PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Whether they are coming in via e-mail or telephone, members have lots of questions. Providing fast and accurate answers is critical for member satisfaction, but finding the time and the staff to do that can be a challenge.
One solution is to try and reduce the volume of questions that require staff assistance. Some credit unions have turned to technology for help and are offering searchable knowledge systems on their Web sites for members to find answers on their own.
Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union in Merritt Island, Fla. first instituted its knowledge base nearly two years ago when it was setting up its bill pay process. It found that a lot of members weren't familiar with bill pay and set up a knowledge base to address those questions. The FCU is using a system from SilverCloud Software based in New Hampshire.
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In the first year with the new system, KSCFCU recorded close to 30,000 inquiries. Following a recent analysis by Donna Sands, interim staff member in the marketing department who oversees the FCU's Web site, the number has dropped to just 8,000 as of Aug. 31. "The way it works is that a member goes into the knowledge base and asks a question," Sands explained. "If they're not satisfied with the answer that they get, they have an option to send an e-mail and someone in our call center will send an e-mail response back to them. Those call center inquiries have dropped around 100 e-mails per month." Sands tracks what questions are e-mailed to the organization and adds content to the knowledge base to answer those questions so that it will continue to minimize the number of inquiries received. "There's no doubt it minimizes the phone calls and number of staff that we need to maintain in the call centers to answer general questions," she added. By instituting a knowledge system credit unions can save money and time, said Scott Cornell, director of marketing at SilverCloud. The firm directly answers an average of 95% of all member questions at its credit unions using these systems, Cornell added, saying that CUs average $104,000 in savings in calls and e-mails. That figure comes from taking the time saved from researching the answer and responding to the question and multiplying it by the salary of the staff member that would normally handle the response. "You have to remember that when a member asks an employee a question there's a certain cost to that," Cornell said. "But when an employee asks another employee a question there's double the cost since it's taking the time and effort of two people on your end."
To eliminate that type of double cost, Service Credit Union in Portsmouth, N.H. set up a two-pronged knowledge system. It is used internally to help direct employees on operations questions much like a training tool, explained Ray Springsteen, vice president of marketing and member service at the CU. A separate database has been set up to answer external questions from its members. "We might not have thought about the answers to every question but we've seen a reduction in the number of member questions to 6,500 to 7,000 a month and those questions give us an idea of what information we need to add," Springsteen said of the system, which has been in place for three years. Springsteen did not project how much the CU has saved, but said, "It's been a great way for us to get members answers to questions quicker than we may have previously. It's been simple to put in place and simple to manage and we've been happy with it."
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