CASE STUDY
ORNL FCU Leadership's Commitment to Data Analysis Bolsters CX Resilience
Client: ORNL Federal Credit Union ($3.1B assets; 28 branches; 190K members)
Industry: Credit Unions, Financial Services
Support EXP Solutions: Relationship Builder mystery shopping; Insight Builder surveys; Managed Services Data Translation and Managed Services Alert Management
Outcomes:
- 65% of members “very satisfied” with COVID-19 response
- 61% lift in NPS® in 3-month period following digital conversion
- #2 credit union in Tennessee for CX (Forbes 2022)
Key Takeaways:
- A credit union’s commitment to listening to its members is the best way to ensure a rapid recovery in member satisfaction from service disruptions.
- Presenting insights from CX analytics directly to C-level leadership drives strategic action that effectively responds to members’ expectations.
- An objective, data-driven approach to CX measurement helps C-level executives navigate future challenges by enabling them to make decisions and act quickly, based on the best available intel.
The story of ORNL FCU’s current success begins in early 2020…
Like most financial institutions, ORNL Federal Credit Union, then a $2.5 billion institution in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, faced some tough decisions when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020. What was the best way to help its members? How should it adapt its operations? How could it ensure stability against an uncertain future?
Fortunately, ORNL FCU’s leaders realized the importance of understanding, from the member perspective, how they were navigating through the pandemic. They acknowledged that this was not the time to turn off valuable insight directly from the member. Rather, they understood the imperative of guarding against member attrition and brand erosion by continuing to maintain effective, data-driven member listening posts.
As part of its strategy of member-centered growth, ORNL FCU had recently entered into a strategic partnership with Support EXP to measure and manage its member experience. When the systemic impact of COVID-19 first became apparent, Support EXP developed a custom COVID-19 Response Strategy for ORNL FCU. It modified ORNL FCU’s use of Support EXP member feedback solutions to not only gauge how its members thought about how the credit union was serving them during the crisis, but to keep a constant finger-on-the-pulse in those channels that had become, as a result of the crisis, exclusive channels for members’ banking business.
A key objective was ensuring that these channels – particularly digital channels – would become a go-to, preferred choice for members when the crisis was over, with resulting improvement in long-term operational efficiencies. ORNL FCU also needed to know where the hotspots in these channels were now so that it could inform its strategies and pinpoint exactly what to improve to ensure these channels were a future first choice and best-in-class experience.
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“Support EXP provides support through a clearly benchmarked and transparent program accessible to leadership. They are helping shape our service priorities in a way that strategically drives business imperatives.”
– Colin D. Anderson, President & CEO, ORNL FCU
A “Between the Parentheses” Approach
In collaboration with ORNL FCU leaders and data analysts, Support EXP adopted the Kurt Lewin “Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze” model of change management to illustrate the shifts and trends in the member mindset during the COVID period:
Stage 1: Unfreeze – Prepare the organization to accept that change is necessary.
Stage 2: Change – Resolve uncertainty, act in ways that support the new direction.
Stage 3: Refreeze – Internalize changes and build confidence for next change.
With ORNL FCU’s objectives in mind, Support EXP crafted ORNL FCU’s CX Data Analytics COVID19 Operating Strategy:
- Redirect member feedback collected through Insight Builder, a survey-based platform that uses real-time feedback to target systemic friction in People, Products, Processes and Channels
- Deploy a specialized COVID-19 Response Survey
- Capture member feedback through the entire scope of digital channels available to members
- Support EXP data analysts would provide ORNL FCU executives with notice of CX “hotspots,” patterns or themes appearing in the survey data
- Operationalize data collected through its Relationship Builder mystery shopping solution by informing coaching to strengthen frontline execution
- Assess member satisfaction with and effectiveness of digital, ITM, drive thru, and call center channels during the pandemic period.
- Support EXP data analysts would provide ORNL FCU representatives with notice of CX “hotspots,” patterns or themes appearing in member evaluations.
- Acknowledging the stress that frontline teams were undergoing during the disruption, leadership decided that data analytics would not be used for conventional coaching or performance measurement purposes, with the exception of providing teams important training tips where there might be significant “misses” in member service.
Member comments captured during this period express appreciation for ORNL FCU’s commitment to being there for the members:
- “The associates at this location have never disappointed me. I was thankful to have them there during this uncertain time.”
- “I appreciate and value the relationship and the services I receive from [the credit union].”
- “ORNL reached out to its account members and assured them they were going to do whatever they needed to make things go on as usual.”
- Analyze and display all CX feedback data collected during the COVID-19 period separately from data collected under regular operating circumstances; data could then be compared to identify lessons learned and opportunities for recognition and improvement.
- 65% of members reported being “very satisfied” with how their credit union responded to the COVID-19 situation.
- From the onset of the pandemic, ORNL FCU achieved double-digit NPS gains in its member feedback on banking channels, the biggest driver being the convenience of online and mobile banking.
Emergence
Despite the changes ORNL FCU was going through as a result of COVID-19, its commitment to serving its members while keeping members and staff safe remained unchanged. The COVID-19 CX response developed with Support EXP gave ORNL FCU meaningful operating, strategic and brand data, directly from the member perspective, to understand how it was responding to the pandemic in the current operating environment.
