The initial success and acceptance of the MemberShoppers program depends on the way you introduce the program to your team. It is important to prepare your team for what is coming by introducing them to the skills on which they will be measured.
We recommend you share the shopping forms with your team before the shops of your credit union begin. In addition, you can use the talking points in this document to answer your team’s questions.
Meet with your credit union’s leadership team to determine if you will roll out the MemberShoppers results all at once or in increments. If you decide to roll the program out in increments, use the timeline included here to plan your rollout.
Talking Points for Introducing MemberShoppers to Your Team
What employees want to know:
Is the system fair?
Talking Point
If your credit union will be using its own members as shoppers:
This program is different than other mystery shopping programs because it uses our members as shoppers. Why? Because it’s our members’ opinions that matter most to us. Our members have a high regard for you and for the credit union. Therefore, we believe their opinions are the best test of our service quality. We will be recruiting these members from a randomly-selected list. To ensure fairness we will not be using any former employees or the immediate families of former or current employees. Members will also be trained on the exact skills to look for so they can evaluate our service as fairly as possible.
If your credit union will be using professional shoppers:
This program is different than other mystery shopping programs because it is designed specifically for credit unions. MemberShoppers uses professional shoppers who are trained to look for specific skills and behaviors that apply to our industry. These shoppers are trained to look for instances of you doing things well in addition to looking for areas of improvement.
What employees want to know:
How does the system work?
Talking Point:
Our branch or department will be shopped often, but you may not personally serve a mystery shopper each month. In the months that you do have at least one shop, I will go over the results with you so you will know exactly how the member perceived your service level. This will be our opportunity to work together on improving your skills so you can get and maintain consistently high scores. If you want to take a look at the shopping service we’ll be using, you can go to www.memberxp.com. That is the site where members will log on and complete their shopping evaluations
What employees want to know:
What will I be evaluated on?
Talking Point:
The skills that we will ask the members to evaluate are the same skills you’ve been trained and coached on. To make sure you are confident that you have mastered these skills, I will be sharing the evaluation forms the shoppers will use with you. If you review the forms and think that there is an area where you could improve, please let me know. I want to work with you to make sure you receive the highest ratings from our shoppers.
What employees want to know:
How will the results be used?
Talking Point:
This will just be one way I will evaluate your performance. Mystery shopping, in my opinion, is primarily a tool for us to use in improving our service skills. It is not designed to catch you doing things wrong. Rather, it is a way for members to catch you doing things right, and a way for me to work with you to take your service delivery to the highest level. (If high performers will be rewarded and/or recognized, mention the reward here.)
The other way we will be using this tool is to find areas where we, as a credit union team, need to improve. If we have areas where the entire team needs improvement, we will provide additional training and coaching. My strong desire is that we work together to provide the kind of exceptional service that our members cannot get at any of our competitors.
A Sample Timeline for Introducing MemberShoppers:
- Before the program begins: Introduce the program to staff. Share shopping forms.
- Month 1: Teach and coach to Skill Areas: Tangibles and Reliability/Accuracy.
- Month 2: Share results of shops in Tangibles and Reliability/Accuracy.Complete action plans with employees on a monthly basis.
- Month 3: Teach and coach to Skill Area: Member Appreciation.
- Month 4: Share results of shops in Tangibles, Reliability/Accuracy and Member Appreciation. Complete action plans with employees on a monthly basis.
- Month 5: Teach and coach to Skill Areas: Member Advocacy and Education and Referral.
- Month 6: Share results of shops in all skill areas.Complete action plans with employees on a monthly basis.
