Hiring for Great Member Experience

Creating a great member experience is essential to keeping members and deepening wallet share. And your staff, according to Michael Neill, CSE, are key to creating that outstanding experience.

When Neill, a CUES strategic partner and developer of ServiStar® Member Experience Builder, presented the CUES webinar “Hiring Employees Fitted for Great Member Experience,” he defined member experience in two parts:

1. Ease of doing business. How easy do we make it to do business with our credit union? This involves both in-person channels and remote channels (mobile, online). It defines how uncomplicated, how fast and how few hoops it takes to meet a member’s personal needs. “This is the No. 1 predicator of how likely a member is to spend more money with you,” said Neill, president and founder of Michael Neill & Associates, Inc., Atlanta.
2. Personal branding. Each credit union adds its own personal branding to member experience. For example, Neill worked at a credit union that walked members all the way to their cars. Even if it was raining, they used golf umbrellas. “Going to that next level provides personal and unique branding,” he said.

Delivering both aspects of a supreme member experience takes the right employees, and Neill outlined three criteria to consider when hiring:

• Skills: These can be taught. Examples: benefits selling, knowledge of facts, systems and processes.
• Attributes: These cannot be taught. Examples: flexibility, trust, tact and judgment. These do not change quickly, if they change at all.
• Culture fit: Each organization has a set of values and a unique culture. Employees must fit the culture to thrive.

When hiring to fit these three criteria, openings may take longer to fill. For HR, this may mean a more ongoing interview process.

“When you find the right person, hire them!” Neill advised. “You cannot create an outstanding level of service, a member experience, if you’re constantly short-handed. If we are constantly short-handed or constantly putting the youngest, least experienced, least knowledgeable person in front of the member, then we are not creating a good member experience,” he cautioned.

Employees who will deliver a sterling member experience have a combination of sales and service skills. In a Filene Research Institute study, “Attributes and Skills of High-Performing Sales and Service Staff”, the balance of sales and service skills was apparent.

Staff who were very high in service attributes didn’t enjoy selling. Instead, they liked listening to members and troubleshooting for them, as well as making sure procedures were followed exactly. Those who were high in selling attributes didn’t like serving, to the point they often made errors on follow-up paperwork.

Skills in sales and service must be balanced to create optimal performance in both areas. “What we’re really looking for in hiring is at this mid-level of selling and mid-level of service and what we do is coach, and their performance improves as they’re with us,” Neill said.

One way to help find employees with a balance of attributes and skills for your culture is to conduct behavioral interviews, which assesses wisdom, judgment and decision-making. “These are the things you’re not going to teach in a class or through coaching,” Neill said.

He also offered a few behavioral interviewing questions to measure sales skills, service skills and attributes:

• How do you deal with customers who think they are right even when they’re wrong?
• Have you ever sold anything? What was it? What did you do to sell it?
• Give me an example of a time you were rejected and how you handled it.

Hiring the right employees who are fitted for providing excellent member experience is an integral part of developing a sales and service culture.