Last year, online surveys from J.D. Power showed that, for the first time, consumer satisfaction at big banks surpassed consumer satisfaction at community and regional banks. This marks a dramatic shift in consumer perception – a shift that should concern executives at smaller institutions.
Credit unions have a similar cause for concern since data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals that member satisfaction at credit unions has more or less plateaued over the past five years.
While there are many possible reasons for these trends, one of the most likely has to do with the digital experience. That is, big banks have developed mobile banking apps that stand above the competition, which is what consumers want. In fact, a survey from MoneySummit found that 71% of consumers would rather have a simple and easy digital experience than friendly and helpful staff. In other words, when members think of "member satisfaction," the digital experience likely plays a far bigger role today than it used to.
Here are three ways to build member satisfaction in the digital age.
1. Get away from paper, even for complicated products. The author Brett King put the matter as simply as possible when he said that to generate revenue without branch dependency, "you have to be able to deliver every product you have without a signature on a piece of paper." That might seem like a tall order for some institutions, especially while navigating regulatory constraints. But member demand necessitates it. After all, if you personally find yourself ordering consumer goods online instead of in a big box store, you can be sure your members feel the same way about branches. When you can't give them a product via online channels, many of them simply go elsewhere. And with products such as Quicken's Rocket Mortgage app rising in popularity, your members increasingly expect digital service even for complicated products.
As Chris Skinner said, "Banking used to be focused on the physical distribution of paper in a localized network. Now it is about digital distribution of data in a globalized network."
2. Use data to personalize the experience. Credit union executives like to tout that their tellers know members who come into their branches by name. But the same is true of literally any branch at any bank or credit union. If a customer regularly visits a Bank of America branch in a small town, the tellers there are just as likely to know that consumer's name as tellers at a credit union would. It's nothing special.
By contrast, getting ahead in the data game is a way to actually stand out from the competition. First you can automatically dig through your internal data and pull up members that have competitor accounts (say, a mortgage or an auto loan). Then you can create hyper-personalized offers to those exact users, rewarding them for switching those accounts to your institution. Through personalized rewards, your members feel like you "know their name" in the digital age.
3. Bank like a member. Offering the right digital experience starts with empathy. Be honest: Would you rather use your competitor's mobile banking app or your own? How about a mobile banking app from a big bank such as Chase? If you wouldn't rather use your mobile app, why would your users?
Whether you choose partners to help you design a mobile banking experience or whether you build your app from scratch, you should think about every digital interaction from the perspective of a new member who has discovered your app for the first time. Imagine that you're someone who's in a rush, who just wants to get in, check their balance and go. Does your load screen take too long? Are you able to quickly get the data you want? If you feel frustrated by your app, you can guarantee that your users will also feel frustrated. Pay attention to your emotions and don't let bias toward the product get in the way.
Member Satisfaction Is About Digital Experiences
Getting high marks on member satisfaction means something different today than it meant 20 years ago. The key lies in offering the right digital experiences. There are ways to stand out on this front and credit unions that take advantage of these solutions will have the upper hand in the years ahead.
Jon Ogden is the Director of Content for MX. He can be reached at 801-669-5500 or jon.ogden@mx.com.
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