Vast Majority Satisfied With Their Credit Union During Crisis: Harris Poll
Credit unions are among the businesses that received the highest approval ratings in the survey.
Nearly three-fourths of Americans are satisfied with how credit unions have responded to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey.
Seventy-three percent of respondents whose primary financial institution is a credit union are satisfied with how those entities have responded to the international outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Credit unions were among the businesses that received the highest approval ratings in the survey either among financial institutions or businesses in general.
According to a press release, the only businesses that outscored credit unions were a respondent’s primary grocery store (80% approval) and community banks (74%). Mega banks tied with credit unions.
“The post-pandemic customer may have an entirely new set of banking expectations,” said Jack Sundstrom, the chief product and marketing officer for ID Insight, in a press release. ID Insight, which sells anti-fraud products to financial institutions, commissioned the online survey, which was conducted by The Harris Poll on June 18-22. The survey pulled results from more than 2,000 U.S. adults.
Sundstrom said until those banking expectations “can be fully understood, the best course of action is to look for opportunities to reduce customer friction – especially in digital processes.”
These high scores for credit unions also meant that few respondents said they would likely change the institution they’re banking with — only 14% of respondents.
However, the scores were worse for online-only banks. Only 61% of respondents said they were satisfied with how their online-only bank has responded to the pandemic; 38% of respondents who use online-only banks said they would likely move to a different institution.
“We expected that online-only customers would be the most satisfied because they weren’t being asked to fundamentally change the way they were interacting with their bank,” Sundstorm said. “Something about the experience is falling short of expectations.”
One example Sundstrom gave about how financial institutions can improve in general is streamlining their software so that its customers can easily make changes to their account while not running afoul of anti-fraud measures.
“For example, people should be able to apply for and make changes to accounts without getting tripped up by clunky identity verification and fraud solutions that can’t reliably tell a criminal from a good customer,” Sundstrom said.