When it comes to the credit union member experience, even the smallest details matter. Members have many choices in financial institutions, and providing them with a best-in-class experience is what will keep them loyal to yours. Sending out a survey is a great first step to engage members, solicit feedback, and demonstrate that your organization cares about what they have to say. But a credit union member survey is only as good as what you do with the feedback.

Many credit unions get the survey part right but fail to turn their credit union member survey data into actionable changes for the member experience. We call this failing to "close the loop" on the survey. Whether it's due to time constraints, a lack of planning, or letting too much time pass to the point that the survey results are no longer timely, many credit unions fall into this trap. Often, not fully leveraging investment into the credit union member survey ends up costing time, money, and membership. It can also send a negative message to members who took valuable time out of their day to take the credit union member survey but didn't see any changes.

How to Make the Most of Your Credit Union Survey Data

Once your survey feedback rolls in, give yourself a pat on the back — you're providing your credit union with a wealth of useful information. Now, it's time to take stock of your credit union member survey responses and leverage credit union data analytics to optimize your member experience. Here's how:

1. Map your user journey.

Think of your member experience like the navigation app on your phone. You have to input your desired location before it can provide the directions and traffic information you need to get there. The same goes for your member experience. You have to give members all the touchpoints and information they need to navigate their journey.

Draw a map of how your members behave on your website or app and ask clarifying questions. Where do they go to accomplish different tasks? What screens do they see? Where are members running into technical issues? The most important part of journey mapping is understanding the "moments of truth." According to research by McKinsey & Co., these are the moments when customers are largely invested in the outcomes of specific situations (such as a canceled flight, financial advice, or damaged belongings).

These moments make all the difference in the customer journey because they're where you're most likely to either lose the member or deepen their connection with your institution. These are the critical moments you should seek feedback on so you can understand why people are exiting and why they choose to stay.

2. Collect feedback on pain points.

Pain points are related to moments of truth. If moments of truth are the on- and off-ramps, pain points are the traffic or construction zones that cause people to want to get off the freeway. Fortunately, pain points are only temporary; with feedback and understanding, you can fix them.

If you're noticing a moment of truth on a specific page of your website — e.g., a high bounce rate — you need to discover the pain point causing people to jump ship. It could be something as common as an unresponsive link or unclear language. Some members simply might not understand what the page is asking them to do. Finding these pain points and creating solutions with the members in mind will help them continue their journey without roadblocks and create a better member experience overall.

3. Analyze the feedback.

If you are stuck on how to analyze survey data with multiple responses, this is the most important step for you. To analyze feedback, you should take into account quantitative survey data and measure it against industry standards and key performance metrics. As one example in the credit union space, we look at the "member effort score," which measures how difficult it was to complete a task. With MemberXP, you can then compare your member effort scores to those of your peers across the country. This reveals whether you're on track or changes are necessary.

Whatever you analyze, the metrics you measure against should come from leadership and align with your organization's broader business goals.

4. Optimize the member journey.

Once you're ready to run credit union data analytics, you will need a powerful tool. With the navigation app analogy, all the data going into your phone doesn't mean anything unless it can interpret it to tell you, "Get off the freeway; we've found a faster route!" The same is true for optimizing member journeys. No matter how smart or skilled your staff is, you still need a tool specifically designed for credit union data analytics.

Fortunately, there are a variety of affordable tools out there. These tools analyze your data and recommend critical next steps you might be overlooking. For instance, a data analytics tool can recognize if you need to coach a specific team that's bringing down your Net Promoter Score. It can even tell you how to coach that team and where the areas of improvement are. The tool can also help you manage your success and track performance metrics in the future.

Credit union member surveys are a tried-and-true way to understand the pain points and moments of truth of your customers. They allow you to directly address any friction members might be running into and provide you with the resources necessary to help them reach their destination smoothly.

At MemberXP, we're here to help. Contact us today to see how we can get your member experience back on track.