Two of Galway’s largest Credit Unions, St. Jarlath’s and St. Anthony’s & Claddagh Credit Unions have been awarded the Customer Service Excellence Award from the industry recognised Customer Service Excellence Ireland (C.S.E.I. ) which is endorsed by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government Agency. C.S.E.I. has over 20 years of combined Customer Service Quality initiatives with businesses and groups such as the London Olympics 2012, Marriott Hotel Group, Costa Coffee and Chelsea F.C. and many others.
Together the two Credit Unions have been working together on a number of projects to ensure a consistent, reliable service for their membership and joined forces to put themselves forward for the award which is the culmination of both continuous training and evaluation of Member Service which took place over a period of a number of months. The evaluation involved an independent ‘Mystery Shopping’ assessment of branches in person and via telephone which assessed a number of criteria including the member service experience, ambience and atmosphere, layout of offices, website, social media engagement as well as the all-important, staff friendliness and helpfulness.
Charlie Boyle, Director of Customer Service Excellence Ireland commended the Credit Union on their proactivity and interest in improving service quality for the members. “Management have led the way and the staff were central to the improvements. St. Jarlath’s and St. Anthony’s & Claddagh Credit Unions have been ahead of the curve in their efforts and have shown a National standard for other Credit Unions to follow”.
Mick Culkeen, CEO of St. Jarlath’s Credit Union and Gerry Joyce CEO of St. Anthony’s Credit Union commended their teams on achieving the awards and added, “We have always been and will continue to be, wholly member focussed. In achieving this award our team of staff have proven that together we are all at one with this member centric ethos. To us the member is paramount, our commitment to them is unending and we will continue to strive to better our offering and delivery of service to the members we serve. Thankfully our members have been responding by utilising our services, getting loans and supporting the good work we do.”
Speaking of the award, Kevin Johnson, CEO of the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA ) said “This is indeed a great honour for both Credit Unions to receive this recognition, and indeed it will come as no surprise to their members who continue to enjoy the great experience and value they both deliver. What makes Credit Unions different to other financial institutions is their policy of continuously investing for the benefit of members, and this is one great example of this. We are seeing here how the personal contact in Credit Unions continues to be an integral part of how they successfully operate, and we congratulate them on this recognition of their unrelenting hard work”.
Both Credit Unions welcome new and existing members who will experience personal, efficient service from highly trained and experienced staff. For questions on the services offered by St. Anthony’s & Claddagh and St. Jarlath’s Credit Unions you may visit one of their branches in person, call for assistance or visit their respective websites, www.sacu.ie/ www.stjarlathscu.ie
