Jennifer Goodall

What was the challenge?

“Our major issue was the cost associated with our third-party call center. We’re on the smaller side, so we weren’t able to have a call center in-house, but we were paying a lot for it. It’s an expensive service.

“When Covid hit, we started having a lot of turnover in our call center. Then, not only was it expensive, but we weren’t serving our members either. The solution was we needed to be able to Text our members.”

How did Eltropy work?

“It worked amazing. When people call, most of us don’t answer our phone. Even if I know who’s calling, I probably still won’t answer my phone. But you can text me and I’ll answer it.

“Our goal was just to do a 25 percent reduction in our Call Center costs. And we did a 64 percent reduction in just a year. So I consider that successful.”

What has been the impact?

“What hasn’t been impacted! Collections, lending, online banking, and digital services. Once they realize how much it can benefit them through Text, and how easy it is to get a response from members – because you can try to call them and say ‘I sent you this phone document –- can you sign it?’ and then won’t answer, and then they try to call you back when you have a member, and then you try to call them back – and you’re stuck in that feedback loop.

“But as soon as you text, they’ll say OK I’ll sign it, and within 5 minutes you have those docs signed. So it’s really everywhere.

“My department definitely texts all the time, Collections too – they love texting and how much it’s benefited them.”