BEAVERTON, Ore. — You can learn some interesting things lookingat the reports from your third-party call center.
Just ask Seth Schaefer, sales director at the $413 millionRivermark Community Credit Union. His 46,000-member CU became aclient earlier this year of Digital Dialogue, using its outboundcalling services for sales and retention work, and knowing they'rethere to make calls about credit card compromises and other alertsif necessary.
“We know through our member contact management software that we'vehad a 20% jump in positive responses from outbound calls to memberswho had declined the exact same offer in the branch,” Schaefersaid.
“That shows you the power of a crafted, branded and benefit-ledstatement,” he said.
Also, noted Digital Dialogue President Peter Schmitt, the memberstend to be in the branch for a reason other than being cross sold.“They want to get in and out,” he said. “On the phone, you can havea more focused conversation and better enunciate the salespitch.”
And while telemarketing is typically not particularly well regardedat the receiving end, Schmitt said that's not necessarily so forcredit union calls.
“Telemarketing works. That's why it's a $600 billion industry. Andcertainly, a segment of the population does not want a phone call,but less than 3% of credit union members feel that way when it'stheir credit union calling,” he said.
“The strong majority are very welcoming and appreciative of beingcalled to find out what their credit union can do to serve thembetter and, more importantly, what their credit union can do tosave them money.”
Or make them more. In one of its first projects with DigitalDialogue, Rivermark offered to increase the interest on existingCDs as much as 100 basis points as a thank you to members thecredit union was particularly interested in retaining.
“That was an interesting campaign because members are not used tobeing called and offered something that benefits them like that. Wegot a lot of calls back from people asking us if we were serious,that it was too good to be true,” Schaefer said.
That was a select group of members with four or more services andover $75,000 in deposits at Rivermark and generated a response rateof about 28%, the Rivermark sales director said.
“Those were people we identified as can't lose members,” Schaefersaid. “Up here in the Pacific Northwest we're dealing considerablywith the Washington Mutual fallout, and there's a lot ofcompetition and a lot of price shopping going on.”
Schmitt added, “It's an extraordinary time for credit unions rightnow. We have the opportunity to get the word out and make consumersaware of the benefits of being a credit union member and we need todo it now.”
Digital Dialogue is part of PSCU Financial Services and based inthe Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. It employs about 1,400 peoplein four locations-two in Michigan, one in Phoenix and the other inSt. Petersburg, Fla. It serves a little more than 200 creditunions, a number that has been rising as credit unions turn tothird parties to handle call center duties, particularly as anoverflow and after hours.
Schaefer said his credit union still has an in-bound call centerand did have an outbound calling program but needed to be able tobetter reach members when they're available, which often isn'tduring the day.
“You've got to reach members when they're most reachable,” hesaid.
That might be especially urgent when the call is about a creditcard breach or some other security issue.
“We're prepared to use it for a credit card compromise, but knockon wood, haven't had to do that,” Schaefer said. “We're alsolooking at using Digital Dialogue's service that makestrigger-based calls based on Equifax reports.”
Schmitt said Digital Dialogue has done a number of alert campaignsinvolving credit card or Social Security number breaches, usuallyabout one every couple months.
“We can lay down an automated voice track or have it done by a liveperson if a live person picks up the phone. We can also dotext-based messaging and tie it in with e-mail,” he said.
“Credit unions also have used us in their disaster recovery processfor their own staff,” Schmitt said. “We can broadcast messages totheir staff, for instance to let them know, the latest status onbranch locations, instead of them trying to coordinate it throughindividual cell phones.”
Schaefer said Rivermark chose Digital Dialogue “because we feltthey had a similar philosophy in contact points with the member.They don't do a hard sell on the phone and we don't do that in thebranch.
“It's always needs-based benefit selling, and using the outboundcalling service provides an additional contact point with themember. We went into this not knowing what the response would be,but generally speaking, our members have responded well.”
Schmitt at Digital Dialogue added, “Members want to know thebenefits their credit unions offer. Statement stuffers are notgetting it done.”
