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Real-time member feedback drives site redesign and improved branch interactions.
The ultimate test of a website is how well it meets users’ expectations, but it’s not easy to find out what members like and don’t like about your online portal. Two credit unions gathered member input via a simple pop-up feedback system to help guide their website redesign.
$135 million Duke University Federal Credit Union used HappyOrNot Web Smileys panel to encourage members to rate selected web pages and content by clicking on a smiling, neutral or sad face and supplying additional comments if they’d like.
“With our current website, our goal was to provide as much information as possible,” says CUES member Daniel Berry, CCE, CEO of the Durham, N.C., credit union. “What we’re learning is if it takes more than two or three clicks, members prefer to gather information in a phone call. As a result of feedback from members, our new website design will be simpler and more intuitive, with less information.”
$133 million Members Advantage Community Credit Union, Barre, Vt., used the same system to gather online feedback in advance of its website update, asking questions like: How can we improve? Do you find our rates competitive? Would you refer us to a friend or family member? Are you finding what you need on this page?
Because members see those questions every time they sign on to a page, it’s helpful to change up the questions regularly, says Members Advantage CCU Marketing Manager Lindsay Hennekey. “We know it’s time to change the questions when member engagement goes down.”
Comments accompanying the smiley ratings (available through DoublePort) are provided anonymously, which allows for frank feedback but rules out the possibility of following up for more information or sharing a solution for members, Berry notes.
Duke University FCU plans to launch its new website early this year and will continue to collect member input on the new design. “That feedback will help stay current with members’ needs and expectations,” he says.
Both credit unions also use HappyOrNot kiosks in their branches. That feedback is anonymous as well but is provided so quickly that branch managers can usually drill down to specific interactions that are moved to push the frowning face. Members Advantage CCU supplements the quick reviews by placing feedback forms near the kiosks so members have the option to provide more extensive comments. Member service ratings are high, typically in the 98 percent positive range, but “we want to hear the good and the bad,” Hennekey says.
Duke University FCU positions a kiosk in front of each teller, member service representative and loan officer, “both to collect feedback and to remind employees that the most important person isn’t necessarily your supervisor but the person in front of you—the member,” Berry says.
Karen Bankston is a long-time contributor to Credit Union Management and writes about credit unions, membership growth, marketing, operations and technology. She is the proprietor of Precision Prose, Eugene, Ore.
