Five Steps to Turn Members Into Advocates

Note: This article first appeared in the Texas Credit Union League’s Lone Star Perspectives.

All credit unions want more members. And all credit unions want satisfied members. But what if credit unions had members as advocates? Member advocacy is far more important than member satisfaction. According to Business Week, 60-80% of defecting customers described themselves as “satisfied” or “very satisfied” just before they left a service provider.

As Jeffrey Gitomer, best selling business author, says, “member satisfaction is worthless, member loyalty is priceless.”

According to a study by CFI Group, 90% of credit union members are willing to recommend their credit union to a friend or colleague and 76% have already done so. So how do you turn your satisfied members into advocates? Here are five simple steps to help you start the process.

Connect with Your Membership

Your members want and need to know that they are more than just a deposit, loan, account number or yet another car in the drive-through on a Friday afternoon. Reach out to them. Learn their names and use them. Demonstrate real interest in their lives, their families, their jobs and other key areas. Hand-write thank-you notes on loans. Reply to their posts on your credit union Facebook page. Don’t fall back on communications just for promotions. Engage with your membership on a regular basis and develop an interactive relationship.

Demonstrate Value

We all know the usual talking points. Credit unions exist not to serve shareholders but their member-owners. Lower rates on loans, higher rates on deposits. Friendlier service. The list goes on. While it’s a valid list and one of which you can be justly proud, do your members know about it? Do you promote it in more than the usual rote way? Advocate members need to know exactly what bang they are getting for their buck, so tell them! Show them, in dollars and cents, what they save with your credit union versus the competition. Include loans, savings and deposits, credit cards and fees.

Respond in a Timely Manner

When members ask questions or make comments, respond as quickly as possible. Nothing is as loud as the silence of an unreturned call or unanswered email. Make your answers succinct and, most importantly, honest. If you do not know the answer immediately, be honest and say so, with the promise of a reply as quickly as possible. Don’t let voicemails, emails, and social media messages fade away without responding.

Improve by Using Their Feedback

The best source of information regarding levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction comes straight from your members. Harness their potential to improve your credit union. When you receive a member compliment, share it with your staff and the membership at large to encourage a culture of shared success and achievement. Track comments (suggestion box, surveys, emails, social media, etc.) and act upon them. Members appreciate it when you hear their voices and act in response to them.

James Robert Lay with PTP New Media says, “Think of this: a member has an experience with your credit union online, over the phone or through live chat. When they finish the transaction, they are asked to go to a microsite to complete quick and simple survey. If they rate their experience as positive (4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5) then the "thank you" page could ask the member to refer friends or family. If the member rates their experience as not so hot (1 or 2 on a scale of 1-5) then the "thank you" page would not want to ask for the referral but display a more empathetic message. There is huge potential for credit unions to invest in member feedback and referrals as a way to grow loans and membership.

Make Every Member Interaction Remarkable

Strive to make every touch-point with your members one to remember. Every smile counts, whether seen in person, heard on the phone or read in an email. Empower your staff to go above and beyond in the pursuit of member service excellence. See a member celebrating an anniversary, engagement or birth in the newspaper? Take time to congratulate them. Notice a member in the parking lot with a dead car battery? Have a pair of jumper cables handy and help out.

Conclusion

In today’s hyper-competitive world, merely satisfying your members isn’t enough to keep them. Your competition is willing to do a lot more to earn their business and your credit union must be ready and willing to up its game. A great way to start this process and jump-start your next membership drive is by creating advocates out of members.

Comments

[Serge Milman]

Mark - excellent post. I would only add that the current methods of measuring member satisfaction and loyalty are equally worthless. There is only one true way to ascertain member loyalty - that is through wallet-share.

Simple, quantifiable, and highly actionable. Does a Credit Union own 10% of their member's banking relationship or 90% of that member's banking relationship. In the later case, the member could be said to be loyalty, in the former, regardless of the member's feedback to surveys, that member is far from satisfied and far from loyal.

Furthermore, the analysis will enable Credit Unions to determine the total banking opportunity available from their current membership. Thus, 90% of a very small average opportunity may be far worse than 40% of a very large average opportunity.

Utilizing wallet share analysis, Credit Unions will, perhaps for the first time, develop a quantifiable view of the true opportunity which will help to establish both cross-sale and new member acquisition goals.

[Matt Cropp]

IMHO, another key piece is member *empowerment* -- members will advocate for what they perceive to be "theirs," and providing opportunities for meaningful participation can help cultivate ownership consciousness. A piece I wrote on the topic a little while back: http://cuhistory.blogspot.com/2012/01/ownership-salience-in-credit-unions-and.html