LAS VEGAS–Credit unions that are using net promoter scores are making a mistake if they are focused on just the score. And, as one CU believes and is now rolling out, a mistake if they are hiding the scores from members.
Darlene Johnson, SVP-Member Experience with Suncoast Credit Union in Tampa, Fla., said the “real question is what are you going to do with” the feedback that comes as part of the net promoter score survey.
In the case of Suncoast CU, which created its Member Experience department less than three years ago and has quickly ramped up since, it now credits its application of net promoter for helping address much more than member complaints and issues. Suncoast, which uses Dayton, Ohio-based Support EXP for its net promoter score solution, said the feedback is also used on an ongoing basis to improve the the broader member experience, turn “detractor” members into “promoters,” and to generate loan volume-- more than $4 million to date.
Johnson said Suncoast’s relatively new Member Experience function came about after she did a proof-of-concept and took it to the CEO and said she felt “passionately that we need to be able to respond to members immediately.We didn’t feel 24 or 48 hours was good enough.”
With a three-person department Suncoast now sends out approximately 3,500 surveys each month related to both transactions and relationships.
“Members are very surprised when we pick up the phone and say ‘Thank you for filling out the survey, let me see how we can improve your experience.”
Commitment To Immediate Responses
From the inception of the department, Johnson told the joint meeting of the CUNA Technology Council and CUNA OpSS Council, the credit union committed to providing an immediate response to any negative, or detractor, response. That didn’t take long.
Johnson shared that the department’s very first response to a detractor score in the emailed survey came from a member who by coincidence received the email while in the CU’s parking lot. He responded negatively via a mobile device after being dissatisfied that Suncoast doesn’t cash third party paychecks. Johnson noted the CU was unable to resolve this particular member issue.
“He said, ‘Had I gotten this survey prior to the experience I would have given you a 10.’ A lot of times you can’t fix detractors’ problems, but what they really want is to be heard.”
Darlene Johnson speaking to CUs in Las Vegas.
But, as Johnson emphasized, Suncoast seeks to do much more than just listen.
“Net promoter can give you a wealth of information and it can be overwhelming,” she said. “There are a lot of reports. The key is that it be actionable. So we built some dashboards we share with our senior management team and the departments that are directly affected. In order to impact change we need to make sure all of our managers understand what members are saying about them.”
As part of Suncoast’s NPS feedback the credit union also asks members to rate the level of effort required to engage in certain activities, and further gives the member—via a drop-down menu—the option to provide more information on why they have provided the score they have.
“We also share the process improvements that have developed from the NPS surveys,” said Johnson. “As we get information back from a single member we want to dive down into that and see if it’s impacting the membership. We are focused on not just fixing it and making it right for that one member, but looking at that process as a whole.”
'Not A Measurement'
Johnson emphasized that net promoter is a “call to action, not a measurement.” The 800,000-member Suncoast views NPS as a closed loop process and it seeks to follow up and resolve issues with all negative feedback. It currently has a response rate of 13% to its NPS emails.
“For me, it’s more important to be able to react to the surveys we are getting than to increase the number of surveys we are sending out,” said Johnson.
She said Suncoast moves to immediately move to the front of the queue any detractors, as well as those who ask for more product information. Its goal is to respond to all of those within four hours.
“We attempt to call every detractor. If we don’t reach them by phone, we e-mail,” said Johnson. “If we weren’t able to reach them we ask them to contact us and genuinely express the desire to speak to them. We also send thank you cards to a portion of our promoters.”
Johnson, who spent 26 years in lending before assuming her new responsibilities, said the department has been so successful that one thing it had not planned for was that those members for whom it resolves issues often then refer family and friends to the same department, even though they do not have an issue or complaint.
Why Function is Centralized
In response to an audience question, Johnson said Suncoast has centralized the member experience functionality in order to stay on top of what sorts of responses members are providing.
“Branches also have members walking into lobbies, and a four-hour time response is not reasonable for them,” said Johnson. “Second, although we are all member-focused and pleasant, when you are talking to someone who just rated you zero, that’s a very different conversation, and we weren’t sure everyone in our branches or call center would have that skill set. After all, our goal is to turn these detractors into promoters.”
Suncoast is using project management to log all related issues and to monitor follow up to ensure closure of that loop.
Johnson acknowledged that while the department is called Member Experience, it has evolved into a centralized place to which all complaints are referred, including any posts on Facebook or social media. To deal with that development it is adding a new staff position. The department also over sees its secret shopper program.
Johnson said that to date Suncoast has been able to turn about 6% of its detractors into promoters.
“The piece that was really important to us is that this is much more than a score,” she said. “It’s about building the relationships. When I created the ROI on this project I did not include any sales projections, as that wasn’t the goal.”
A Pleasant Surprise
The more than $4 million in loans that have been organically generated as part of the Member Experience department have been a very pleasant surprise, she said.
Those loans are captured as part of a receipt page email that is auto generated in follow up to every member response to its survey, which typically features eight to 12 questions. If the member inquires about a loan, a link to the online loan application is included in that response.
“Oddly enough,” shared Johnson, “we get product requests from detractors.”
Since the department’s inception it has sent 57,502 surveys, received 7817 responses, and had 4,750 member touches, in addition to the loans.
Now Suncoast is preparing to unveil something new related to its Net Promoter Score: on its website it will be going live with its ratings and reviews, both positive and negative.
“We feel strongly about this,” said Johnson. “This is our members’ score—not our score, theirs. We want full transparency. We want members and potential members to know what others are saying. Feedback will be displayed by product. Whether they are a detractor or promoter, responses will be displayed.”