It’s a new year with new goals and aspirations. The objectives may not have changed from last year but the motivation and attention to those objectives is renewed, at least, as we kick off a new year. Hopefully, by now you’ve wrapped up your end-of-year reporting and your new year projects and objectives have been identified and communicated.
Undoubtedly, for many credit unions, one of those objectives is to create greater member experiences. That may be manifested in deeper relationships or more new members or higher satisfaction scores but, regardless of the KPI, complete success requires having a rock-solid member experience foundation and that requires a rock-solid performance culture.
Critical culture components can be as varied as the shapes and sizes of the credit union and the uniqueness of the members they serve. But there should be little variation in the inclusion of the three components listed below. Focus, prioritize, and invest in them and you’ll be positioned for optimal success; de-emphasize and undervalue them and you’ll be set up to under-perform and disappoint.
Your members expect great experiences and your employees expect a culture that allows them to consistently deliver great experiences. Stop chasing the lagging indicators of member and employee satisfaction and strategize, instead, on the leading indicator of creating a world-class culture.
Here are the three components that should be your initial focus:
1. Define the vision and set clear expectations for the member experience across all delivery channels at your credit union
Too many times, we talk to credit union leadership teams about their member experience efforts and, afterwards, we feel like we’ve talked to different credit unions. Their expectations and standards are different; their definition of success is different; their priorities are different. Then we’ll “shop” the credit union across various channels and, sure enough, they produce very different experiences.
If we’re confused by this, think about your members and prospective members and how confused they must be. Consistency and dependability are key components of delivering the type of great member experiences that lead to great member loyalty and deeper relationships.
Unifying the leaders (and then the rest of the staff) around a shared definition of “great member experience” is the first and most vital step. That definition should align tightly with your credit union’s mission and vision and should be central to everything you do going forward, including the next two steps!
2. Train all staff on the skills they’ll need to consistently deliver on those expectations
In the process of defining the member experience, make note of the ways your staff will need to substantiate that definition. Specifically, answer the question: how do I live it?
In your member contact areas, this means identifying the specific behaviors you want them to perform. For instance, don’t just say, “Be friendly”; say, “Make eye contact and use their name”. This is a good example of one area where that great disconnect can occur when talking about the member experience definition – ask 10 people what it means to be “friendly” and you’ll easily get 10 different answers.
Once the behaviors are defined, then all your future training, formal and informal, should be designed and delivered to enhance those specific behaviors. Challenge trainers and coaches to incorporate a refocus on these behaviors in every session and meeting, not just the ones that are titled “Member Experience”. (This should certainly pertain to ongoing and refresher training where you’re trying to hone skills with staff.)
3. Define “success” and how you will measure & consistently report your progress
Similar to #1 above where you’re defining what you mean by member experience, now you need to define what success means and how you’ll measure it. And, again, misalignment is frequently the fatal pitfall. Often, we see credit unions say “experience” is the goal, but sales production is the metric used – there is no direct line-of-sight between one and the other.
There are many ways to measure success – some very good and some not so much – and often the definition is combination of ways. It shouldn’t just be Net Promoter Score or survey scores or Google reviews but maybe, a combination of all three. Give your members various ways to tell you how well you’re doing and build those various metrics into your overall performance assessment.
It’s important to note that your business model will dictate, to a large extent, the best ways to measure performance. But, regardless of the resources used, consistency of feedback is critical and using that feedback to drive future performance should position your credit union to achieve and maintain the highest levels of member experience.
Our consultants have been partnering with credit unions like yours for over 20 years and have established these three steps with many of them. The result has been wildly successful member and employee experience cultures. If we can assist you to do the same at your credit union, reach out to 636-578-3280 or fi-strategies.com/contact.