PALM DESERT, Calif.–Three credit union leaders have shared the steps they have taken and the strategies deployed to improve the member experience.
Offering their insights and speaking to the California and Nevada leagues’ REACH Conference as part of a panel discussion were:
- Randy Icelow, president/CEO of Rolling F Credit Union in Turlock, Calif.
- Marci Francisco, SVP, chief experience officer with Premier America Credit Union in Chatsworth, Calif.
- Royce Ngiam, VP- marketing and business development with Partners FCU in Burbank, Calif. (Ngiam was recently with Financial Partners CU)
Andrew Davis, a marketing consultant who also emceed the REACH Conference, moderated the discussion.
Asked by Davis how her credit union has worked to enhance the experiences of its members, Francisco said, “It’s really about how we build relationships. We have tons of people who could be credit union members, but we want to be much more deliberate in building those relationships. Every opportunity we have to speak to a member is either a moment that inspires or a moment that diminishes a relationship. We want to be much more intentional.”
In the case of Partners FCU, Ngiam said it has sought to similarly create unique member experiences. “It’s about how do we take these fundamentals and make sure we are always on.”
Getting Non-Member-Facing Employees Involved
But what about non-member-facing employees, asked Davis: What is their role? Or do they even have one?
“We are very focused on making sure everyone knows they are part of the member experience team,” said Francisco. “We do a call every Tuesday with everyone. It’s a very important call and is all about listening to our members.”
Francisco noted Premier American pays close attention to its Net Promoter Score, and if there is a member issue, “We try to find out what happened, what is root cause, how can we make things better. It really ties our back office to our front office.”
She said the CU has created “strike teams” specifically to tackle certain issues. Every employee, she added, is “part of finding the solution for every single member interaction.”
Ngiam agreed, saying conversations are critical and they cannot occur in silos.
Drawing on his experience at Financial Partners CU, which serves the Walt Disney Co., he said the credit union paid special attention to sharing its members’ stories with staff. For example, one member had related how a HELC had helped his wife’s dreams come true.
“We want those stories to be repeated,” he told the meeting.
“We understand that in that entire thru-put they are impacted at every point along the line. Marketing people, take all your tools and highlight it internally.”
Getting Everyone Involved
At Rolling FCU, Icelow said it works to ensure every non-member-facing employees is part of the experience.
“Whenever we get a new loan application an alert goes out to the entire staff to help build synergies,” he said. “Part of the honeymoon phase is we try to introduce real names to our brand. We send thank you letters, signed by everyone.”
As another example of how Rolling F seeks to do a great job of creating an experience rather than talking about it, Icelow said when people sign up for membership it seeks to remove friction but not immediately checking with CheckSystems and instead signs the member up and follows up later if there are some credit blemishes that must be addressed.
“We don’t want to say, ‘Before we welcome you, we want to qualify you,” he said.
Francisco said Premier America is very focused on being a “mission-aligned” organization.
“Premier is on our name. We want to be that melting pot and we want to give back, which is one of my favorite core values,” Francisco said.
A ‘Technology Bender’
PremierAmerica has recently moved to donate a penny from every transaction to financial literacy and/or fighting hunger.
“Community spirit is innate in our team members and we highlight that,” she said. “We have a foundation that was chartered earlier this year just because there is so much need. It’s a wonderful way for us to do social good. It’s about $30,000 a quarter that goes back into the community.”
Beyond that, Francisco said the credit union has recently revised the entire experience in its branches, a process she described as being on a “technology bender.”
“In essence, we created a script. It’s not about what people say, it’s about what people feel. We want them to be treasured guests, and we want the experience to be unique, quirky, genuine,” Francisco said. “We are very focused on training our team members to deliver that experience.”
That includes having employees slow down when interacting with members to take as much time as needed to get the experience right.
The Lingo That Matters
A beta-test that has been run in two branches is showing the ROI, according to Francisco, who said the Net Promoter Score at the two locations has gone up and relationships have been deepened.
“If we can be better about remembering to put ourselves in our members’ shoes rather than getting caught in the trappings of products and services and using lingo members don’t understand, we’ll be better off,” said Francisco. “We get caught up in the business of being a financial institution rather than being in the business of helping people.”