I had the roof replaced on my house recently, and it was an experience. The roofing company was great. It was my mortgage company that had me jumping through hoops. I needed them to sign a check from our insurance company that was made payable to myself, my husband and the mortgage company. The easy process they promised over the phone turned out to be anything but easy. In fact, they lied to me on the phone, which resulted in several wasted trips to the branch. It was not their finest hour.

The customer or member experience is one of the most critical tools to providing excellent service. It’s so important that it should be an integral part of every financial institution’s strategy. That doesn’t just mean offering an experience. It means understanding the experience from the customer or member’s perspective. Here are three ways to ensure your customers or members are not jumping through hoops to do business with your financial institution.

Have employees beta test your digital services. When we conduct marketing audits for our clients, we test mobile apps and other online tools whenever possible, and we view websites from several different devices and screen sizes. That is the bare minimum you should be doing to ensure efficient and convenient service. Have a group employees test your online loan applications, mobile apps, online banking service and other digital offerings and get their suggestions on how these services can be improved.

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