The friendly skies teachable moment: Treat all members like your mother!
The recent United Airlines Customer Treatment Debacle should be looked upon as a teachable moment for all customer/member service organizations.
United s overbooking of passengers and their subsequent mishandling of the situation will cost their company millions in legal and future revenue not to mention the image killing brand the company must now remake to rebuild trust with the American public.
United violated the cornerstone mantra of any exceptional consumer organization:
The Customer (in our case Member) is King & Queen!
Consumers and our credit union members are the lifeblood of any organization and they should be treated with respect and dignity.
Consumers have the choice, access, and resources going for them so thinking that your credit union is the only game in town is a business myth.
Ethical treatment of our members is one of the core principals of the credit union movement and credit union membership should have its advantages and be what differentiates us in the financial services marketplace.
United s overbooking of customer seats (which is fraud—how can you book a seat that is not available) and favoring employees over paying customers is not how a world class service organization should operate.
And employees not being empowered to use common sense in dealing with situations that need flexibility and not going by the book–can cost any organization dearly.
World class or Member-Centric service organizations know that sometimes you must inconvenience yourself for the convenience of the customer/member.
Credit Unions should strive to seek ways to add value to our members’ lifestyles (save time/money/ensure financial security/not jump through hoops to do business) and treat all members in a courteous and professional manner.
The more we can add value and value our members, the more “Member-Centric”, prosperous and successful our credit unions will become.
This is an opportunity to take our credit unions to the next level of service by training our employees to treat our members in this fashion.
And more of our current and new members will buy from us because of why we do what we do (our philosophy/purpose) versus what we do.
Credit Unions should never take their members for granted and should seek to wow members at every service opportunity touch point. Employees must bring their “A-Game” to work every day and treat all members with passion and care— just like you would treat your mother!
