4 Reasons Why Credit Unions Need to Offer Live Chat in 2022

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 13th, 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Today’s credit unions have to contend with an incredibly difficult challenge – finding the balance between online access and human interaction. They need to offer the convenience of self-serve solutions, while providing personalized support and human experiences. In our digital-first world, live chat serves as the perfect solution to achieve this.

In this blog, we’ll look at the four top reasons why credit unions need to offer live chat services in 2022, from improving member experience to gaining member insights. We will then list some of the best live chat software for credit unions so you can figure out which solution best fits your needs.

1. Live chat improves member experience

As members migrated toward digital channels out of necessity throughout 2020 and 2021, new habits formed, and the convenience of digital services became even more apparent. A 2021 survey by Deloitte found that one third of consumers are using digital banking channels much more than they were pre-pandemic.  In CFI Group’s Credit Union Satisfaction Index (CUSI) survey, 90% of credit union members now check their balance online or via their mobile app at least once a month.

However, while people value the speed and convenience provided by digital channels, they still seek human interaction in a variety of services. Due to the often-sensitive nature of transactions with financial institutions, these individuals look for empathy in their service that pure automation and technology cannot provide.

For credit unions, this is where live chat with human agents excels. While members can on the one hand receive the immediate and convenient support that they now expect, they too can experience a real, human connection with the agent. For an example of the positive experiences provided by live chat for credit union members, we can look to Cabrillo Credit Union’s implementation of Comm100 Live Chat.

Cabrillo Credit Union introduced credit union live chat software to ensure that they were offering their members the digital support that they increasingly demand, rather than relying on phone. Since its introduction, the average wait time of live chat stands at only 15 seconds compared to 45-50 seconds for phone. Moreover, it’s allowing them to offer the perfect balance of digital speed and human connection. As Kelli Davis, Assistant VP of Member Support at Cabrillo explained:

“Live chat can be very personal. Often people think you can’t engage the same way you can on the phone, but you can. It’s fun, members like it, and you just have to not be afraid to engage and put a little humor or happiness into someone’s day through the written word.”

2. Live chat increases member engagement

Understanding that live chat provides members with a better experience leads us into the next reason why credit unions need to adopt live chat – member engagement.

In PwC’s 2021 Digital Banking Consumer Survey, they explain the changing relationship between banking customers and financial service providers. They highlight the fact that many consumers are moving away from the traditional physical branch locations and towards digital services. PwC labels these consumers as ‘phygital’ – “active users of both digital and branches”.

To engage with these members, credit unions therefore need to adopt digital channels like live chat so they can support their members where, when and how they want to connect.

To learn more about credit union member engagement, read this guide:

How to Improve Credit Union Member Engagement

Find out how credit unions can adopt digital support channels to deliver the member engagement that their current and future members expect.

Read the guide

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3. Live chat provides data insights into member preferences

Live chat doesn’t just improve member experience and help to increase member engagement. It’s also invaluable for the insights that it can provide. With live chat in place, credit unions can learn more about how and why members are reaching out and adjust services accordingly to be more responsive to changing needs.

In their 2021 article, Prediction: The future of CX, McKinsey & Company highlights the opportunities available for organizations to learn from customers through digital channels:

“Those with an eye toward the future are boosting their data and analytics capabilities and harnessing predictive insights to connect more closely with their customers, anticipate behaviors, and identify CX issues and opportunities in real time.”

With the opportunity to improve member services through live chat insights, we can look at the example of Lake Michigan Credit Union’s implementation of Comm100 Live Chat. With half a million members across the United States, Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) is one of the largest credit unions in the country. They are utilizing live chat reports to monitor chat quality, agent performance, and visitor satisfaction. By reviewing these data reports, management can compare performance over different periods of time, and identify key visitor pain points.

They also take advantage of real-time reporting to see information such as how long visitors were waiting in the queue and how many chats were currently in the queue. They are then able to allocate team members and increase staff where and when necessary, helping them to decrease wait times and abandoned chats. All of this adds up to an improved member experience that is continually fine-tuned as members preferences change and expectations rise.

4. Live chat improves agent experience

We’ve looked at how live chat is good for member experience and for credit union member insights, but live chat also improves the agent experience. By reducing reliance on less efficient support channels, and with features available that are unmatched in traditional phone support, live chat offers support agents a better experience. As anyone who’s worked in customer service knows, happy support agents mean happy members for credit unions.

Credit unions introducing Comm100 Live Chat have raved about its ease of use and features for agents:

“Comm100 is easy to use, reporting is quick, the UI is sleek and modern, the upgrades are always changing for the better. We loved the canned messages responses and how easy the system is to use and upgrade.”

Veridian Credit Union

“We find it very user-friendly – all of my staff does. We’ve also done training for other departments for them to start using chat for certain things, and they’ve expressed that it’s very user-friendly. Some of the things that we really enjoy are canned responses – that’s something that we use probably most often in chat. The team also enjoys having private canned responses as well as group canned responses.”

Jasmina Duric, Lake Michigan Credit Union

The canned messages feature favored by Veridian and LMCU allows teams and agents to set pre-defined responses for greetings, frequently asked questions, and other common communications. Agents benefit from reduced typing and improved speed, and members benefit with quick, professional responses that are personable and friendly.

 Best Live Chat Software for Credit Unions

• Comm100 – ‘Engage with more members, more efficiently and more personally’
• LiveChat – ‘Communication that pays off’
• Unblu – ‘A complete digital member experience’
• Zendesk – ‘Invest in client relationships’
• Zoho – ‘Help customers choose better products and offer real-time assistance to increase application completion rates’

Wrap Up

To see how your credit union can improve member engagement, book a demo to find out more about Comm100 Live Chat. Our software is built for credit unions – that’s why so many of our customers are credit unions, including Affinity, Veridian, Lake Michigan, Cabrillo, and so many more. Find out why Comm100 is the best live chat software for credit unions today!

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