In an ever-changing marketplace, credit unions must fulfill their promise of outstanding service by providing a "service-first" omni-channel offering. Today, credit union members receive their "service education" from many different companies and in a wide range of verticals. In fact, when members interact with credit unions, they will compare that service experience with the last three to five experiences they've had—and those experiences could be from totally different industries. Your challenge is to compare favorably. Remember: "the member's perception is your reality." To be successful and flourish, you must provide a memorable service experience each and every time members contact you, regardless of the channel.
The service you provide is truly the only differentiator between your credit union and other financial service providers. It seems like every day new players are entering the financial services arena to compete with you, and the big banks are terrific at marketing products using a budget that credit unions can only dream of. Credit unions must understand these market conditions or they will face a very tough road ahead.
The Value of Ownership
To compete successfully, credit unions must remember they are member-owned. Treat every interaction with a member as if it were the only chance you have to prove that they are important to you. All members are important, but not all members are the same. That's why you must provide diverse channel options so members can chose how they want to contact you. In your contact center, merely answering the phone quickly, which you must do, is not enough. Not all your members will call you. To remain competitive you have to engage members on other channels like e-mail, chat, and click-to-call from web and mobile. Also, even more importantly, every channel should be answered with the same sense of urgency. The days of responding to e-mails in hours are long gone. If your target answer speed for calls is 30 seconds, then it should not take your staff any longer to respond to a chat or an e-mail.
In addition to offering different channels, you must ensure the quality of interactions when your employees handle the contact. Member-facing employees in the branches and in the contact center must be the most knowledgeable employees you have. They must know everything about the credit union and have the authority to make decisions without transferring the member. You must provide quality training and support to these employees to ensure they impress your members on every interaction. In addition to having knowledgeable and empowered employees, they must have the right tools. The bottom line is: It should be your job to ensure your front-line employees have the tools, support, and training to be successful. Their jobs need to be clearly defined, support must be constantly available, and their accountability and authority must always be in balance. Put these job components in place, and delivering a superior service experience will be just one of the results you can count on. Increased employee satisfaction and retention are other benefits.
It is vital that you implement the right technology and manage the integration of the technology into your operation so that the operational efficiency improves. Technology itself will not make your operation better. However, ensuring the operation is always effective and as efficient as possible will make the addition of technology an enhancement. To start off, in your contact center, add a call back solution to avoid long waits and relieve some pressure on your employees. Then, add a click-to-call option for your website and mobile application. This move will enable you to measure your membership's interest in new channels.
Once you have some data, you can move to chat, video tellers, and to text. As always, you need to ensure that your service levels are consistent across all channels to keep up with members' ever increasing expectations. To expand to new channels successfully, you must learn about your members and their tendencies, so that employees can effectively manage new additions in ways that are tailored to your individual membership base. First, learn about your members:
- If a large number of your members come to a branch each day to get cash for lunch then those members will never self-serve on your web or mobile application.
- Conversely, if many of your members are young and affluent employees of start-up tech firms then they are unlikely to call you.
Blend with Care
In all cases, you will need a blend of channels to meet the needs of the majority of your members. You must work to understand your members' diverse needs to come up with the right blend of channels. It is also equally important to consider your employees' needs and their capacity as you implement new channels:
- Prepare employees for change by involving them in discussions when you start to consider a new channel. Their feedback will be invaluable.
- Get an understanding of the operational impact and ensure you make the new channel manageable.
- Be prepared to add staff in order to maintain service levels. For example, to effectively handle chat and video tellers, you must add headcount. In many instances, the contacts you were receiving will not go away just because you add a new channel. A commitment to great service will require a commitment of resources as well.
Most importantly, always deal with the members with a "service first mentality." Take care of the members' needs, and once you are sure their issue has been resolved then your branch staff can sell, and your contact center staff can refer products and services. Handling member issues and answering their questions and concerns helps to cement the relationship. Your members will buy more products and services from you if they trust you, and they will trust you if you can anticipate their needs and assist them effectively. Your members should feel comfortable contacting you, and providing the right mix of channels that match your members' wants and needs will help make that happen.
Mark Edelman is a consultant with more than 20 years of contact center and operations management experience in financial services.
