Chicago is a big small town and I heard through the local grapevine that the dentist may have been asking around to see if it was possible to get the negative postings removed from the Web. Not going to happen. Even if it were possible, it is far too late for that. Their reputation is toast. The huge start-up investment they made and the initial excitement it generated are lost forever. Their only hope is to change their name, start fresh in another city and pray no one discovers their history.

You Have a New Boss

The sado-dentist is an extreme example of a business that will likely die a hasty death at the hands of its customers, but this type of thing is happening every day. At the other end of the spectrum, Tom’s Shoes, a company that gives away a free pair of shoes to the poor for each pair it sells, has grown like crazy exclusively through the good viral customer word-of-mouth. Companies no longer control most of the public information and conversation about their products and services. It is now in the hands of the masses – they are your new bosses. Organizations that will be successful in the future understand that. It is the goal of this blog to provide information, insight and resources to help credit unions continues to get good reviews from their bosses.

Voice response should be less responsive.

“Maybe make the voice recognition less responsive as any background noise makes it engage and lengthens the experience.”

Brian, UT
Promoter
Net Promoter Score: 10

They don’t charge for stupid things.

“I really like the CU. They treat me well. They don’t charge for stupid things like check cashing, or using the cash machine. good interest rates, good service.”

Owen, UT
Promoter
Net Promoter Score: 10

Juanita was FANTASTIC!!

“There was absolutely nothing more you could have done, we could not believe how easy we had it. Another woman I work with is still waiting for her house to be appraised before she can refinance with a different lender. Juanita was FANTASTIC!!!”

Alison, WI
Promoter
Net Promoter Score: 10

President should man a window!

“During busy times there are too few employees servicing the inside windows. Other staff walk back and forth and don’t help. Even the President should man a window if there is a long line.”

Dana, WI
Promoter
Net Promoter Score: 9

Stop with the spam!

“Stop sending spam with the e-statements. With all the #!*@ you guys send me besides my statement I’m tempted to go back to paper statements.”

Nathan
Detractor
Net Promoter Score: 0

Age Discrimination – MV

“I have been very pleased with the credit union over the years overall but was displeased with this visit. The rep was too quick and did not listen to me and dealt with my funds incorrectly at first. … I deposited a check from my mother’s estate and she did not engage me in conversation about a very difficult process for me. When I was talking with her about how I wanted all my funds to be handled, she did not see that I saw her roll her eyes at me. I have white hair but am a young 55 and felt age discrimination for the first time in my life.”

Marie
Detractor
Net Promoter Score: 5