In 2019, a team from $1.7 billion asset Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal), Anaheim, Calif., visited $5 billion asset Redwood Credit Union, Santa Rosa, Calif., to learn how to better administer its member satisfaction and loyalty program.

Redwood is a long-time user of the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a tool used to gauge consumers’ loyalty to an organization.

“We rolled out a member experience team in 2019, and one of the team’s jobs is to administer this program for the entire organization,” says Michelle Hunter, chief communications and experience officer at CU SoCal. “We were interested in learning from a seasoned shop that had ironed out the wrinkles.”

Hunter learned Redwood had used the program successfully for a decade. She reached out to Redwood President/CEO Brett Martinez about a visit.

Martinez put Hunter in touch with Andy Ramos, Redwood’s senior vice president of member engagement, to arrange a visit.

“On Dec. 11, three of us flew to Northern California in the morning and spent the day with their team,” Hunter says. “We flew back that evening after getting tons of golden nuggets of information from them.”

Hunter met with her team in advance to determine what success would look like and what they hoped to achieve. “We crafted a list of questions and offered them to the folks at Redwood beforehand.”

‘Together we’re better. And when we do better, American consumers do better.’

Michelle Hunter

Using the questions, Redwood crafted a presentation on the loyalty and satisfaction program. “They had multiple team members come in and visit with us based on our questions,” Hunter says.

“We shared how NPS is pervasive in our culture and its influence over both tactical and strategic activities,” says Ramos.

Hunter appreciated the insightful perspectives Redwood offered. “This is a comprehensive program, so there were a variety of components, from administration to communication, as well as best practices.”

This collaboration made all the difference for CU SoCal.

“After we debriefed, we made changes to our program,” Hunter says. “We took some of the best practices we learned from Redwood, pivoted, and changed some job descriptions. When we learned key takeaways from a well-oiled machine, a team that was performing exceptionally well based on their survey results, we made those changes for the better.”

Ramos says Redwood benefited from the exchange as well. “You always gain new perspectives from questions you hadn’t considered,” Ramos says.

“Together we’re better,” Hunter adds. “And when we do better, American consumers do better. That’s why we’re here: to better the lives of our members.”