The credit union member experience must go beyond offering great rates and low fees in order to attract and retain customers. Unlike big banks credit unions thrive on trust community and personal relationships. When members feel valued and supported they’re more likely to stay loyal refer friends and family and deepen their financial investments through your institution. But what does it take to curate a member experience that pays?
In this article we’ll explore key strategies that can help you improve your credit union member experience. This will ultimately drive higher satisfaction boost trust and loyalty and ensure the long-term success of your institution. It’s time to cash in!
The Importance of a Quality Member Experience
The competitive landscape of financial services means that credit unions must provide an exceptional member experience to be successful. Nowadays anyone can go to a big bank to receive basic financial services—at a great price. While most credit unions can’t compete on a scale with the likes of these nationwide household names they can provide something unique and special: a customer experience that’s personal professional and local.
Certainly it’s the special relationship between a community member and their hometown banking institution that makes credit unions stand out. In order to make the most out of your business you must capitalize on that natural differentiation and leverage member expectations to curate an experience that will keep them coming back for more.
Credit Union Member Experience vs Customer Experience
Generalized customer experience strategies can only provide so much help to credit unions—because member experience is just different.
For example there are common pain points that your customers face that look different from other industries. While some prefer a restaurant experience with consistently cheery wait staff credit union members often prefer autonomous touchpoints. In fact 46% of people only use digital channels for their banking activities. That’s nearly half!
However 67% of consumers will invest more in services after a personal meeting. So then it’s a matter of balancing convenience and self-service in the smaller things and a human touch in the bigger things. And that’s where credit unions can shine.
4 Strategies to Improve Member Experience in Credit Unions
So how do you go about creating a memorable and valuable credit union customer experience for your institution? Let’s take a look at four key strategies that have helped credit unions stay on track with their customers and exceed expectations.
Provide Personalization
Your credit union is not a big bank. Thankfully that means you don’t have to act like one. Major corporations will often take minor steps to make customers feel like they’re more than a drop in the ocean of their massive audience. However most of the time everyone is perfectly aware of how robotic and industrial their organization is.
Credit unions on the other hand can provide truly personalized service. This is the heart of member loyalty—your customers are also your neighbors. And this is a huge advantage to your business.
Here are a few quick ways to add personalization to your credit union member experience:
- Know your members beyond the numbers. Go beyond their account balances and inquire about their financial goals challenges and life milestones. Send a personalized email on their birthday or congratulations on financial achievements like paying off a loan. Proactively reach out with customized product recommendations that align with their needs like retirement planning resources.
- Train staff to build authentic relationships. Again the credit union experience is all about putting names to faces. Encourage team members to use customers’ names and recall past interactions in conversation. Train them to ask thoughtful questions that uncover members’ financial needs and goals organically.
- Make sure members feel seen heard and valued. Listen and act on their concerns. Provide flexible solutions when possible rather than relying on rigid policies. Combine technology with personal service to create a high-touch experience that they’ll remember positively. This will make customers feel like you’re on their team.
You can create opportunities for meaningful engagement by simply showing up for your members wherever you can. This transforms one-time interactions into long-term relationships that keep members coming back year after year.
Cater to Convenience
In today’s fast-paced tech-driven world credit union members expect seamless digital and omnichannel touchpoints that make banking easy accessible and efficient. While customers may have chosen your credit union for its smaller scale they still expect the same big-budget accessibility as they'd find in a big bank. Thankfully modern technology facilitates seamless interfacing at just about any level—it’s just a matter of investing in and implementing the services that will yield the best return on your investment (ROI).
- Ensure that your online and mobile banking platforms are user-friendly and intuitive. Fast secure and hassle-free account access mobile check deposits fund transfers and bill payments are all requirements in the modern credit union member experience.
- Depending on your needs you can also go further and provide AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants for quick entry-level 24/7 customer support. This can also free up your staff members to handle more complex tasks while still providing the information your customers need.
- For loans and account applications making the process as efficient as possible can also make things more convenient. E-signatures for loan documents digital IDI verification and mobile-friendly forms can go a long way here.
You can also facilitate more tech-savvy options such as integration with mobile wallets like Apple Pay or peer-to-peer payments like Venmo and PayPal. These features provide members with confidence and control over their finances—while bridging the gap between digital convenience and human connection. When done right this enhances loyalty and satisfaction and ultimately your bottom line.
Sell with Service
This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of credit union member experience. At the end of the day a friendly face and convenient features can only carry your institution so far. Make your services so good that they sell themselves. Then customers will know they can truly trust you with their financial future—which is to say their livelihood.
There are countless ways to improve your credit union’s services and most of them revolve around the idea of simply banking well. When it comes to your locations ensure that the customer experience is smooth positive and productive. Reduce wait times and facilitate speedy appointment scheduling where possible. Create loan application and approval processes that make sense keep things straightforward and facilitate communication. Again leverage the power of self-service options without losing the appeal of the human touch.
