So, Jeff Bezos and Rick Craig walked into a bar … Rick who? You know, the CEO of America First Credit Union in Utah. OK, he may not be a drinking buddy of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, but his credit union has taken a page from the the retail pioneer’s play book.
America First follows Amazon, Apple and a growing cohort of Internet-based retailers in letting members comment about its products. Not many financial institutions have the chutzpah to let customers critique so publicly. “We were nervous,” says electronic services VP Rich Syme in a CEO Report article (subscription required) where I first read about it.
Don’t be nervous, Rich, the feedback is looking good. Double kudos for letting members share demographic info and for allowing visitors to share reviews on Digg and Facebook. Several obscure categories, like Health Savings Accounts and Student Loans don’t have reviews yet, but staples like checking and auto loans are getting raves. Check it out here.
Even if things had started badly, this is a short-term pain, long-term gain approach. Nothing motivates improvement quite like public criticism.
Credit unions always say they have happy members. This is how you prove it.
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Agreed. Kudos to America First. If you can handle criticism and have a culture that’s ready to respond, go for it.
You create an implicit contract with members when pursuing this kind of “ratings” strategy. You are essentially promising that you will make adjustments – even the hard ones, and the ones you don’t like – when you get negative feedback.
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The other cool thing about this idea is that so many people are taking the time to write a review on fairly “mundane” products like credit cards and checking accounts. I imagine America First is also using this experiment to understand the members’ view of what makes a good product/service experience.
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I stop paying attention when feedback is all fives. Nobody found anything worth improving? Maybe America First should seed some critical comments to bring out some room for improvement.
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Bill brings up a good point – what are they trying to achieve here?
I’m a firm believer in treating complaints as gifts – but almost all reviews so far are like this one for their Visa Card:
“Accepted almost everywhere this card is great with it’s amazing rate and awesome options: Rewards/Cash rebate. Also, it can be personalized which is always fun.” – CallmeCooch (actual username)
Sure it’s a great testimonial, but as time progresses, I’d actually hope to see some critical comments and see how America First responds.
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