DENVER-Credit unions have the best reputation and are the most trusted organizations among 34 major U.S. business sectors, according to a recent poll of 5,000 consumers.
Jim Miller, president of Prime Performance, which conducted the online poll in April, said CUs finished markedly above the No. 2 business sectors in both poll categories. On a 1 to 7 scale, with seven being "very good" or "most trusted," credit unions ranked No. 1 in reputation (5.78) and trust (5.67). "I believed credit unions would do well, but I was somewhat surprised they ranked on top by a pretty good margin. Trust and reputation are two very important traits a business needs to attract consumers."
On reputation, CUs were solidly ahead of community banks, which finished third behind grocery stores (5.50), and well ahead of regional banks (5.04) and national banks (4.15). On trust, CUs beat out second-place community banks (5.38), seventh-place regional banks (4.89), and national banks (4.18).
Bringing up the rear in both categories were the mortgage industry, federal government, oil and gas industry, Wall Street firms and the tobacco industry.
Two Levels of Understanding
While the data indicates credit unions are doing well when it comes to traits that attract consumers, Miller said that based on his interactions within the industry and consumers that there are still two different levels of understanding when it comes to consumer knowledge of credit unions.
"I think people, especially lately, have become very familiar with the concept of credit unions and that they have good reputations. I think if we started to get into what is a credit union and what makes you eligible to join, I think we'd get a lot of people who don't really know, and who don't really know what makes CUs different than banks."
A recent CU24 poll (CU Journal, May 14) indicated that getting consumers to understand the CU difference is as difficult as it has ever been.
