Do you really want to know what your members think?

If an organisation wants to improve customer service, you have to think and act from your customers' viewpoint

Many Australian financial service organisations pay third parties to survey their customers.

Some use mystery shoppers to check on customer service by staff and compliance with procedures.

Why not ask your customers directly what they think?

Some (eg Savings & Loans, Rabo Plus) have blogs by their executives which invite comment. Opening yourself to direct customer feedback is "brave"; witness the comments when Savings & Loans announced a fee review.

America First Credit Union have gone a step further and are inviting customers to review individual products and are allowing those reviews to be read publicly.

Opening communication channels with your members is important for mutuals. Having a relationship is 2 ways: so only ask their opinion if you intend to do something about it.

Comments

[Ginny Brady]

I am on the board of UFirst FCU. We are located in the USA, New York State. Our board has a blog which is updated @ twice a week. We invite member comments and are using this means to keep channels of communication open between the board and members. I'd be glad to email any of your readers who may be interested in our blog, the Boardcast.

[David Jacobson]

Thanks Ginny. Managing member relationships is critical for a credit union and blogs can be a direct channel between boards and members.

[Sarah Cutbush]

I was interested to see that you referred to our blog (Savings & Loans) on your post. (I'm the General Manager of Marketing & Member Experience at Savings & Loans.)

You’re right, it is hard to put yourself out there when you know you are likely to attract negative comment… which we certainly did, when we posted a piece about our new fee structure.

When we started the blog almost two years ago, we set some criteria in place for how we wanted the blog to work. We agreed that we wouldn’t shy away from criticism. So, subject to posts meeting the code of ethics, we publish the bad along with the good.

For us, this is another way to show that we’re different – that we do give our members access to the CEO, so they know that their voices are heard. We value the chance to have that level of dialogue with our members.

Obviously, we don’t make business decisions lightly and we do use member research to make those decisions, but the blog adds another level to our commitment to being responsible to our members for our decisions. And it’s pretty instant feedback – even if from a small section of the membership base.

It's also great medium for two way conversation - and some blog topics generate healthy debate. Even with the fee post, where there was heavy criticism of our decisions about fees, some comments were supportive, balanced and constructive.

[David Jacobson]

It's great that Savings & Loans not only respond to member comments but also monitor third party internet discussion that refers to them so they can participate in a discussion. Very impressive!