Navy Federal Credit Union supports military families' financial futures with Trustpilot's powerful feedback loop
Problem
Navy Federal Credit Union’s members are extremely happy with their service, particularly for a financial business. But other military families aren’t always aware of this.
Solution
Including their Trustpilot reviews throughout their member journey helps future members understand the kind of experience they will have with Navy Federal.
Result
A member feedback loop that makes their members feel heard, has them advocating for Navy Federal as a brand, improves ROI throughout their member journey, and helps facilitate an even stronger relationship with their members.
Highlights
Most reviewed
credit union in the US
15 minutes
average review response time
4.73 average rating
across all 16 of their products
Most businesses around today don’t have a story quite as impressive or inspiring as Navy Federal Credit Union. They were founded during the Great Depression, by seven Navy Department employees who wanted to help their families — and the families of their coworkers — reach their financial goals.
The vision was a credit union designed specifically for military families. One that would offer loans with manageable terms and amazing rates. Today, they serve more than 14 million members worldwide. This includes all branches of the military, the Department of Defense, Veterans, and their families.
As a not-for-profit credit union, they always strive to do what’s right for their membership as a whole and to keep bringing real value to each member.
They’re still dedicated to those same ideals today, offering lower rates and fees on lending products and exclusive discounts for their members. And they bring a deep understanding of the needs of military communities throughout various life stages to everything that they do. Their members save an average of $461 per year — 4.14 billion in total combined savings— by banking with them.
With true member commitment, trust is able to shine
The emphasis that Navy Federal puts on service, integrity, and community has only grown since their founding in 1933. The dedication to service in particular is a cornerstone of their member experience. And they stand out as a financial institution because of their unique way of doing business. They measure their own success as a business by how much they’re able to improve the financial futures of their members. That means building trust with consumers is crucial, to show them exactly how they’ve been able to do this for their current members.
And it shows. Their TrustScore is a 4.5, significantly higher than the 3.9 average for their category. Because Navy Federal’s main goal is to help their members achieve their own financial success, it’s no surprise that their member satisfaction levels are so high.
But it’s not something they take for granted. Navy Federal puts a lot of effort into keeping their TrustScore so high. Their dedicated member service team reads and responds to an impressive 94% of negative reviews within 24 hours, with an average response time across all reviews of 15 minutes. Even for the most attentive businesses on Trustpilot, this is especially impressive.
And they actively solicit reviews from all of their members (their reviews are up 53% in the last month alone), knowing that each new review provides a fresh perspective that can help them improve their business. This is why they’re the most reviewed credit union on Trustpilot in the US. With all of these reviews, they’re able to get the insights they need to build the business their members expect.
Showcasing individual products for a better overall experience
Navy Federal has a wide range of products and services for their members. By including Product Reviews throughout their product pages, they’re able to showcase individual value for different product options like auto loans, checking accounts, and credit cards. This was the initial reason they came to Trustpilot.
The more reviews they received for each product, the more they were able to improve that specific product by getting feedback and insights tailored to it. These improvements have worked — the average rating across all 16 of their products is a 4.73. And the more they started to showcase this, the more they were able to help their members see the value for other products and take full advantage of Navy Federal’s offerings.
Building a business with member needs at the core
Visibility into specific products is great, but a potential new member also needs to know what the general Navy Federal experience would look like for them. Featuring their Trustpilot Widgets across their website helps them ensure that anyone on their site has visibility into what their member experience looks like, regardless of which product they choose. They’ve even recently added a Trustpilot reviews page to their site, just to make sure that member feedback is as easy as possible to find for visitors.
It’s worth noting that building trust in the credit industry isn’t always easy. Although they are mission based and differ from general credit unions, most consumers are still understandably wary when it comes to their finances. By constantly keeping a pulse on member feedback, Navy Federal is able to respond to their reviews, demonstrate excellent member service when issues do arise, and never stop improving their business for their members.
Because they go the extra mile to understand the military community specifically, Navy Federal’s members trust that they always have their needs in mind. One example of this is that military members are very transient and they need financial solutions that are tailored to their lifestyle and needs. They have resources designed specifically to support them and their families through these specific points like deployment, PCS relocation, and transitioning out of the military.
MakingCents, the resources hub on Navyfederal.org, helps them educate and support their members, sharing content to guide members in reaching all of their financial goals. And they also educate them via email, on social media, and through their 24/7 member services teams to ensure it reaches each and every military family that could benefit from them, regardless of if they’re a Navy Federal member or not.
Compounding effects for word of mouth and trust
Navy Federal knows from their own studies that members frequently share the benefits of joining with their friends and family. This shows up pretty often in their Trustpilot reviews as well. When they see that their members are advocating for Navy Federal on their own, they know they’re accomplishing the mission they set out to achieve. And Trustpilot reviews give them a way to let the reviews from those advocates reach a wider audience and more military families.
Other themes that tend to come up are how well they understand the different life stages that military families and veterans go through and how Navy Federal treats them like family. So many of their reviews mention how well their members work with Navy Federal, to the point that it feels like the loan processors and support agents really care about them. Language like this can often pop up in reviews for smaller, local businesses. But it’s pretty rare for a large, national business like Navy Federal. This is just another testament to how well they’re taking care of the military families they serve.
Letting real member experiences build Navy Federal’s brand
When your customers are this positive about your brand, it’s not just that they come across as more authentic and trustworthy to your prospects — they often say it better than your brand ever could. This effect is something Navy Federal wants to spread throughout as much of their member journey as possible.
Incorporating Trustpilot in their campaign creatives helps them test new variants, increase conversion rates, and let their members do the selling for them. They’ve added Trustpilot review content to social ads, banners, and video ads to help show how proud they are of their strong relationships with their members.
Across each of these creatives, Navy Federal is testing to see exactly where they can maximize their ROI, add authentic testimonials, and spread the word to the military community.
Review strategy tailored to Navy Federal’s needs
When it comes to their experience with Trustpilot, the platform is very easy to use on their own. This means they only need customer support from Trustpilot when it comes to larger things like customer review strategy planning, to ensure they’re making the most of the platform. And when they have needed support or service from Trustpilot, they’ve always received quick help and guidance. This allows them to focus on taking care of their members and stay true to their mission of improving the financial futures of military families. And each time they achieve that mission, Trustpilot helps them share it online with the world.