Ink on the Interview
Q: How are things going so last couple of days at Emerge?
A: It’s terrific, always nice to come to San Francisco. Really nice event that Eltropy put on and really good partners of ours for the past several years. Both on the collection side okay and on the origination side so just a really good match in terms of what they do really well, where they’re investing and what we do with our core competencies.
Q: On the origination side, on the collection side, how do you guys work together to elaborate on that?
A: We do Collections and Origination for over 450 credit unions and it really started a couple of years back as text messaging started to emerge much more on the collection side especially we did some due diligence and said this is not something that we should. We’re going to do it natively within our platform. But we want to partner with somebody and we want to partner with somebody who understands text, message, communication and and where that market’s going.
When it comes to collections, though there’s a different set of requirements, right now people are okay getting text messages when it comes to marketing or my application, but when you’re texting them about delinquency, it’s a little bit more of a sensitive discussion and you need partners to understand that. And Eltropy really came to the forefront of somebody who understood that was committed to it going forward. That’s kind of where the partnership started and really took off from there with a number of customers that we have on the collection platform, number of customers that heard the Eltropy story and really took to it. Then, just expanded it onto the Origination side as well for text messaging there.
Q: Can you share how that works with the origination?
A: Just think of it like making sure that there are different communication options throughout the course of an application process. Right so, whether that’s even initiating the process or how you’ve been approved and want to get you a message. There are different milestones throughout the application process that we just want to be able to initiate those text messages. And now as Eltropy continues to expand now now we’re talking about, even how do we engage the applicant to begin with through things like chat or again, text message and other communication channels, and just making sure that that is real time, seamlessly integrated with the platform through which the decisioning is happening through good more, the fulfillment is happening so that everybody knows where everything is at all times and the applicant is kept aware. The applicant or applicants are kept aware. When and how it’s most convenient for them.
Q: It greatly enhanced communication that keeps everybody on both sides of both sides of the coin informed, which is a great deal, especially when you’re talking collections or lending or anything like that, people want to be informed, whether it’s a crediting or the member.
A: Our solution is there to kind of work, estimate the activities, whether it’s things that are happening on the collection side or origination. And obviously, as you say, one of the key activities there is how things are created. Especially in the credit union space right communication is key and making sure that. Whether it’s a new or existing member understands what’s happening now, what’s going to happen and again, not something where they have to go into an email necessarily or walk down to a branch who has the time for that or make a quick text message hey, everything’s good and that that is pulling directly from the system in which that fulfillment is happening. It’s just invaluable and obviously credit unions testament to how many folks are here? How many folks that we talk to about that? Say. Hey, do you work with Eltropy?
Q: How do you see this partnership evolving or growing over the next couple of years?
A: I think the things that Eltropy is focused on, especially around digital self-service and extension of the communication path. So on the collection side making sure that our collection solution for customers that use our collection solution and work with Eltropy, that we’re able to power that through realtime integration, enhancing the existing integration we have on the origination side to even make that richer and more turnkey to be able to bring in some of those newer capabilities like the video chat. So itt’s really exciting when you see a partner that has a vision is has proven successfully that they’re carrying out that vision, and it’s one that so neatly meshes with your own but is is entirely complementary to what we do. It’s look forward to coming back to this. We have our conference at the end of May which Eltropy and our other partners will be attending, so it’s really exciting.
