Mac has built a very catchy ad campaign around its “Mac” and “PC” characters. The most recent ad really hits home the idea that Apple and its customers understand, appreciate and value excellent care and support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZoGwZ9yiM0
Does your credit union have financial geniuses that are easy to reach? If a member called your credit union, would they get the department they need on the first call? Or would they be stuck, like our friend “PC,” yelling that they don’t want to talk to tech support, they want information about a mortgage?
Make sure you are there for your members. Make it easy for your members to get the information and help they need on the first call, without relying on transfers. Make sure your call center drives loyalty and revenue by exceeding your members’ expectations when they call.
Showing posts with label credit union. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit union. Show all posts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Is Your Call Center Solving Issues? Or Just Answering the Phones?
A credit union’s call center is its busiest and largest branch, the primary channel current and prospective members will use to ask questions or resolve issues.
How can a credit union optimize its call center to be both effective in handling member concerns and efficient in its use of resources? There are many metrics to consider when running a call center, but there are seven I feel are the best. The first group is the basics – these measure efficiency. The second group is even more important – these measure quality and effectiveness. Effectiveness means that when you answer the phone, you actually meet and exceed the needs of your members.
The Basics
1. Average Speed of Answer (ASA): This measures the time it takes for an agent to answer a member’s call. This is an important measure, but do not focus too much here. You can answer the phone quickly and still fail your members.
2. Call Abandonment Rate: This is simply the rate at which calls are unanswered. The higher the rate, the more missed opportunities a credit union has for serving members. An ideal abandonment rate should be around 3 percent.
3. Call Handle Time: This is the amount of time an agent spends talking to members plus time spent following up on calls, emails or voicemails. This is a better measure than just call times. They will be spending time taking action on member calls, too.
4. Cost Per Contact: This is a measure of how efficient the call center is operating from a pure cost standpoint. Your credit union’s cost per contact should be between $3.18 and $5.30 per call.
Advanced Metrics
1. First Call Resolution Rate (FCRR): The best predictor of member satisfaction, FCRR is the percentage of calls resolved on the first call without being transferred to another agent. Credit unions should aim for an FCRR of 90 percent or higher.
2. Call Quality: This is the measure of an agent’s ability to do their job. A high call quality drives member loyalty and helps credit unions not just stay in business, but grow and thrive.
3. Agent Utilization: How productive is your call center staff? This is determined by looking a how much of an agent’s paid time is spent on member service. While few credit unions currently measure this, the ideal utilization is around 80 percent.
My next few blogs will explore each of these in more detail with real world credit union examples. Let me know if you have other ways of measuring your call center not listed here.
How can a credit union optimize its call center to be both effective in handling member concerns and efficient in its use of resources? There are many metrics to consider when running a call center, but there are seven I feel are the best. The first group is the basics – these measure efficiency. The second group is even more important – these measure quality and effectiveness. Effectiveness means that when you answer the phone, you actually meet and exceed the needs of your members.
The Basics
1. Average Speed of Answer (ASA): This measures the time it takes for an agent to answer a member’s call. This is an important measure, but do not focus too much here. You can answer the phone quickly and still fail your members.
2. Call Abandonment Rate: This is simply the rate at which calls are unanswered. The higher the rate, the more missed opportunities a credit union has for serving members. An ideal abandonment rate should be around 3 percent.
3. Call Handle Time: This is the amount of time an agent spends talking to members plus time spent following up on calls, emails or voicemails. This is a better measure than just call times. They will be spending time taking action on member calls, too.
4. Cost Per Contact: This is a measure of how efficient the call center is operating from a pure cost standpoint. Your credit union’s cost per contact should be between $3.18 and $5.30 per call.
Advanced Metrics
1. First Call Resolution Rate (FCRR): The best predictor of member satisfaction, FCRR is the percentage of calls resolved on the first call without being transferred to another agent. Credit unions should aim for an FCRR of 90 percent or higher.
2. Call Quality: This is the measure of an agent’s ability to do their job. A high call quality drives member loyalty and helps credit unions not just stay in business, but grow and thrive.
3. Agent Utilization: How productive is your call center staff? This is determined by looking a how much of an agent’s paid time is spent on member service. While few credit unions currently measure this, the ideal utilization is around 80 percent.
