PONTE VEDRA, Fla. - At Citadel FCU, it’s all about the “fives.”
The $1.1-billion, Thorndale, Penn.-based Citadel has placed significant emphasis on what it calls “Citadel Class Service” and a campaign called “Strive for Fives.” The “fives” is a reference to satisfaction surveys in which members rank satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the highest.
“As a service-oriented business, our success lies directly in the hands of our members,” said CEO Jeff March. “In our service plan success is when we receive a five.”
Founded in 1937 to serve steel workers, that despite its growth, Citadel still holds fast to tradition, March said. “The industry commitment to People Helping People led us to create our own service pledge. We call it Citadel Class Service,” March told the Best Practices in Retail Financial Services Symposium hosted by SourceMedia, parent to Credit Union Journal. “Our pledge reinforces our efforts to achieve the highest level of member satisfaction. We strive to exceed our members’ expectations.”
March said the credit union has stressed with employees that it will not measure its business by the number of transactions. While there are still expectations to deliver accurate transactions, success is also “measured on helping members to achieve their objectives. We want to make life better for members and their families. We understand we are in the business of enhancing the lives of members.”
In each of Citadels’ offices hang banners that read, “Accuracy, Convenience, Respect, Value,” a reminder, said March, of the CU’s commitment. Those qualities are stressed with all new hires and in all training, and it’s even been embedded in the credit union’s incentive program.
“Tracking the success with members is the most important,” said March. “What we really want to keep our finger on is the pulse of members’ perceptions. Member dissatisfaction is the piece of the member scorecard we give the most attention. We consistently achieve 96% (4) (satisfied) and (5) (exceptional), with 95% of members saying they would recommend us. We’re not satisfied with (4’s). In 2006, 64% of respondents rated us a (5). In 2007, 69% rated us a (5). In Q1, we moved the number to 72%.”
To reinforce that message with employees Citadel did individual thank-you cards to employees and put $100 into each one of them to show appreciation and reinforce in them the service pledge.
Citadel is now looking to evolve its member-feedback process to a group of questions rather than a single question to obtain more quantitative information. It is also looking at the “quality loop which rates transactions right after they occur.”
March said Citadel FCU is now placing special emphasis on locking new members into deeper relationships. “We initiate a process to contact all new members within 90 days of opening an account,” March explained. “Thirty days after joining they get a letter signed by me. Thirty days after that they get a phone call from the local branch manager to touch base with any concerns. It’s modeled after the Disney approach. After two months of membership hopefully the member will have accessed every touch point in the company. The final communication comes in the form of a postcard thanking members for trusting Citadel with their banking needs. We encourage them to visit us online to let us know about their experience with us so far. We also do online surveys allow us to address complaints.”