In sum make every member experience as positive as possible. Additionally do your best to turn problems and negative interactions around. This can go even further for reinforcing your brand identity and inspiring confidence.
Empower Customers Through Member Support and Education
One final strategy that can take your credit union member experience to the next level is to make customers feel heard and empowered in their financial journey. This starts with a strong customer service department and staff members who are prepared to address and resolve any issues as they arise. Depending on your organization you might even schedule regular check-ins with members to anticipate and meet their needs.
Furthermore providing member education can accomplish much for your brand. Financial literacy programs establish you as an expert in your field and also help members learn more about how money works. This can even inspire more business as education often leads to the discovery of additional services and therefore more conversions.
There are also fun ways to involve members and the community itself. Create rewards programs and promote member-exclusive perks. These make you stand out from the rest of the banking world. Encourage community involvement and engagement to connect more with your local area. You can even offer referral incentives to attract new members from customers’ friends and families. The sky’s the limit!
Measuring Success for Credit Union Member Experience
Now that we’ve examined powerful strategies for improving your credit union member experience the next step is determining if your initiatives are actually working. How can you tell if you’re getting the ROI you expected? Here are a few thoughts on how to determine—and capitalize on—success.
Measure Key Indicators
There are a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) that can readily demonstrate the state of your credit union’s member experience:
- Member Satisfaction Score (MSAT): This is a direct measure of how satisfied members are with your services. Most institutions gather this data through post-interaction surveys whether online in-person or over the phone.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Similarly asking members how likely they are to recommend your credit union to others is a good way to see how they feel about your services.
- Member Retention & Churn Rate: Track how many members stay with your credit union versus those who leave. Then compare this number over different time frames to see how changes might be affecting your customer satisfaction. For example a churn rate that lowers year over year should indicate that you’re making strides in the right direction.
- Digital Engagement Metrics: These numbers analyze the use of digital banking touchpoints including websites mobile apps and payment methods. If you’re looking to boost your technological convenience for members this is a good data set to evaluate.
- Loan & Account Application Conversion Rates: This measures how many members complete applications versus those who abandon them due to friction in the process. This data can help you troubleshoot any obstacles that might be present—and make prudent improvements.
By regularly tracking and comparing these KPIs you can determine when your initiatives are successfully improving your member experience as well as what might need refining.
Adapt and Innovate
Speaking of refinements it’s also important to understand that not every initiative you undertake will actually work—or be worth the ROI. Furthermore as time goes on member expectations will change and evolve alongside technological progress. Ultimately you need to be flexible aware and innovative to stay competitive in terms of credit union member experience.
One smart way of staying abreast of the latest changes is to test and refine new strategies before rolling them out across every location. Use pilot programs A/B testing or phased rollouts to assess the effectiveness before doing a full-scale launch. You can also dedicate resources to ensure your digital platforms are regularly refreshed and updated. This can help you keep them modernized and functional during shifting industry trends.
Lastly it’s important to invest in staff training. Not only can employees use what they’ve learned to keep customers happy but they also represent a great asset in themselves as engaged contributing members of your team. Empowering them to stay updated on new tools technologies and strategies keeps your credit union running like a well-oiled machine.
Leverage Member Feedback
Ultimately the best way to assess member satisfaction and get new ideas for initiatives is to simply ask. And members are likely already leaving you nuggets of data unprompted—in interactions online reviews and digital comments. By tapping into member feedback you can leverage this valuable information and utilize it for future success.
Here’s how you can get started:
- Customer Surveys: Craft a comprehensive yet targeted customer survey to ask members about specific aspects of their experience. Include questions related to your KPIs when possible for more concrete data.
- Online Reputation Management: Take stock of the digital buzz surrounding your credit union online—on review platforms like Google and Yelp on social media accounts and more. This can provide both qualitative and quantitative data on your member satisfaction levels.
- Mystery Shops: To get a truly objective perspective on your member experience hire a skilled professional evaluator. They can provide expert insight into your operations as well as tailored suggestions for improvement.
The good news? You can get help with all three of these strategies with CustomerOptix’s CX On Demand platform. It’s designed for small business owners and executives to take advantage of big-business tools at a flexible scalable level. Learn more and get started today.
Credit Union Member Experience: It’s Worth the Investment
Creating an exceptional credit union member experience isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s essential for the long-term success of your establishment. By focusing on personalization top-tier service and financial empowerment you can cultivate stronger relationships increase member satisfaction and drive loyalty. Just remember that a great member experience isn’t built overnight. It requires continuous evaluation adaptation and innovation to keep up with evolving expectations.
In the end the work is always worth it when you see the results: a stronger more engaged membership base that trusts your institution with their financial future—and guaranteed growth and success for years to come. Now is the time to invest in your credit union’s member experience and cash in on the inherent benefits of community banking.