My next few blogs will explore each of these in more detail with real world credit union examples. Let me know if you have other ways of measuring your call center not listed here.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Are You “Hanging Up” on Your Members?
Have you ever arrived at a retail store just before closing? You beg silently – or not so silently – through the already locked glass door for admittance. There is just one thing you need. It isn’t even a “want,” it is a “need,” and it will take less than five minutes of the store’s time. You do a great deal of business at this store and would appreciate them acknowledging that by helping you now. Instead, the last employee in the store turns their back on you and walks away.
Above is a story of customer care gone wrong. Credit unions pride themselves on exemplary member service, but are you guilty of the same thing? Is your credit union turning its back on members that need help? I am sure you let last-minute stragglers pass by the closing doors at 4:59 p.m., but what if that member reaches out at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday or noon on Sunday? Below are three quick stories of credit unions that underestimated the number of members who try to reach them after hours.
1. A Northern California credit union with a worldwide membership expanded its contact center services to accept calls after hours (6PM – 6AM Monday through Friday). During call center testing, the credit union opened the phone lines, but did not advertise the expanded service to members. That month, the credit union received more than 1,500 calls.
2. We worked with a New England community-based credit union ($1.5 billion in assets) to break down the hours members were calling most for service. In one month, 28 percent of member calls came to the credit union outside normal business hours.
3. A small Las Vegas-based credit union realized after expanding its call center to 24/7 that the second highest spike in call volume typically came between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., an hour after the call center closed prior to expansion.
Member service starts with a phone call. Credit unions that do not have 24/7 capabilities are losing business, because they have chosen to limit the hours they will interact with members. Instead of making sure they meet the members’ needs, they dictate the hours a member must do business with them. And those members will find other sources to meet their financial needs.
Above is a story of customer care gone wrong. Credit unions pride themselves on exemplary member service, but are you guilty of the same thing? Is your credit union turning its back on members that need help? I am sure you let last-minute stragglers pass by the closing doors at 4:59 p.m., but what if that member reaches out at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday or noon on Sunday? Below are three quick stories of credit unions that underestimated the number of members who try to reach them after hours.
1. A Northern California credit union with a worldwide membership expanded its contact center services to accept calls after hours (6PM – 6AM Monday through Friday). During call center testing, the credit union opened the phone lines, but did not advertise the expanded service to members. That month, the credit union received more than 1,500 calls.
2. We worked with a New England community-based credit union ($1.5 billion in assets) to break down the hours members were calling most for service. In one month, 28 percent of member calls came to the credit union outside normal business hours.
3. A small Las Vegas-based credit union realized after expanding its call center to 24/7 that the second highest spike in call volume typically came between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., an hour after the call center closed prior to expansion.
Member service starts with a phone call. Credit unions that do not have 24/7 capabilities are losing business, because they have chosen to limit the hours they will interact with members. Instead of making sure they meet the members’ needs, they dictate the hours a member must do business with them. And those members will find other sources to meet their financial needs.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Moving Members from Satisfied to Loyal
Almost every credit union I work with has a variation of the following in their mission statement:
Make sure every member is satisfied during every interaction with the credit union.
But if a customer is merely satisfied, without loyalty, they are going to leave your credit union and obtain financial services elsewhere. We would like to think that people are rational and make all of their financial decisions on facts, price and benefits. But we know better. As CU Grow so eloquently wrote:
Members are not going to remember a savings or loan rate. They’re going to remember someone at your credit union, who connected with them and went above and beyond the status quo.
This goes for all the touch points a member has with your credit union. It is relatively easy to monitor how well staff is working with members who visit the credit union in person. But how well are calls being handled? What is service like after hours? How easy is it for members to use your Web site and get answers to their questions?
These are questions that can only be answered by listening and being ready to do just a little bit extra. For example, if your member service call center is aware of an issue that will prompt a heavy volume of calls, they can preempt those calls with a proactive e-mail message or SMS text message letting members know important details.
For example, last month, much of the Midwest and East Coast were hit with ice storms and extended power outages. Imagine if your credit union’s call center reached out to your members a day in advance to let them know how to reach the credit union in the case of power outages and provided details on how services such as direct deposit or bill pay would continue to operate in inclement weather. I imagine, you would have gained not just a satisfied member but also a loyal one.
Make sure every member is satisfied during every interaction with the credit union.
