By Laura Lynch
I stopped to count the number of CUES staff who helped me serve a CUES member the other day. The total was three: one co-worker generated an invoice for me to pass on to the member; another talked me through ideas on how to get resources to the member; and a third committed to following up with the member to help on another question. Our goal was serving the member. None of us likely stopped to consider how we had served one another.
Credit unions find themselves in the same situation. Member service is the end goal. And so it gets a lot of focus, resources and attention. External service is measured, and the success or failure of external service may even affect a front-line employee's employment status or bonus.
But what about the critical role of internal service? How does a front-line person provide information to the member without resources from IT, marketing, collections and other areas?
"Credit unions don't necessarily view support areas as service areas. We call them the 'back office,'" said Michael Neill, CSE, during a recent CUES webinar, "The Critical Role of Internal Service in Credit Union Sales & Service Culture." Neill is president of Michael Neill and Associates, Inc., Atlanta, and CUES' strategic provider for ServiStar and the Internal Service Survey. (Listen to the webinar recording.)
"If you begin to treat people differently, they'll see themselves as different. They'll want to dress differently and act differently," Neill said. "When that happens, we don't have one culture. We have two: the front office and back office." This is something to avoid.
Neill developed the Internal Service Survey to help credit unions measure how they're doing. He explained the survey process to the 99 people who participated in the webinar. But one question lingered for an attendee, who asked, "My CU, of course, has an external measure, which is a corporate goal as well. I believe I was told we had an internal equivalent before I came on board and it turned into a nightmare because it was anonymous and was used as a sounding board. Any advice?"
Neill suggested that any internal service survey has to be part of a service philosophy larger than the survey itself. "You must establish service standards and train the staff on how to take the survey," he said. "Train managers on how to get employees to participate and do it appropriately. And how to coach to the survey. If staff believe they can say anything without consequence, they will; and if they see that the results are actually being used, they'll stop doing it."
Laura Lynch is CUES' products and services coordinator.
Find out how Neill works with credit unions to improve service through ServiStar and the Internal Service Survey.
