There are two very popular loyalty measurements.

The Ultimate Question Score

One question is asked (referred to as the Ultimate Question) “How likely is it that you would recommend (the credit union) to a friend or colleague?”  Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic members who are vulnerable to competitive offerings
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy members who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate the credit union's Score, take the percentage of members who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

ACSI reports scores on a 0-100 scale at the national level. It also produces indexes for 10 economic sectors, 44 industries (including e-commerce and e-business), and more than 200 companies and federal or local government agencies. The measured companies, industries, and sectors are broadly representative of the U.S. economy serving American households.

The ACSI Index uses customer interviews as input to a multi-equation econometric model developed at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.  The ACSI model is a cause-and-effect model with indices for drivers of satisfaction (customer expectations, perceived quality, and perceived value), satisfaction, and outcomes of satisfaction (customer complaints and customer loyalty, including customer retention and price tolerance).

In the fourth quarter of 2008, the credit union industry scored 84, with retail banks scoring 75.