But if a customer is merely satisfied, without loyalty, they are going to leave your credit union and obtain financial services elsewhere. We would like to think that people are rational and make all of their financial decisions on facts, price and benefits. But we know better. As CU Grow so eloquently wrote:
Members are not going to remember a savings or loan rate. They’re going to remember someone at your credit union, who connected with them and went above and beyond the status quo.
This goes for all the touch points a member has with your credit union. It is relatively easy to monitor how well staff is working with members who visit the credit union in person. But how well are calls being handled? What is service like after hours? How easy is it for members to use your Web site and get answers to their questions?
These are questions that can only be answered by listening and being ready to do just a little bit extra. For example, if your member service call center is aware of an issue that will prompt a heavy volume of calls, they can preempt those calls with a proactive e-mail message or SMS text message letting members know important details.
For example, last month, much of the Midwest and East Coast were hit with ice storms and extended power outages. Imagine if your credit union’s call center reached out to your members a day in advance to let them know how to reach the credit union in the case of power outages and provided details on how services such as direct deposit or bill pay would continue to operate in inclement weather. I imagine, you would have gained not just a satisfied member but also a loyal one.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Growing Amidst the Turmoil
It’s no secret that the financial services industry and those it serves are facing tough economic times. News of financial institutions closing is becoming more frequent and more borrowers than ever before are facing foreclosure.
Credit unions and their members, however, are weathering the financial storm better than most. I strongly believe it is because of the personalized, around-the-clock member services credit unions offer. When members can turn to a financial institution they can rely on and trust, they make better financial decisions.
As credit unions make a commitment to provide 24/7 total member service, Digital Dialogue is able to tout company growth in 2008. During the third quarter alone, we began supporting nine more credit unions with 24/7 call support for overflow, emergency services and after hour services. We now work with more than 200 credit unions in 42 states and receive more than 200,000 member calls per month.
Our growth also means we’re planning on expanding our team, and that’s great news for the credit unions we serve and for Detroit/Auburn Hills, our hometown. Local station WXYZ covered our growth last week with this report:
http://www.wxyz.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=16483
We’ll be adding up to 150 staff members over the course of 2009 to our more than 260 current employees. We look forward to welcoming friendly team players that are passionate about providing great, personalized member service to credit unions. And that’s what will keep credit unions going during these tough times – a focus on total member service.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hello and welcome
Hello, and welcome to the credit union total member service blog. As primary author, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Peter Schmitt, president of Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Digital Dialogue, a PSCU Financial Services company and nationwide provider of 24/7 call center operations and software solutions to credit unions.
My background includes more than 13 years of credit union industry and call center experience. In addition to leading Digital Dialogue, I currently serve on the Board of Directors for Auburn Hills-based Dialogue Marketing Inc. (a 600 seat contact center) and Credit Union Student Choice, a student lending Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO).
This blog’s goal is to provide a perspective to credit union executives on member services and call center best practices. I will discuss trends that impact the credit union industry in addition to commenting on relevant and timely news stories. My goal is to provide content that demonstrates techniques that improve member service and loyalty in the credit union industry. I will share my experiences while working directly with more than 200 credit unions and offer insight into best practices for delivering 24/7 total member care. From time to time, this blog will feature guest contributors and their thoughts, opinions and experiences.
I would like to invite your feedback as well. If you have any thoughts on my entries or would like to see a certain topic covered, please feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions. I look forward to an interactive dialogue with the readers of this blog.
My background includes more than 13 years of credit union industry and call center experience. In addition to leading Digital Dialogue, I currently serve on the Board of Directors for Auburn Hills-based Dialogue Marketing Inc. (a 600 seat contact center) and Credit Union Student Choice, a student lending Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO).
This blog’s goal is to provide a perspective to credit union executives on member services and call center best practices. I will discuss trends that impact the credit union industry in addition to commenting on relevant and timely news stories. My goal is to provide content that demonstrates techniques that improve member service and loyalty in the credit union industry. I will share my experiences while working directly with more than 200 credit unions and offer insight into best practices for delivering 24/7 total member care. From time to time, this blog will feature guest contributors and their thoughts, opinions and experiences.
I would like to invite your feedback as well. If you have any thoughts on my entries or would like to see a certain topic covered, please feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions. I look forward to an interactive dialogue with the readers of this blog.
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