Let’s Make 2023 a Five-Star Year
When the bar is low in the customer service expectations department, the high performers won’t go unnoticed.
Warning: Rant ahead.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but 2022 brought some of the worst experiences of my life as a paying customer of various services. First, there was the Home Chef fiasco. After using the meal kit service on and off for about a year, I started noticing problems with my deliveries, like missing meals and ingredients. Each time this happened, I reported it, and the company would respond with a written apology and immediate credit to my account, meaning I had to order more meal kit boxes to use up the credit. Those boxes would then arrive with missing or incorrect ingredients, and the complaint-credit-order cycle would start all over again.
Guess what – I eventually ditched them for their competitor. (Shout out to Hello Fresh!)
Then there was the shuttle fiasco. I reserved a private shuttle ride from a friend’s home to the San Diego airport through a company that stated in its booking policy that cancellations were allowed with a full refund. But when I found another shuttle service with a better rate, cancelling the original booking was damn near impossible. Emails went unanswered for weeks, and calls to the company resulted in someone blaming the delayed refund on another employee or department, but offering no way for me to get in touch with the supposedly-responsible party. I only got my $140 back after filing a claim my credit card issuer.
Finally, I lost faith in the reliability of curbside pickup service thanks to Walgreens. After putting in an order where I clearly stated my substitution preferences, I received an email stating my order was ready for pickup, however it was missing key items that I had requested substitutions for. A call to the store led to conversations with three different employees who either “had no idea” how to resolve the issue or refused to add more items to the order; I ended up cancelling it entirely.
The frustration stemming from these poor experiences softened somewhat for me in December, when I had a good experience with a sustainable fashion brand called Nisolo. I ordered a holiday gift for someone whose rural residence does not accept USPS deliveries, believing the gift would be shipped via FedEx. After it turned out that this was not the case and the gift did not make it to the residence, I was able to reach Nisolo easily over text and get a replacement order shipped out promptly and free of charge. Five stars!
This overall crumbling of quality customer service that I witnessed over the course of the year could have been due to a number of societal and economic factors, such as labor shortages stemming from the pandemic and the Great Resignation. I’m not blaming Home Chef’s ingredient packers or Walgreens’ hourly employees, who may be struggling to work through illness or have been given no incentive from their employer to go above and beyond for the customer. But the bottom line is, consumers will take their business elsewhere after a bad service experience, and that leaves an opportunity for businesses – including credit unions – to easily win over consumers whose fingers are tired from writing one-star Yelp reviews by prioritizing service and experience. Credit unions specifically should be asking questions like, How easy is it for members to contact us? Are we helping members resolve complex issues without requiring any heavy lifting on the member’s end? What are people saying online about their experiences with us?
Ensuring superb experiences for members is a priority and ongoing challenge for many credit union leaders. In the Co-op Solutions report “Building the new member-centricity: A blueprint for credit union leaders,” which was based on insights gathered by the CUSO during its June 2022 CEO Summit, 46% of credit union leaders said improving the member experience is their top challenge in the current environment, and 53% of credit union leaders said member-facing digital solutions are their top priority for future investments. But, as the report noted, committing to digital investments alone isn’t enough to solve the member experience problem – a lack of buy-in from the board and senior management, as well as core system limitations can stand in the way of fulfilling a commitment to invest in a five-star digital member experience.
And, as I learned through my disappointing year as an American consumer, it’s not just the everyday digital experience that matters. It’s making sure members with unusual or complex problems can easily reach an associate who will handle their issue quickly and with professionalism, and that comes down to things like hiring, training and culture.
Co-op’s report presented seven keys to achieving “member-centricity,” which it defined as being there for members 24/7 by offering the customized solutions they need at their fingertips – not just providing friendly, face-to-face service in branches. The first key on the list was: “Build a foundation of service – the bedrock of the credit union difference.”
When asked how an “exceptional member experience” should be defined, credit union leaders polled at Co-op’s CEO Summit chose “anticipating member needs and presenting solutions” more than any other definition in the poll (37%), followed by “offering multi-channel ways for members to interact with you” (29%), “providing the easiest method of doing business with them” (20%), “being available for everyday engagement” (11%) and “offering solutions for financial wellness” (3%).
In order to successfully anticipate member needs and present solutions, “credit unions must have a well-defined strategy and vision, as well as access to the data to offer compelling, value-added solutions,” according to the report. Co-op recommended defining a unified vision, ensuring it’s in line with the credit union’s core mission and values; defining which members the credit union is there for and engaging with them; and developing proactive staff members who won’t hesitate to identify process bottlenecks or barriers – and who will take action to improve internal workflows and operations.
Of course, achieving these goals is no easy task, and requires access to the right technology and investments, as well as having the right people on board. But it’s worth it for the credit union to do the heavy lifting on its end so that no heavy lifting is required on the member’s end.
In a world of short attention spans, where a multitude of choices make it easy for a consumer to dismiss a brand permanently after just one poor experience, it’s essential for credit unions to go out of their way to be there for members. The good news is that when the bar is low in the customer service expectations department, the high performers won’t go unnoticed. They come as a pleasant surprise – like Nisolo did for me following a string of negative interactions. It’s not how it should be, but when everyone else is failing to impress, you can be sure the one who does will be remembered.
Natasha Chilingerian, Executive Editor nchilingerian@cutimes.com