Staff fulfillment. Member engagement. Credit union excellence.

The success of your credit union depends on a strong sales and service culture. Powered by member-centricity and driven by results, Creating Member Loyalty (CML) training can make a big financial impact at your credit union.          

From top to bottom, the CML programs provide a comprehensive and practical approach to developing the essential skills needed to forge exceptional member and employee experiences. Grounded in a behavior-modelling approach, the CML Programs equip trainers at your credit union with time-proven practices to train the key skills used in service and sales, as well as practice scenarios that allow learners to apply newly gained skills.

What it is

The CML product suite includes 4 distinct Programs:

  1. Service Strategies
  2. Sales Strategies
  3. Sales Leadership Strategies
  4. Building Member Experience through the Contact Center

Each program contains, on average, 22 hours of content that can be delivered to your staff by trainers on your Learning and Development team.

Our Service Strategies Program provides your team with the soft skills and techniques to exceed member expectations for service excellence, build and develop conversational skills, prioritize critical contact points, and resolve problems and complaints effectively. Your team will learn to –

  • Identify superior service characteristics that are important to members and co-workers
  • Meet and exceed expectations for service excellence
  • Develop communication and conversational skills to build and foster relationships
  • Effectively handle critical contact points with members engagement
  • Resolve complaints and problems effectively
  • Take ownership of the member experience and overall outcomes

Managers will gain tools and competencies to build a professional environment with clear service performance standards and goals so that your credit union can deliver on the promise of your Mission.  Managers will learn how to:

  • Become role models of service excellence
  • Build and clarify service performance standards and behaviors
  • Set service performance goals for employees and departments
  • Learn to effectively provide performance feedback
  • Address performance behaviors to improve service delivery

Our Sales Strategies Program builds comfort, confidence and effectiveness in identifying member needs and values to better identify appropriate products and benefits to the member. Your team will be equipped with skills, processes and techniques to build and deepen long–term meaningful relationships that create member loyalty. Your team will learn how to:

  • Use conversational skills to build and deepen relationships
  • Strategically move Members from satisfied to loyal
  • Ask high-impact questions to uncover needs and offer appropriate products
  • Focus on the whole member relationship to build long-term relationship and increased profitability
  • Increase sales opportunity by conducting service follow-up contact 
  • Effectively solve problems and handle complaints to build trust and member loyalty
  • Quickly identify opportunities to successfully make more qualified referrals with less attempts.
  • Make more, high-quality, successful referrals without being a product expert

Our Sales Leadership Strategies Program equips your front and back-office managers to lead in today's competitive marketplace, drive performance to strategically achieve goals, exceed member expectations, and deliver an amazing member experience.  Managers will learn and be prepared to function at a high-level in the three key leadership strategies – Planning – People Development – Proactive Coaching. Your leaders will learn how to:

  • Processes and techniques to lead a high functioning team
  • Strengthen relationships through effective communication and listening techniques
  • Focus energies on activities that will produce better results
  • Set challenging, yet attainable performance goals
  • Energize and gain enthusiastic support and involvement
  • Effective high-powered coaching skills to strengthen performance and outcomes
  • Lead motivational, productive, engaging and sales-focused meetings
  • Encourage confidence and competence in their teams
  • Provide feedback specific to behaviors that impact others and performance
  • Set performance expectations through effective communication and goal setting
  • Assess resources and identify critical areas of strength and limitation

Our Contact Center Program provides your team with service and sales skills to manage and further member relationships.  Your team will be equipped to strategically transition from inbound service requests to uncovering sales opportunities.  This program also provides soft skills and tools that build confidence in making targeted value-add outbound member contact. Your team will learn:

  • Skills and behaviors that build confidence and effectiveness
  • How to transition a service call to a sales opportunity
  • How to respond to an expressed need and uncover additional need    
  • To identify and act on opportunities learned during a conversation
  • Techniques to exceed expectations by anticipating future needs and avoiding problems
  • How to utilize targeted outbound contact to expand member relationships
  • How to turn a problem or complaint into a sales opportunity

How it works

The licensing price for each CML program is based on the asset size of your credit union and license term. A CML Program license provides all trainers at your credit union with unlimited digital access to program materials, including:

  • Content Presentations for each topic with a template for delivery
  • Template Lesson Plans provide an overview of each topic
  • Participant Workbooks that can be leveraged as pre-work or while in training session
  • Case Study Videos
  • Handouts for Learners

Templates for successful implementation (ie. Scheduling best practices, best practices for kickoff/program launch, guidelines for forming a collaborative Training Committee at your credit union, metrics to measure team progress and success)

Trainers can use the program content to train in-person, virtually, or blended based on the needs and objectives of the credit union.

Why it works

Made exclusively for credit unions
Our Programs are made specifically for credit unions; we leverage language shared within the movement and draw on the philosophy of member-ownership.

Participant-driven skill practice
Each CML Program begins by introducing a collection of Sales or Service Skills through a blend of group discussion, direct instruction, video models, small group activities, and written activities in participant workbooks. Following the introduction of new skills, each program then gives training participants opportunity to apply those skills in structured Skill Practice Scenarios. Alternating roles, Skill Practice participants practices their new skills with peer using real on-the-job scenarios that they’ve created.

Behavior-modelling approach
CML utilizes the learning method of behavior modeling to shape the positive behaviors that organizations want their employees to utilize to increase loyalty among members and co-workers. Instead of lecturing about “theory”, CML training programs empower trainers to focus on engaging learners in discussion and providing participants with exercises and scenarios where they can test out new skills and troubleshoot potential challenge areas.  

Empowered trainers
Trainers often know best what their session participants need and respond well to at their credit union. The CML Programs provide trainers with a template and our some of best practices, but encourages Trainers to adjust, enhance, and augment these materials to best engage and meet the needs of their staff. If you have new trainers, CCUF School provides an excellent foundation, and the CML team is also available for 1-on-1 coaching.

Find out more

Isn't it time to take your credit union to the next level and start creating a culture that breeds across-the-board success? Simply complete the form below and we'll be in touch with more information and next steps.