Wondering how to inspire customer loyalty and create brand champions? Take a page from credit unions’ member satisfaction handbook!

The debate between credit unions and big banks is endless, but there can be no doubt that if you’re looking for a more authentic, personal experience every step of the way, credit unions have plenty to offer!

While there are several key differences between banks and credit unions, the latter continue surpassing their competition on one critical aspect time and again – their exceptional member satisfaction rate!

Customer experience is capturing the spotlight and becoming the key differentiator amongst businesses today, however credit unions have been focusing on it for years. Translating some of the key credit union principles for the digital age, here are the critical lessons we can learn to boost customer experience in any business.

#1 Empowering Employees

Can your employees truly take charge?

Credit unions give their employees authority to act independently, making it easy for them to take the lead when situations demand it. For example, a teller at a credit union has the ability to reverse fees if they believe that’s the correct action to take – without the need to consult their manager. This empowers them to be proactive and make decisions that improve member satisfaction, ultimately benefiting the credit union with member loyalty!

This is critical today, as customers have grown to demand the best experience. By giving your customer service executives the leeway to take decisions that benefit customers, not only will they be able to take charge of a situation and easily rectify an error, but customer experience will also drastically improve.

Additionally, by empowering employees across departments, you will notice an increase in accountability and a significant boost in productivity, helping you improve customer experience from the inside out.

#2 The Customer First Approach

Who do you keep in mind while planning your customer journey?

Credit unions, unlike banks, are owned by their members. As a consequence, almost all of their policies and actions are made keeping the members in mind, ensuring that their key audience is always satisfied.

This is often one of the key errors businesses make when planning their marketing strategies and policies. By making decisions based on the competition instead of customers, businesses end up catering to the wrong demographic and harming their brand instead. By shifting the focus to your customers, engaging your target audience, and taking the effort to understand their buying behavior and preferences, you can instead design policies that cater to them and curate your own audience. While paying attention to the competition is critical as it enables businesses to stay a step ahead, it’s essential to not let it pull focus from what your customers’ want.

With technology at hand and most of the world going digital, creating a customer-first experience unleashes all the more potential. So get to know your audience on a deeper level by sending out surveys, taking polls, and following up on interactions with automated reminders to truly leave an impression.

#3 Tailored Experiences

Do you provide personalized experiences?

Credit unions create more intimate experiences across their members’ journeys as opposed to banks. While it isn’t always possible for all businesses to have a brick-and-mortar store, the digital age offers businesses a world of opportunities.

Tailored experiences can be created across touchpoints using the power of technology.

You can connect with your audience on platforms of their choice, provide suggestions based on their preferences and previous searches, and plenty more.

In addition to that, by synchronizing all the data available, you can also ensure a harmonized experience for customers no matter what channel they reach out to you on. Whether this is a call to customer support or even tailored offers dedicated to loyalty members, show your customers that you truly value them!

As businesses strive to deliver exceptional customer service, credit unions teach us that it isn’t just about being digitally present (while that is essential) but also about creating micro-experiences that connect with customers, helping them resonate with your business and eventually enabling them to advocate for you.

In order to do so, you need to understand your audience on a deeper, more personal level. While you can’t have a conversation with each customer, deploying engaging polls, taking surveys, gathering feedback, and actively responding to them is a great place to start.

Today’s technology will help you take this one step further to not only dissect trends and patterns, but also to close the loop on each of these experiences as you follow up on concerns easily and ensure that your customers feel heard.