AUSTIN, Texas-What began as a push to improve internal communication resulted in an increase in one credit union's Net Promoter Score, along with increased loan growth and employee retention.
For all those reasons, A+ FCU here is a recipient of Credit Union Journal's "Best Practice" award in the Loan/Membership Growth category.
"Originally we were looking for a better way to manage our projects," explained Roger Douville, AVP of credit/business lending. "We had a loose-cannon approach to getting projects implemented and completed on time. I'm not so sure we're better at completing them on time, but we're a lot better in our approach at managing our projects and getting them through the process."
Douville credited much of A+'s success to working with Cardwell's Connections Online software (COL), which uses online dialoging rather than traditional meetings. That change "allowed us to focus on how we manage our business and our projects and get them to our membership to improve our Net Promoter Score."
When the $877-million, 94,000-member credit union implemented COL its NPS was at 67.94; it currently sits at 74.33. The goal is to reach 80% by 2014.
"Your Net Promoter Score is where it's at, and building advocacy for your credit union is where it's at, and that translates into loyalty, better performance financially and...a commitment from your employees to deliver that service," said Douville.
Douville commented that many people have had the experience of working with a consultant who provides a binder full of all sorts of advice, which ends up on a shelf never to be seen again. Because of the way the dialoging process works with COL, "it was actually a tool that forced us to be better managers overall, and that was a huge surprise to us."
Douville added that one critical component of this process was forcing the CU to define itself and its core values, which takes time.
"There's an incredible amount of inward looking" with COL, and that means the process takes a while to set up-in A+'s case, about eight months. But, he said, because of that process and that examination of the CU's (and its employees') core values, "our employees are a lot more engaged as a result of this; a lot more tuned into what we're doing and where we're going as an organization."
A+ FCU maintains a goal of 80% employee retention, and it currently stands at 83%. "We identified that our Net Promoter Score and creating advocacy was our big goal, and with that came everything else: increased membership, increased loans, increased performance" said Douville. "So by building advocacy, that's how we would organically grow our credit union."
So far it seems to be paying off. Net loan growth at A+ is at $275 million for the year, it has exceeded its goal of 8% net worth, and at 9.85% has nearly reached its 10% deposit growth goal.
Douville added that increased accountability throughout the organization has helped push things in the right direction.
"About four years ago we were criticized: our employees didn't know what was going on," said Douville. COL "has forced us to communicate with each other and share that communication, and...our senior managers are more engaged with employees at the ground level and vice-versa."
