Callahan is recruiting credit unions to participate in a five-year program that measures the baseline of their current levels of member engagement and well-being, provides regular member feedback to suggest how the credit union can improve, and measures their progress.

The first cohort is expected to launch in January 2021. Fees are still being worked out, Jeffreys said.

Customer engagement scores have been developed by Gallup, which works with many of the nation's largest companies.

Credit unions can search online and find many of the actual questions Gallup asks consumers. "The science behind how you interpret the results and turn them into action is really where the secret sauce is," he said.

Many credit unions use Net Promoter Scores (NPS). For example, if a member is asked on a scale of 1 to 10 whether they would recommend your credit union to someone else, those who score it 1 to 6 typically would be considered "detractors" and those scoring it 9 to 10 would be considered "promoters." The number of promoters minus detractors would be the credit union's NPS.

In 2014, credit union members had engagement scores 21% higher than those for bank customers, and 29% higher NPS. Last year, credit union engagement scores were 11% higher and NPS 14% higher.

"As much as we hate to admit it, the banks are getting better," Jeffreys said. "They're paying more attention to their customers."

The Callahan-Gallup partnership was inspired by SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union of Santa Ana, Calif. ($16.8 billion in assets, 936,243 members), which has been working with Gallup for several years and has seen its customer engagement and NPS scores rise.

Callahan brought together a test group of eight credit unions with 3.2 million members from California to New Jersey.

"After just one year, the credit unions in the initial cohort are already using the insights gleaned to shape organizational culture and prioritize new investments in their member relationships," Jeffreys said.

The members of the Beta group are:

• Affinity Federal Credit Union, Basking Ridge, N.J. ($3.5 billion in assets, 179,556 members);
• CommunityAmerica Credit Union, Lenexa, Kan.  ($3 billion in assets, 244,847 members);
• Digital Federal Credit Union, Marlborough, Mass. ($9.4 billion in assets, 871,546 members);
• Golden 1 Credit Union, Sacramento, Calif. ($13 billion in assets, 1.1 million members);
• Lake Trust Credit Union, Brighton, Mich. ($1.9 billion in assets, 176,322 members);
• One Nevada Credit Union, Las Vegas,  ($953.9 million in assets, 75,534 members);
• Patelco Credit Union, Pleasanton, Calif. ($7.3 billion in assets, 369,363 members);
• Teachers Credit Union, South Bend, Ind. ($3.3 billion in assets, 301,493 members).

Sometimes frontline employees flag issues, but their feedback is ignored by management. Member feedback through polling gets management's attention, Jeffreys said.

Working with groups who are using similar methodology can make it easier to collaborate. For example, a credit union might say it is having challenges with dispute resolution, and find other credit unions that have had success addressing similar issues.

"One of the biggest areas where credit unions fall down is when something goes wrong. Their recovery is not really good," Jeffreys said.