Build lasting relationships between your credit unions and your members.
As consumers, we all interact with many organizations in our daily lives. Some of those conversations are good and some bad; some leave us happy with the outcome, while others have us yelling at the phone or screen. Each positively or negatively affects our willingness to continue doing business with the institution in question.
As credit unions, how do we stack the odds in our favor so that each member we interact with walks away feeling valued and satisfied? What can we do to increase his or her loyalty to our brand? The answers are surprisingly simple.
You Can’t “Create” Member Loyalty
Rick DeLisi and his co-authors of The Effortless Experience spent nearly a decade researching member and customer affinity and interviewing more than 125,000 consumers and 5,000 service representatives about their experiences in a quest to discover what makes loyal consumers loyal.
One of the things they found is that you generally can’t “create” loyalty through fancy programs and mission statements. You may foster some wow moments, but members are already loyal at any given moment…until they have a reason not to be. There is something far more fundamental when it comes to sustaining and predicting future loyalty – member effort!
Less Effort = More Loyalty
When someone reaches out to you for assistance, they want to accomplish a task or resolve an issue without it becoming a part-time job to do so. The more (perceived) effort it takes someone to accomplish their goals, the less enamored they become.
Doesn’t it stand to reason that if we can reduce member effort during a conversation, or at least gracefully manage expectations (hence the word perceived above), we then have a better chance of a positive outcome and keeping them for the long-haul? Rick’s research showed that low-effort service experiences result in 94% of members likely to remain loyal or repurchase vs. 4% for high-effort interactions.
Think about times you’ve personally reached out for assistance. Did you have to repeat yourself, over and over again, through multiple transfers while the representatives on the other end didn’t seem to know you from a hole in the wall? Or did they make you feel like they respected your time and had an idea of who you were and how to help? Which feels better? How do you want your members to feel?
We invite to watch the Member Effort webcast on-demand where Rick will show you:
- How creating minimal effort for members will build loyalty for your credit union
- Give you examples of how you can improve your member experience
- Where and how most organizations struggle when it comes to resolving problems
- How companies end up being business-centric instead of member-centric
- How to better predict whether a member will remain loyal
At Glia, we have a passion for helping credit unions provide effortless member interactions across channels. Rick DeLisi’s research findings and book fit right in with our member loyalty philosophy that is the underpinning of our digital-first member communications platform. That is why we’re thrilled that Rick agreed to be our special guest presenter for our recent webinar, “Member Effort: A New Approach to Member Experience.”
While you can’t force member loyalty you CAN do what it takes to minimize dis-loyalty. it’s easier than you think. Watch the on-demand webcast to learn how.
Click here to watch the webinar!
