| As the credit union industry has grown in membership, it’s fallen in customer satisfaction, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
“The question here is really whether it’s a little bit of a case of, be careful what you wish for. Credit unions have, for many years now, been touting that they’ve been gaining members at record-breaking rates,” ACSI Director David VanAmburg said. “That’s wonderful, but as industries of all types have often found that then creates its own challenges.”
VanAmburg said that as the credit union industry surpassed nationwide membership of 101 million, individual credit unions may struggle to provide the same level of service to a larger membership base.
But when it comes to banking services, smaller is still better, the ACSI’s latest data show. According to the survey, though the overall score for the credit union industry fell 4.7 percent to 81, credit unions still came out ahead of regional and community banks (80), super regional banks (76) and the banking industry as a whole (76). Big national banks trailed the ACSI’s list, tallying up a score of 72 where customer satisfaction is concerned. The banking industry more generally did not budge from its prior year score of 76.
VanAmburg noted the insurance industry experienced a similar drop in customer satisfaction, dropping slightly to a score of 69, and likely for the same reasons the credit unions saw a decline in customer satisfaction.
As more and more people enroll in health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act, insurers may struggle a little bit to maintain that same level of service – and those already enrolled in health insurance plans may notice little things, like the amount of time spent waiting to get somebody on the phone.
The ACSI said that many new health insurance customers hold individual policies that often come with a high deductible. Individual policy holder satisfaction dropped 4 percent to 71, but consumers with group coverage averaged a score of 68. Among group policy holders, however, those who had a choice of plans (70) were more satisfied than those who didn’t (65).
But credit unions, take heart. VanAmburg said he believes the industry is merely experiencing some growing pains.
“It’s about creating that bandwidth and balancing service with cost,” he said. “I think it’s a short-term hiccup. It’s not something that’s going to continue to slide for credit unions.”
