Raw credit union feedback = good
Posted by Trey Reeme on May 24th, 2006
I find RSS keeps me in touch with what credit union members are saying on a grassroots level. Through blog posts and comments, raw feedback hits my feeds every day. Gives me a ton of blog fodder.
Forget focus groups. Check the blogosphere to find out what people really think about you.
If you’re not subscribing to a Google Blog Search feed on your credit union’s name, what’s stopping you? (Yes, there are tons of other services out there. I just have better luck with Google.)
I’m going to echo Brent’s shout-out to the Washington Credit Union League in his last post. Of all the state leagues, they’re the first one we’ve seen looking into ways for members to post their thoughts directly to credit unions and leagues. They’re leading credit unions in the right direction.
You can see my skills demonstrated above. One day I’ll be a pro, but I fumbled that piece of sushi right after Brent snapped the pic.
I’ll second your thoughts here Trey.
I subscribe to a variety of subjects that Google Blog Search helps me stay on top of.
My friend, and blog consultant, Mike Sansone tells his clients – “search once and subscribe”.
Keep highlighting the leaders like Washington Credit Union League.
One of my favorite authors, William Gibson, says, “the future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed.”
Trey, thanks for expanding the future and the conversation!
So – what are some good ways to get “raw” credit union feedback outside of blogging?
We do quarterly member satisfaction surveys – and there is an open-ended area where members can provide qualitative data… We’ve just completed an online survey on our brand advertising – and had a few open ended questions…
Any other practices that are out there – that CUs should make sure they are doing? (In addition to monitoring the blogosphere – of course!)
For unsolicited raw feedback, monitoring the blogosphere is the next best thing to wiretapping.
Stumbling onto the raw feedback in the offline world is the tough part. That’s why internet search is so effective.
For solid offline feedback, I’ll start by pointing to a recent post on Michael Wagner’s blog to help answer the question. It’s going to come from your most passionate (you might even call them “over-the-top”) members.
Mike’s post is Are your clients crazy? and he says about “one-percenters” (your most vocal members), “While they’re your strongest advocates, they can also be your harshest critics. They often resist any changes and don’t care about your marketplace constraints or business reasons for altering ‘their brand’. But don’t dismiss them – they have a gold mine of insight. Listen to them! Have you hugged your one-percenter today?”
They’re not afraid to say what’s on their mind, and they’re not afraid to say it to your face. Too often, we pass these folks off as being “complainers,” though, and that’s another story for another day. But listen to ‘em. That’s step one. Nurture those relationships and listen to them as often as you can.
Also, I’d bet your front line and MSRs gets a ton of raw feedback in their ears. But are you giving them a mouthpiece to pass the complaints along with the cheers up the chain to management? I’d encourage staff (especially the parts of your staff having daily contact directly with members) to share the feedback they’re getting, be it good, bad, ugly, or unfounded. (I’m not talking about logging it through your CRM tool either, goodness knows!) Perhaps citing anonymous examples on an internal blog?
Surveys aren’t perfect, but often that’s the best thing we’ve got as far as solicited feedback goes, isn’t it? Good to hear that you’re careful to include open-ended questions in yours. The more detailed you can encourage your respondents to be, the better.