NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — Though almost three-quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, those numbers are changing for members of Connex Credit Union thanks to its "Most Valuable Advocate" program.
Kicked off in January, the award is given to the CU employee who demonstrates the best and most clear example of utilizing the advocacy process to improve the life of a member in the previous month.
The program was not expensive to implement, according to Carl Casper, vice president of customer advocacy at the $419 million CU. Low-cost items such as coffee mugs, trophies and plaques are prizes given to employees.
But the program achieves the goal of building an advocacy culture while acknowledging staff for going above and beyond.
Moving away from the traditional selling platform to a financial advocacy program, reinforced the Connex's mission while assisting members with challenges in obtaining loans, improving credit scores and correcting credit reports, according to Casper.
In each case, the MVA reviews each member's current financial situation and based on their aspirations, creates a plan and follows up as needed to ensure that the member is on track to achieve their goals.
"When we started the advocacy program we set some metrics to compare the members that were engaged in the advocacy process to those that elected to opt-out," said Casper. "By comparing the two groups, we felt we could measure, over time, the net benefit. In essence, the success of the program can be tied directly to the principles critical for selection in the 'Most Valuable Advocate' program."
Connex measures average total relationship, accounts per member, average loan balance, average deposit balance and member retention and since the inception in January, the credit union has seen an increase of 8% in the average total relationship for members engaged in the process.
In addition, the average engaged member has 24% more services than those not engaged, and 92% of advocacy members have two or more relationships compared with 70% on non-engaged members. The CU reports an increase of 32% in deposit relationship for those engaged in the process vs. a 7% dip for those not engaged and an increase of 68% in loan relationship for those engaged in the process compared to a 5% dip.
"Using recognition as a tool to motivate our employees to adopt the advocacy process accelerated the acceptance of the platform," Casper said. "The costs for the awards themselves were nominal but recognition in front of your peers and executive management is immeasurable. We are not only living up to the mission of Connex Credit Union but contributing to what makes the whole credit union movement so valuable for all consumers."