–[email protected]

Just ask Seth Schaefer, sales director at the $413 millionRivermark Community Credit Union. His 46,000-member CU became aclient earlier this year of Digital Dialogue, using its outboundcalling services for sales and retention work, and knowing they'rethere to make calls about credit card compromises and other alertsif necessary.
“We know through our member contact management software that we'vehad a 20% jump in positive responses from outbound calls to memberswho had declined the exact same offer in the branch,” Schaefersaid.
“That shows you the power of a crafted, branded and benefit-ledstatement,” he said.
Also, noted Digital Dialogue President Peter Schmitt, the memberstend to be in the branch for a reason other than being cross sold.“They want to get in and out,” he said. “On the phone, you can havea more focused conversation and better enunciate the salespitch.”
And while telemarketing is typically not particularly well regardedat the receiving end, Schmitt said that's not necessarily so forcredit union calls.
“Telemarketing works. That's why it's a $600 billion industry. Andcertainly, a segment of the population does not want a phone call,but less than 3% of credit union members feel that way when it'stheir credit union calling,” he said.
“The strong majority are very welcoming and appreciative of beingcalled to find out what their credit union can do to serve thembetter and, more importantly, what their credit union can do tosave them money.”
Or make them more. In one of its first projects with DigitalDialogue, Rivermark offered to increase the interest on existingCDs as much as 100 basis points as a thank you to members thecredit union was particularly interested in retaining.
“That was an interesting campaign because members are not used tobeing called and offered something that benefits them like that. Wegot a lot of calls back from people asking us if we were serious,that it was too good to be true,” Schaefer said.
That was a select group of members with four or more services andover $75,000 in deposits at Rivermark and generated a response rateof about 28%, the Rivermark sales director said.
“Those were people we identified as can't lose members,” Schaefersaid. “Up here in the Pacific Northwest we're dealing considerablywith the Washington Mutual fallout, and there's a lot ofcompetition and a lot of price shopping going on.”
Schmitt added, “It's an extraordinary time for credit unions rightnow. We have the opportunity to get the word out and make consumersaware of the benefits of being a credit union member and we need todo it now.”
Digital Dialogue is part of PSCU Financial Services and based inthe Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. It employs about 1,400 peoplein four locations-two in Michigan, one in Phoenix and the other inSt. Petersburg, Fla. It serves a little more than 200 creditunions, a number that has been rising as credit unions turn tothird parties to handle call center duties, particularly as anoverflow and after hours.
Schaefer said his credit union still has an in-bound call centerand did have an outbound calling program but needed to be able tobetter reach members when they're available, which often isn'tduring the day.
“You've got to reach members when they're most reachable,” hesaid.
That might be especially urgent when the call is about a creditcard breach or some other security issue.
“We're prepared to use it for a credit card compromise, but knockon wood, haven't had to do that,” Schaefer said. “We're alsolooking at using Digital Dialogue's service that makestrigger-based calls based on Equifax reports.”
Schmitt said Digital Dialogue has done a number of alert campaignsinvolving credit card or Social Security number breaches, usuallyabout one every couple months.
“We can lay down an automated voice track or have it done by a liveperson if a live person picks up the phone. We can also dotext-based messaging and tie it in with e-mail,” he said.
“Credit unions also have used us in their disaster recovery processfor their own staff,” Schmitt said. “We can broadcast messages totheir staff, for instance to let them know, the latest status onbranch locations, instead of them trying to coordinate it throughindividual cell phones.”
Schaefer said Rivermark chose Digital Dialogue “because we feltthey had a similar philosophy in contact points with the member.They don't do a hard sell on the phone and we don't do that in thebranch.
“It's always needs-based benefit selling, and using the outboundcalling service provides an additional contact point with themember. We went into this not knowing what the response would be,but generally speaking, our members have responded well.”
Schmitt at Digital Dialogue added, “Members want to know thebenefits their credit unions offer. Statement stuffers are notgetting it done.”
–[email protected]