To increase loyalty, prioritize what your members love

My husband and I recently had the opportunity to exercise our loyalty as customers when we took a trip to Florida. Our English pointer mix, Starla, travelled with us. We booked a particular brand of hotel, not because they had the best deal or the best reviews, but because they’re incredibly, wonderfully, notoriously pet-friendly.

My husband and I paid the bill, but the hotel made the dog feel special; not us, the humans with the money. Incidentally, the dog is just as happy sleeping on my mother’s laundry room floor as she was the fluffy bed at the hotel. We were thrilled because the hotel made our priority, our dog, their priority.

Because of the excellent experience, I can’t imagine booking a different brand of hotel, even for times when I’m not travelling with Starla.

When it comes to increasing member loyalty, is your credit union doing enough to tap into people’s passions and make their priorities your priorities?

When you help a member with a loan application, do they connect you emotionally to their new home, or are you just the people who handle the paperwork? Are you an organization that shares their hopes and fears, or just the ones who handle the boring, necessary stuff?

Are you a delight or an obligation to your members?

Caring about the member experience is more than simply being present, it’s catering to their passions. It’s becoming invested in what they’re invested in.

You can be an institution that caters to their basic needs, or you can be an institution that connects to what matters most to them, even if what matters most has four legs and hogs the bed.