As the CEO of Innovation, what’s most important to me is that members are happy with how we’re doing. It’s why we’re continually exploring how effectively we’re meeting their financial needs and ensuring that we’re acting with integrity to thank them for the trust they put in us. As I see it, there are three very simple ways to know more about what our members think of the job we’re doing. The first is to ask them. The second is to be open to what they have to say. Thirdly, we need to respond to their feedback quickly and in a way that lets them know we’ve heard them.
We’ve been asking our members for feedback via our annual survey for many years now. The information that flows from this survey gives us an amazing tool to gauge our strategy and helps us understand the attributes that our members expect us to have or aspire to. Engaging with our members in this annual process has inspired us to expand our dialogue in a more real-time manner, in the form of our MemberFirst Feedback initiative.
MemberFirst Feedback makes it easy for people, whether they’re Innovation members or not, to connect with us directly from the home page of our website. They’re also encouraged to let us know how we’re doing in person at any of our advice centres or over the phone at our call centre. This feedback is then logged by our staff into our MemberFirst portal and sent directly to each and every member of our executive and leadership team. Each case is reviewed and discussed by our entire leadership team, who in many instances respond to the member personally. We measure and monitor each situation as it arises, drawing upon what we learn to help us improve our services and reduce friction for our members.
A recent example of how MemberFirst feedback submissions have benefitted our members involves Interac e-transfers. Our members were letting us know that the 30-minute delay between the time an e-transfer was sent and received was frustrating to them. We had initially put that delay in place to reduce fraudulent activity, but we listened to what our members were saying and removed it. We still closely monitor e-transfers for fraudulent activity, but the change was immediately positive for our members. Not only had the friction they were experiencing been removed, but they also appreciated that their opinion was sought, heard and valued at Innovation. If they hadn’t had an easy process for voicing their concern around this, we would have been unaware of what we could do to change their experience for the better.
Whether it comes in the form of a compliment or a complaint, embracing feedback is essential to our growth. It allows us to measure and monitor each situation in real-time. It also helps us to identify trends and identify how we can reduce friction for our members. It requires us to listen and respond quickly and do all that we can to fix problems for our members as they arise. If one member is challenged with something, there’s a good chance that others are experiencing the same thing but choosing not to say anything. That’s why we review and respond to every compliment, concern or complaint that’s entered into our MemberFirst Feedback portal. This nimble approach helps us understand and make improvements that will lead to an even better banking experience for our members.
All of us on the Innovation team view feedback as an extraordinarily powerful tool for our growth, so we never shy away from it. It’s the pulse that tells us how we’re doing and pushes us to be the best credit union we can be. It keeps us humble, transparent and determined to evolve our products and services in the ways our members need them to. We love to hear the good stuff so we can recognize and celebrate staff who are doing a great job, but we also need to know if we’re falling short in any way. If even one member experiences friction in our products or services, we want to hear about it and have a shot at fixing the problem. Embracing member feedback keeps us on our game, ensuring that we’re always transparent, always moving forward and always evolving as a financial institution.
September 09, 2019