Some credit union executives found point-of-service feedback
solutions have helped them make daily improvements in delivering
in-branch member services – and given them a competitive edge to keep
and attract members.
Many cooperative leaders typically rely on monthly, quarterly or
annual surveys and mystery shoppers to find out what members think about
their services and what could be better. While those tools are useful,
they give cooperatives feedback information only from the time the
survey and mystery shopping took place.
That's why some large and small credit unions are using
point-of-service feedback solutions that record member satisfaction or
dissatisfaction anonymously every minute of every business day, giving
credit unions a daily report of their service performance and the
ability to resolve issues promptly.
Credit unions are also leveraging this technology because they are
finding the member response rate is higher than with email or snail mail
surveys. What's more, it is motivating employees to achieve consistency
in delivering excellent member service.
About 20 large and small credit unions are using a point-of-service
feedback solution from HappyOrNot, a Finland-based company that
manufactures small, portable kiosks that record member satisfaction or
dissatisfaction, according to Ed Gundrum, CEO of DoublePort, an Andover,
Mass.-based authorized reseller of HappyOrNot in North America.
The kiosks feature four buttons etched with a dark green face with a
big smile, a light green face with a slight smile, a light red face with
a semi frown and a red face with a frown.
One simple question printed on a small placard atop the kiosk asks
members to “please rate our service today,” for example. Credit unions
phrase service questions in other ways as well, but only one question is
asked to keep it simple, which helps to increase member response.
The $120 million Duke University Federal Credit Union in Durham, N.C.
installed 20 kiosks in one branch. Each teller station, as well as the
desks of loan officers and member service representatives, has a kiosk.
There is even one affixed next to the vacuum tube at its drive thru.
“We wanted to capture the satisfaction from the member at the time
they did their transactions for every employee,” Duke President/CEO Dan
Berry explained. “We felt like we would get higher volume of feedback.”
In December, of the credit union's 11,000 branch transactions, about
2,600 members provided feedback. That's a response rate of 23.6%, which
is significantly higher than the response rate from an email or U.S.
mail membership survey.
Berry said this response rate has been consistent month over month
since the credit union installed the kiosks in April 2015. Other credit
unions also reported the same response rate of more than 20%.
Member responses are recorded along with the date and time. That data
is then uploaded to a HappyOrNot central server via a cell SIM card
within each kiosk. The cloud-based service generates the graphic
reports, which are emailed to management and employees for review early
the next morning.
The data can be broken down to show employees on which days and during which hours they performed better or worse.
“I have a credit union with $146 million in assets and I really need
to compete on services with everybody in the area,” Howard Meller,
president/CEO of GHS Federal Credit Union in Binghamton, N.Y., said.
“HappyOrNot kiosks are just a way for me to always check to make sure
that we are providing the service that we need in order to grow.”
SOURCE: Feedback Solutions