Ink on the Interview
Q: Before we dive into the topic of redefining the branch, any feedback or any highlights to share?
A: It’s definitely a great conference, with great feedback from different panelists. Eltropy is a big company. We have 7 products with them, and we’ve been with them for like 2 and a half years. So, very happy with Eltropy, very happy with the performance they have. And for us, it’s a great member experience, and adds value to our member experience.
Q: You were just on stage talking about redefining the branch smart strategies for a digital-first world. Can you give us a quick overview of what you talked about?
A: We are a small shop. We have two branches, and 190 million assets is where we’re at. The two other panelists were much larger in the billions. But for us, for the digital experience, we chose to go down that road to add more digital products for our members to enhance the member experience. Obviously, there is a cost with building a branch, going storefront, or however way you want to go. There’s also a cost of digital products, but we focused on the member experience, and we launched numerous digital products for our membership.
Q: What specific tools are you using in-branch to connect digital and physical experiences? Can you share how the digital complements your branch strategy?
A: We actually launched digital when COVID happened. We launched appointment management at that point because we wanted members to come through appointments. But since then, we’ve also built on different products to help enhance the member experience. But we are also building on, we are local, small, branded branches. So our members are loyal, and they come back and want to see us. So our branch traffic has probably gone back to before the COVID days. Not as bad, but we definitely see an increase in that. But the digital products definitely helped us enhance our members.
Q: What are you doing in the branch?
A: Our main branch option that we have is at our one location; we don’t have a lender at that location with two branches. So when members come into that lending branch, we try to have them either do a phone call down to a lender or a video call, which would enhance them to be face-to-face and more personal experience as far as a loan app versus just a telephone. So we’ve gone down that road.
Q: Do your members start the process in the digital realm and then come into the branch to finish? Do you see that scenario?
A: We do text, we do chat, and we do video. Text and chat are resolved most of the time is resolved that way. The members can handle it. If they can’t handle it through that avenue, we’ll pick up the phone and call them. We’ll do a video call with them to talk to them. We want to try to save their trip in the branch. They’re contacting us to try to work on providing these experiences to make their life easier, so we can not let them come in either, then we can try to use one of our channels.
Q: Any other strategies that you want to share that might help other credit unions in this area?
A: Texting is great for collections. It’s really good for our lending team. We close a lot of loans via Texting, versus partnering with DocuSign, which most credit unions are, for electronic documents. But, members will check their text messages quicker than they’ll check their email. So, loans will close faster, Texting documents to them through the text channel versus the email channel. So for us, we’ve definitely seen an uptick with loans closing faster through the Text channel versus the email channel. And I would say, I don’t do collections, but I would say collections have seen a much higher response rate of members Texting us versus doing phone calls.
Q: Share the perspective from the staff side, how are they benefiting from this? Sometimes they get left out of the conversation, but they’re just as important.
A: I oversee a team of 23. We don’t have a call center. So just for how we’re set up internally here about 14 member services that will see walk-ins and take phone calls and also answer our chat and our texting for members whenever you’re banking. They’re engaged. They have to be engaged, right? But I think, as you heard on the panels today, you have to preach it as you’re not getting replaced. It’s just another tool to help serve our membership. Like, you’re still here, you still need the human factor. We also have an AI chatbot that’s not replacing anyone. It’s just a matter of another tool for us to compete with the other credit unions that are larger, and to compete with the banks that we can try to have an equal playing field.
Q: AI chatbot allows your staff to deal with the more in-depth, challenging calls or situations, while handling the minor transactional tasks that can be quickly answered.
A: Our chatbot is through Eltropy, and it will scan our website for answers and handle some of the member questions. If the member’s questions can’t get answered, then they can speak to a live rep during working hours, and our rep will handle that. But it also gives us a feature of 24-7 access because if it’s 8 or 10 o’clock at night and they want to find something on our website or ask a question, that’s there. But then, if the bot can’t answer it after hours, there’s a message waiting for us when we first sign on at 8 in the morning, letting us know this member texted in with this question at this time. So that member can get a phone call back right when we open.
Q: Just one last wrap-up question—Anything else you’d like to add on this topic?Â
A: The only thing is that for us we had digital products in different spaces & different vendors. We brought them all under Eltropy to have it easier on the end user experience. So, it’s much easier for my employee to go to Eltropy in the morning, and everything they need to do, from Appointment Management to Lobby Management to Chatting to Texting to Video to Reputation Management, all under one umbrella for our staff. So I think it’s much easier on the end user, and then it’s also easier on us as a credit union. We’re only paying one vendor, right? We’re not paying 6-7-8 different vendors for different products. Eltropy Support is excellent. They’re an excellent company, and I would definitely say if you’re looking for Texting or Chatting, Go Eltropy!Â
