ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Members can't stand it when they have to restate their case each time they contact the call center, according to Leslie Ellis, CEO of Credit Union 1 here.
"With 55,000 members across the state, it's impossible to track when a member spoke with an operator and what action was taken," said Ellis.
That's why the $565-million CU relies heavily on Touché Messenger, the interaction management component of Harland Financial Solutions' Member Relationship Management System.
Employees work live in Messenger, starting and ending all of their transactions in the system, which is directly interfaced to the Harland core processing platform at the CU. The interaction tool is part of the arsenal Credit Union 1 uses to "get more wallet share from existing members" by offering them the "best service," said Ellis.
"We're so enamored with Touché because of the ability to track all member interactions," she explained. "We want our employees to act intelligently. Each subsequent operator who picks up the call within our entire system can see exactly what transpired in the preceding calls. That stops the member from explaining everything all over again."
Messenger displays not only notes from the preceding calls, but all of the mailers sent to that member, any disputed items or promises made.
The information comes in handy, say, when a member calls to complain about a fee and the operator wants to know how many times a waiver has been issued to that member, Ellis said. "Before Messenger, we had no way of knowing."
Ellis feels that getting the member's story straight is perhaps Touché's most important contribution to Credit Union 1's 7-year-old sales and service culture. "We want to know what's going on with each member."
In fact, the CU seems to have a handle on the industry's elusive sales-and-service approach. "Data is pushed to me so frequently that there are no big revelations anymore," said Ellis. "The data is just so integrated with what we do here everyday."
Data is fed to Messenger by Analyzer, Touché's data analysis tool. Beyond providing a record of customer accounts and transactions, Analyzer delivers scads of reports that help Credit Union 1 "fight the margins," said Ellis.
Analyzer shows product profitability, segments members into categories and even helps refine staffing levels. "We get sales reports that help us measure and benchmark our success," she said. "But you have to someone who can run the module, integrate it with the core and interpret the reports."
The tool reveals which services the member might need and offers sales prompts to CU staff. Combined with rigorous sales-training, Analyzer has "much improved" sales, said Ellis.
Analyzer tells the CU that as much as 18% of new members are purchasing more than one product; that's up from around 7 % in the first quarter of 2007, when Credit Union 1 first launched the sales metrics and reports at its 13 branches, according to Joe Morrison, AVP-sales and service.
Likewise, 11 of the branches are registering more than 10% cross-sales, he said. Only one branch was hitting that mark in the first quarter of 2007. GAP insurance penetration has increased 10% over last year, while Credit Life and Disability sales are up 7% over last year.
"Touché is the tool behind the changes in employee behavior," continued Ellis. "Employees aren't so focused on cash handling and transactions. They've been trained in needs-based selling. They focus on putting the member in the right product and actually listening to members instead of meeting a sales quota."
Credit Union 1 has a "leap" on the sales and service culture, according to Sam Kilmer, VP-market development, Harland Financial Solutions. "The majority of credit unions has still not made the move to track their member interactions with the same importance as they do member transactions," said Kilmer. "In the same way a member service representative is expected to document transactions and view transaction history, the same expectation is placed on documenting interactions and better anticipating member needs."
Years passed before the CU felt comfortable in the skin of a sales and service culture, and before it realized two of the greatest benefits of Touché: tracking and guiding sales, and allowing the CU to interact consistently with members, said Ellis.
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For info on this story:
www.creditunion1.org
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