The “first date” with your member—will you get a second?

When a brand new member takes the time (and it’s usually on their lunch hour) to walk into your branch to “move” their checking account – there is no bigger moment than that. Think about it. How did they choose you out of all the options available today? Something worked. Marketing, positive word-of-mouth, location, social media, community involvement, reputation. Here they are standing in your lobby. What happens next? Do you make them “sign in” and have a seat in a sad waiting room with old magazines, waiting for their name to be called (similar to a doctor or dentist appointment). 

This is called the “moment of truth.” Our product is service, and it’s manufactured with the member present. You will never ever get a second chance at this first impression. And yet, in most credit unions that survey members using Net Promoter Score, this “transaction” is consistently rated the lowest. 

And why is that? I think we are “shackled” with the “have tos”:

  • We have to qualify them for membership 
  • We have to make sure they are not a terrorist
  • We have to make sure they aren’t a horrible risk, and often put unreasonable holds on their initial deposit, or worse yet, consider them on “probation” for the first few months
  • We have to figure out which of our five checking account options is best for them
  • Then we have to deal with our clunky core system and finally 
  • We have to tell them this pain has just begun…there is no bigger chore than moving all the things tied to your checking account. And if you hand them a “switch kit” you’ve just put the pain in a pamphlet

It’s a wonder we ever get a second date. 

If you think this might be happening in your lobby, attend the CloudCherry webinar on July 30th where I will show you how to re-engineer your process using member journey mapping and improve the initial experience so you’re sure to have a long lasting member relationship that results in creating a profitable promoter. 

Click here to register. I can’t wait to see you there!