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(From CU Journal) – Ask the leadership team of any credit union to name their most valuable asset and you’ll always get the same answer: Our members.
There’s a reason why credit unions refer to customers as members beyond just the legal and historical distinction that all depositors are owners. Banking should never be a transactional or impersonal experience, nor should it leave anyone feeling like their individual needs aren’t being met. The concept of membership is the best way to understand the sense of community, organized solely to benefit depositors, that is essential for credit unions to flourish.
However, according to The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Finance and Insurance Report 2018, credit unions are losing ground to community banks in terms of consumer satisfaction. In fact, for 2018, the industry maintains record-high customer satisfaction at an ACSI score of 81 and marks the first year that banks rate as high as credit unions.
Thus, there is all the more need for a credit union to have a chief member officer (CMO) to begin countering that trend. An explicit focus on the day-to-day needs and experiences of members is necessary at every level of our business – whether they’re banking online, speaking with a member services representative on the phone or walking into a branch.
By centralizing the entire member experience architecture in the hands of a capable CMO, credit unions can get a clearer picture of what needs to be done to give members the attention and service they deserve.
What is a chief member officer?
CMOs are responsible for maintaining healthy relationships with members, so they should be intimately familiar with every customer touchpoint – as well as how these touchpoints can be improved to make each interaction as smooth and rewarding as possible. This means eliminating barriers and facilitating communication between departments and teams, developing strategies and goals for member retention, and collecting and analyzing member data.
Mike Terzian is the CMO at Partners Federal Credit Union, and he’s responsible for concentrating the institution’s efforts on meeting members’ needs at every stage of the customer journey: “I partner regularly with our COO. Together we co-champion a coordination and integration committee which seeks to tie all of the various departments (serving our members) together.”
Many of the services credit unions provide must be available 24 hours a day across a wide range of channels, which is why Terzian points out that the CMO has to take a holistic approach when assisting departments and teams: “The goal is to provide input and guidance to our various channels and the services that intersect across them.”
The personal relationships credit unions forge with their members come with certain expectations – customized experiences, friendly and responsive service, and seamless navigation between channels. It’s the CMO’s job to make sure all employees understand these priorities and have the proper resources and direction to make the institution member-centric across the board. CMOs have to be capable of understanding and improving member experiences even on the most granular level while simultaneously appreciating how these experiences come together to form a coherent and accessible platform for all of a credit union’s services.
CMOs can’t do their jobs without data
Nothing builds trust like high-quality, personalized experiences, and the acquisition and analysis of member data is integral to providing these experiences. With all the data that are available from social media, mobile devices, websites, surveys and AI-powered customer service tools like chatbots, credit unions have never had greater access to insights about their members.
However, the mere existence of all this data doesn’t necessarily mean credit unions will know how to use it productively. Terzian understands this problem, which is why he emphasizes the importance of making data “actionable” and recognizes that data collection is a means to an end – improving member experiences: “The first step in effectively leveraging member data is to ask the right questions. Don’t be tempted to let the data form your questions. Start with: ‘What would be valuable to know/understand in service of creating member value?’”
According to a report by Harvard Business Review and Salesforce, just 23 percent of business leaders say “they are able to act on all or most of the customer data that they collect.” With the amount of data available through various platforms, it can be difficult to extract information that actually matters.
And as ever-larger stockpiles of data accumulate, there are proliferating security and privacy risks that consumers have become increasingly concerned about. A Deloitte survey found that 81 percent of consumers believe they have “lost control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.” This is why Terzian says it’s crucial for credit unions to “demonstrate how the feedback and data has been made to improve member value.”
There are many reasons why the list of CMOs in the industry will continue to grow – from the surging importance of data (as well as the attendant security and privacy concerns) to the reliance on omnichannel digital banking to the emergence of customer experience as a primary focus for all businesses.
But there’s a more fundamental factor to consider – perhaps more than any other type of business, credit unions are built around community. Everything from data collection to the implementation of new technology should be done with better customer experiences and the maintenance of long-term relationships in mind, which is why it’s vital to have a C-suite executive who’s dedicated to aligning the company’s efforts around members.