ORNL FCU learned how to improve member experiences within channels likely to become preferred service channels of the future. While initially this involved accelerated optimization of online and mobile banking channels, it led to re-examination of the role its branch network would play in meeting members’ financial needs. Ensuring a holistic, best-in-class member experience, as all adapted to current circumstances and future realities, provided the best environment for realizing greater operational efficiencies and deeper member loyalty coming out of the COVID crisis.
ORNL FCU continued to expand their partnership with Support EXP through executive-level, data-driven analysis, collaboration and consultation. ORNL FCU’s C-level team plays a pivotal role in driving action based on what the CX analytics reveal. Support EXP’s Senior Level Consulting team and ORNL FCU’s C-level team follow a unique agenda in their monthly meeting, where key board members are invited to observe and ask questions at the end of the session. Support EXP CEO Rhonda Sheets brings forward timely and helpful insights: for example, how frontline employees can learn, practice, and master behaviors that convey empathy. ORNL FCU’s C-team takes that insight, adds applications, motivations, and insights of their own, and then follows through to achieve lasting change throughout the organization.
Support EXP also stepped into the role of “first responder” for member satisfaction alerts generated through its member surveys. When a survey response indicated that a member was dissatisfied with an experience around a product, process, people or channel, a Support EXP triage specialist immediately “closed the loop” by reaching out to the member and setting up the case in the Experience Management System – a status tracking module in the client end user portal. This paved the way for an ORNL FCU representative to follow through to resolution. Eventually the process transitioned to ORNL FCU for its representatives to manage in-house.
Fiercely Committed to Accurate Analysis
While ORNL FCU achieved a high NPS following the COVID-19 period, it anticipated a drop in its reported member satisfaction as a result of a conversion to a new digital banking platform in May 2022. Industry research shows a predictable drop in member satisfaction associated with such conversions, as members deal with the change and related service issues, such as inability to access their accounts online.
Facing an anticipated disruption with a potentially detrimental impact on member satisfaction and retention, many organizations choose to close their ears to their members. Instead, ORNL FCU’s leadership adhered firmly to their “tell me more” approach, doubling down on the principle that listening to their members, even during this volatile period of anticipated member dissatisfaction, would be valuable for their long-term strategy.
Leadership made the purposeful and strategic move to increase the number of CX data points coming from digital banking channels. As online banking is the largest channel through which members interact with the credit union, it has an outsized influence on the overall NPS result. Online channels are surveyed about as much as all other channels combined. ORNL FCU executives boldly allocated their CX surveys and mystery shops to place them in the tactical position of listening, learning, and acting – flowing from the C-Level – to mitigate the overall impact of their digital channel feedback on their overall CX scores.
It is to ORNL FCU’s credit that they consciously elected to continue to distribute their shops and surveys proportionately, to accurately reflect the channels its members used most. Quite simply, CEO Colin Anderson knew that the value of learning and acting on what was real – as revealed through their CX intel – was greater than a “false sense of good.” ORNL FCU’s executive leaders were not afraid to know the truth about what their members were thinking and feeling during this precarious time. Accordingly, they acted in a way to prevent a “Deep U” in their CX trends, opting instead for the “Deep V” of a quick rebound.
The “Deep V” in NPS did in fact occur following the digital conversion, but the recovery in member satisfaction and expressed loyalty was dramatic and immediate: NPS rose from a low of 64.0 immediately following the conversion to 79.75 by August, driven by positive survey responses across almost all channels. Despite some expected volatility in NPS over the months following the digital conversion, the overall trend was decisively positive. ORNL FCU leadership attributes this rapid recovery to their ability to execute their strategy and align the organization around its mission of providing superior member service consistently across all channels. This successful execution would not have been possible without the insights gained through steady and unbiased feedback.
it rebounded even quicker from the disruption associated with its digital platform conversion.
Growing with a Clear Line of Sight
ORNL FCU continues to rely on Support EXP for the solutions, analytics and expertise to reach their goals of sustained growth and member loyalty by providing a service experience that differentiates them in a crowded banking market. The credit union’s CX commitment and approach were validated in 2022 when ORNL FCU was recognized in Forbes’ annual rankings of “Best Credit Unions in Every State” as the #2 credit union in Tennessee in member satisfaction and trust.
Support EXP’s Managed Services are valuable, according to ORNL FCU’s CEO, because they provide a clear, objective line of sight that is critical for C-level executives who need to make decisions and act quickly, based on the best available intel, while making optimal use of resources at a time when leaders in all industries are being challenged to “do more with less.”
ORNL FCU believes it is well prepared to meet its members’ financial needs and expectations when the next disruption comes along. Looking forward, a host of macroeconomic, technological, regulatory and competitive forces await, chief among them financial consumers’ evolving preferences and demand for greater personalization. Experts predict that financial institutions and their customers will struggle to find a clear line of sight through the “fog of uncertainty.” However, ORNL FCU’s CEO is determined to navigate future challenges by keeping a “finger on the pulse” of the credit union’s membership – knowing exactly how member preferences evolve and meeting them with the personalization ORNL FCU’s current and potential members expect.
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