How To implement experiential member surveys
Credit union member engagement is one of the most critical success metrics for any credit union. This includes measuring customer engagement metrics such as user retention rate, customer satisfaction scores, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Too often, if credit unions notice their metrics are off, they look externally at competitive rates and analyze competitors. But they should also be looking internally. If you find yourself in a similar situation, the first step is to pause and ask yourself, "Is there a way I could strengthen relationships with our credit union members or help them understand how to better use the technology?"
While any company should optimize its user experience, credit unions must go above and beyond for their members. Credit unions need to see their member experience journeys through the proper lens. This process means putting yourself in your members' shoes and considering the holistic member experience as a whole as it relates to your products and services.
The Importance of Surveying Credit Union Members
While the user experience can be very specific, the member experience takes a more 360-degree view of the member's cumulative interactions with your credit union. For instance, it's not just how the member interacts with your mobile banking platform but also the rest of their interactions — whether driving to a physical branch to apply for a loan or pulling through the drive-thru to get cash. The member experience has to do with the perception and value attributed by the member.
Before surveying your members, it's essential to ensure your leadership is aligned on goals and strategy. Assemble a cross-functional team that can provide input into the voice of your members and discuss the most critical experiences in the member journey. The key is to put yourself in the member's shoes and walk through their digital path.
As you think about what members experience along the way, take note of the following:
• List experiences that present important moments of truth that can be measured using customer engagement metrics.
• Determine what is working well and where there is room for improvement.
• Establish confusing or cumbersome points that might present member pain points.
The end product of this strategic planning should be a customer journey map. After establishing current member experiences and potential areas for improvement, you're ready to move on to asking your members for the greatest gift they could give you: feedback.
The Value of Customer Survey Metrics
Why is feedback a gift? Because it identifies severe pain points, gives context, and enables you to prioritize actions and improvements. Ultimately, the more you collect and implement member feedback, the more you'll improve relationships with members, gain their trust (maybe even for generations), and create more seamless processes.
By creating a member survey and collecting and applying key customer survey metrics, your credit union can bridge the gap between what your leaders think members want and what they are actually looking for. Here's how to get started:
Match your goals to data
Match the data needed to the most important experiences to your strategic objectives. In other words, is it your No. 1 goal to increase consumer loans? If so, focus on getting that data first — and all the steps, people, and systems involved should be part of the consideration.
Assess how valuable your data is
Assessing valuable data allows credit unions to identify the sources that provide the most insights into member behaviors and preferences. Valuable data can flow mainly from a core processing system, but it might also be augmented by the contact center, mortgage, credit card, and other systems in the financial ecosystem.
Determine key data points
What will be the precise metrics and demographics that offer the best insight? Understanding each variable and how it relates to your credit union's strategic goals is essential for your credit union's success. To motivate, reward, retain, and coach staff, choose experiences that require high levels of employee-member interaction. To generate income, focus on important experiences for profitable member segments.
Optimize for automation
Optimization of automation is crucial for credit unions to efficiently collect and analyze data and ensure a seamless member experience. Send data files daily, consistently, and automatically. Nothing should be manual. Set up and schedule extracts for secure delivery with your IT team, and be sure to keep the credit union member satisfaction survey questions short, relevant, and meaningful so as not to alienate members.
Educate your team on what to expect
This step is critical. Many stakeholders will be impacted by the valuable data received. Your team members should also have talking points to share with members if they get questions about the intent of the credit union member satisfaction survey or how the data will be used. Ensure you take the time to provide proper communication regarding goals, metrics, and next steps to your team for the best results.
Implement improvements and iterate
The only thing worse than not asking members how they're doing is asking them and failing to put their feedback into practice. Implementing improvements based on member feedback is crucial to maintaining and improving the overall satisfaction of credit union members. By taking action on feedback, credit unions can demonstrate their commitment to their members and build long-term loyalty and trust.
Fortunately, you can mitigate this roadblock by reviewing the data coming in, responding to critical issues, uncovering low-hanging fruit improvements, and continuing to iterate on your experience. Prioritizing member experiences in this way doesn't just strengthen your member relationships; it also helps generate income, increase word of mouth, and attract and retain younger customers.
Elevating Your Member Engagement Strategy
If you're ready to get started with a credit union member engagement survey, MemberXP is here to help you measure what matters. Our experience and expertise in the credit union industry allows us to help you craft the perfect survey for your members to accomplish your business goals, giving you valuable insight into pain points and how to fix them.
Reach out to our team today to learn how we can help!