By Meredith Deen
In the current service-centric world, where damage to your credit union’s reputation may be only a tweet or a Facebook post away, are you doing everything possible to ensure member satisfaction in the lobby? Do you actively work to reduce lobby abandonment rates―and work with members to minimize the damage?
Many CU executives may think the answer is “yes,” when the reality could be quite different. Fortunately, it’s neither complicated nor cost-prohibitive to determine how your CU ranks, and change lobby outcomes for the better.
A September 2014 FMSI survey of financial institutions (FIs) found that 68% of respondents either didn’t use minutes spent in line as a wait-time standard, or didn’t have any wait standards at all. If you are not measuring how many minutes your members wait in line, how can you possibly know if the wait time is excessive? Other than casual observation, how can you tell how many of your members are leaving the line in frustration?
The simple answer to these questions is, “You can’t,” and both CUs and their members suffer as a result. As documented in FMSI’s most recent Teller Line Study, created with data collected across our network of 1,000-plus branches, more than 25% of organizations assessed had abandonment rates of 8% to 12%. Not only does this reduce sales opportunities; it also encourages member resentment that can reverberate across your entire account holder base.
Resolving the Abandonment Challenge
These problems can be curtailed, or possibly avoided entirely, with new approaches and branch staff service protocols. To help your CU with its own efforts, here are a few tips:
- Pick a Pain Point. CU management must decide what level of wait time (and potentially abandonment) it considers acceptable and then measure lobby metrics against it. Only then can the branch have the information it needs to build a plan for improvement.
- Gather and Act. Some form of lobby tracking system will yield a concrete and objective picture of wait times and abandonment rates. Those driven by technology―such as a digital sign-in mechanism that tracks wait time until the system is notified that a member is being helped―are the most accurate and cost effective approaches for this effort. However, it is possible to engage in lobby tracking with manual input, provided there is a dedicated staffer monitoring and recording activity.
- Speak Up, Speak Often. Assigning a member service representative (MSR) to work with members―and offering to schedule return appointments if they prefer not to wait―reduces both the length of the line and the frustration of those waiting. Here again, technology is helpful. Digital appointment scheduling tools can maintain availability calendars, send alerts and reminders to staff and members, and more.
Lobby lines are an inevitable consequence of operation, even with perfect scheduling, but that doesn’t mean members have to be inconvenienced or angered by them. CUs that proactively decide what level of wait is acceptable, work to stay within those guidelines and devise a program to keep members satisfied, even with a short wait, will be rewarded with more sales and greater member loyalty.
Meredith Deen is Chief Operating Officer of FMSI and can be reached at meredithd@fmsi.com. For more info: www.fmsi.com.