Whether you’re starting out a new year or deploying a tactical plan or addressing a discovered need, your credit union needs motivation, commitment, and dedication to specific and clearly defined objectives.
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 on the inclusion of the five components listed below. Focus and prioritize them and you’ll be positioned for optimal success; deemphasize them and you’ll be set up to under-perform and disappoint.
Your members expect great experiences and your employees expect a culture that positions them to 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 five 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 leaders 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 four steps!
2. Train all staff on the skills they’ll need to consistently perform to 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 pitfall to avoid. 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.
4. Hold staff accountable to consistently and thoroughly deliver on your expectations
Rarely have I asked a credit union exec about “accountability” and they replied that they’re good at it. nearly every one has said, “Oh no, we don’t hold people accountable like we should.” So, if you’re in the same boat, don’t feel too bad. However, becoming better at accountability is vital to realizing the type of experience culture you desire.
Accept that there are numerous definitions of the word and there are various ways to deliver it. first, acknowledge there is positive accountability (more on that next). Simply, you owe it to your people to recognize them when they do a good job. Of course, there’s also the other side of the coin – negative accountability. If you set an expectation that someone should do their job in a certain, way you must hold them accountable to doing it that way.
Few things are as corrosive to a culture than saying something’s important but then emphasizing something else. If your credit union says creating great member experiences in priority #1, then each employee’s contribution , direct or indirect, to great experiences better be at the top of their next performance review. This is true for execs, managers, frontline, and back office – if it’s important to the credit union, they better be held accountable to delivering it.
5. Recognize and celebrate successes – even small wins
Acknowledging positive performance is important but what exactly is “positive” performance? Is it going above and beyond? Is it setting an all-time best? Or is it meeting goal? I know it sounds monotonous but it’s necessary to have this level of discussion when establishing your culture.
It’s common to hear leaders say they didn’t recognize an accomplishment because they felt the employee was simply doing their job and that they should be meeting goal. Is that the type of culture you want? If so, that’s fine but that needs to be the attitude throughout. Otherwise, you’ll have some employees feeling celebrated and others feeling neglected.
The best way to build positive momentum in your culture is by celebrating wins, even small ones. Over time, you can certainly raise the bar and start celebrating higher and higher performance but, at the outset and when you’re trying to establish your footing, recognize and celebrate as many wins as possible.
Our consultants have been partnering with credit unions like yours for over 20 years and have established these five steps with many of them. The result has been the creation of wildly successful member experience cultures. If we can assist you to do the same at your credit union, please reach out to 636-578-3280 or fi- strategies.com/contact-us.