5 Ways Your Members’ Mindset Is Like a Kids’ Soccer Game

My son was all signed up for spring soccer last year when, overnight, anything social became a health risk. Remembering his earlier experiences with the sport led me to connect the action and emotion of a youth soccer match with the dynamics of a credit union’s collective member mindset. At first glance, it might seem like an outlandish comparison. But when you dive below the surface you can see just how much a soccer game played by three- to five-year-olds can be like trying to understand how your members think and feel, especially in light of last year’s jarring events. Here’s why:

1. It’s unpredictable. You can practice during the week. You can run drills. You can patiently explain and demonstrate just what you want them to do. But when the whistle blows, chaos ensues. You can’t foresee how the action will unfold with kids of different sizes, ability, effort and blood sugar levels ricocheting off one another.

Oh, you’d like your members to display steady behavior patterns. But since COVID hit, all of your member experience (MX) data has to be reexamined to determine which patterns hold true, which have changed, and what they are going to look like in the future. And, to make it more interesting, the pace at which you must make these observations, and the decisions based on them, has accelerated! If you have to wait too long to get the data – and to get insight from it – you won’t get effective results because you’ll be acting on stale information.

2. It’s unfocused. Sometimes, when you’re looking at a really cool caterpillar in the grass, the last thing you expect is to see a soccer ball flying past you. Until you remember you’re in a soccer game. Kids, of course, have notoriously short attention sp – SQUIRREL! It doesn’t help that all those caffeinated adults are yelling things you can’t begin to make sense of.

With everything going on in your members’ lives now, who can blame them for being distracted or absent-minded? It’s your job to accept them, understand what they need in terms of financial security, and then help them to get it. This includes having the flexibility to meet your members on their terms, and providing the same supportive and seamless experience regardless of how they do business with you.

3. It’s sporadic. Soccer is inherently a game of ebbs and flows, and shifts in action and momentum. It is even more so at the youngest levels. Some kids tend to expend all their energy in one burst, then lope along through the rest of the game. Others are still waking up or digesting their Frosted Flakes through the first quarter. It’s easy to see when effort is being expended, and when they’ve checked out to dance along to the Disney song in their head.

Your members can be more demanding at certain times or in certain situations, requiring greater effort on your part to keep them happy. The prospect of financial insecurity caused by a personal event or a public health crisis can demand a higher gear of responsiveness and a greater degree of empathy. It takes an up-to-the-minute understanding of your members – a dynamic finger-on-the-pulse – to ensure you are conveying this sense of receptiveness to your members. Messaging that is tone-deaf to context can drive them away.

4. It’s precarious. One minute, everything can be going well. The next can be a disaster. An ill-timed collision, a badly-aimed kick or a flagrant display of ball hogging can be the spark that sets off a powder keg of screams and tears. You can prepare all you want, but the moods of these little warriors are volatile.

Such is the case with your members in an atmosphere of heightened anxiety (say, 2020). There’s low tolerance for an unpleasant experience. A too-long wait or extra transfer to another department that might have been excused last year, or even yesterday, might be the last straw if your member’s day has been otherwise full of worries, stresses and frustrations. You have to know where the friction is that will light your members’ fuse – and then know how to act immediately to defuse it.

5. It’s not uniform. Not all kids on your team are at the same skill level. Some take the game very seriously, while others are chasing butterflies. If you want to get the most out of their abilities and attention spans, you’ve got to have a clear understanding of each player’s strengths and where they can be best utilized toward meeting the team goal. Which, in this case, is literally scoring a goal.

As with soccer, different members require different amounts of attention, instruction and service. That is, after all, a large part of your appeal as a credit union – being able to personalize the service you provide to each member. The trick is knowing just what attention is needed at a given moment. You can’t rely on a one-size-fits-all approach to MX measurement or service delivery. You need insights that allow you to meet your members where they are, right now, to deliver an experience that meets or exceeds their expectations.

You may not get snacks or a little trophy for successfully providing, at the right time, just what your members need or expect during trying times. But you can still experience the professional satisfaction of building member loyalty and deepening relationships, as well as the personal satisfaction of furthering the credit union mission of “people helping people.” That’s something we can definitely use more of these days, until we can all get back in the game.

Dennis Gilbert is Digital Content Manager for Support EXP in Centerville, Ohio.