ST. PAUL, Minn. - A small credit union here will pay about $6,500 per month to offer members an "always-open" call center, where agents can take loan applications, deliver instant decisions, sell additional products, enroll new members-or simply transfer funds.
"Currently, our staff fields all calls," explained Chris Petersen, information specialist at the $100-million St. Paul FCU. "We looked at starting an in-house call center, but the cost of hiring two full-time employees with benefits would have been substantial."
Next month, St. Paul FCU will launch Total Member Care, a call center that prides itself on meeting a member's needs on the first phone call, according to Peter Schmitt, president, Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Digital Dialogue, a PSCU Financial Services company.
"Based on our current call minutes and loan application volumes, we're going to get Total Member Care around the clock for less than hiring two new employees, who could only work during business hours," he said.
Total Member Care offers an around-the-clock call center; lending and account opening solutions; transaction processing; business continuity; and risk management, according to Digital Dialogue. "We're hoping the service will increase our lending volume," Petersen added. "And our members won't have to fight to call us in the few spare hours they have before 6 p.m. when we close."
Total Member Care operates on a new-and unique-pricing model: St. Paul FCU will pay for each minute of calls fielded by Digital Dialogue, said Schmitt. The average talk time under Total Member Care is 3.5 to 4 minutes, but varies by the credit union, he said.
Outsourced call centers are known to charge by the application, Schmitt continued. The price-per-application models that St. Paul FCU researched ranged from $15 to $30 per application, said Petersen.
The "Ten-Second Approval" Lending Center will "transform" the CU's lending program, he said. "Members leave us voicemails at night saying they want more call center hours. We're losing car loans on Saturdays. Now, we'll be able to use Digital Dialogue's lending models, automated decisioning, risk-based pricing and pre-approvals over the phone or in the branch, 24 hours a day. We can get the member a decision in their timeframe, not ours."
St. Paul FCU will keep tabs on Total Member Care by listening in on phone calls and recordings and using reports that detail first-call resolution rates, transaction types, and call volume and times, said Petersen. "We can gauge the members' reaction."
"All of our clients get full visibility," said Schmitt. About 80% of all calls are answered within 30 seconds and 5% of all calls are abandoned, he said.
"But what sets us apart is our passion to the first-call resolution rate," he continued. "That's what helps determines member loyalty. Members can rank the service they receive during the call. There's a loyalty score attached to every call."
About 10 CUs are using Total Member Care, which Digital Dialogue first offered about two months ago, said Schmitt. About 200 CUs are using the company's stand-alone call center product, which doesn't include Total Member Care's comprehensive lending or new member enrollment services, he said.
Schmitt said he is surprised to find out that half of all CUs outsourcing the call center have assets ranging from $50-million to $300-million. In fact, one of Digital Dialogue's top ten clients is a $48-million CU, he said.
"We believed erroneously that the larger credit unions would be the target for the call center," he said. "But when we launched the service, it really gelled with smaller credit unions. Most can't afford their own specially designed call center. They'd rather have a specialist like us handle calls while employees handle high-value transactions with members face-to-face."
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For info on this story:
www.stpaulfcu.org, www.digital-dialogue.com(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
