Your credit union knows exactly how to take care of members when they walk into your branch. But credit union virtual assistance is an entirely different challenge—especially as member expectations change during our always-online era.
Serving members remotely is even harder when you offer multiple channels, like phone and chat. Can the same reps assist members on the phone and over chat? What do you do if a member needs to transfer from the phone to the computer, or vice versa? What happens when members need support after hours, or in a language other than English?
If you’ve ever asked these questions, you’re not alone. In fact, we’ve recently published three case studies dealing with these exact challenges.
Read on to find out how Azura Credit Union, Unitus Community Credit Union, and Illinois Community Credit Union are partnering with Glia to give members the support they need from chat to phone.
Azura Credit Union: More Channels, Faster Support
Azura Credit Union has provided “Above and Beyond Banking” to Kansans since 1939. But rising digital traffic was leaving reps underwater while driving up wait times—and frustration—for members.
Part of the problem: Azura’s chat functionality was hidden in its mobile app, forcing members to pick up the phone every time they had a question—even simple ones, like checking account balances or requesting pin numbers.
“We were pushing folks into certain channels simply because we couldn’t offer alternatives,” explains Brooke Hamilton, VP of Digital Member Experience.
That’s when Azura decided to unify its channel approach with Glia. Rolling out Glia Call Center (GCC) and Digital Customer Service (DCS) gave Azura reps one platform to assist members through chat or over the phone—sometimes even simultaneously, considering Azura reps use Glia’s Multi-Engage tool in 38% of interactions. Azura’s results speak for themselves:
- 54% increase in digital interactions
- 50% reduction in average phone wait times
- 40% decrease in in-branch wait times
Find out how Azura achieved credit union virtual assistance perfection by reading our Legacy to Leading-Edge case study.
Unitus: Offering A Bilingual Credit Union Virtual Assistant
With nearly 90 years of experience, the Oregon-based Unitus Community Credit Union knows a thing or two about serving local communities. But as Unitus kept up with changing member needs, it realized it needed to step up communication with one growing community: its Spanish-speaking members.
Unitus has dedicated Spanish-speaking reps to assist members when they need it, but it lacked a language-specific chat service. Unitus needed a virtual assistant that could not only communicate in Spanish, but would maintain the credit union’s personal approach.
“There’s really something special about human connection,” said Char Sears, VP of Member Experience and Product Management. “Because of Glia, we don’t have to lose that.”
To maintain that human connection while offering language-specific support, Unitus branded Glia’s Spanish-speaking virtual assistant as “Tely”—a smiling chatbot that simplifies complex financial concepts. Tely has helped Unitus achieve a:
- 428% increase in Spanish-language chats
- 87% containment rate for Spanish-language interactions
- 8.75% decrease in overall abandonment rate
Tely also helped Unitus earn a beloved nickname from Spanish-speaking members—”el banco amarillo” (the yellow bank). Learn how it all happened by reading our Reaching a New Community case study.
ICCU: AVA Answers, a Credit Union Virtual Assistant for Financial Literacy
Unitus isn’t the only credit union that recognizes the importance of maintaining human touch while offering virtual assistance. Illinois Community Credit Union (ICCU) needed a way to offer personalized assistance while keeping up with rising digital demand—especially as approximately half of its members don’t ever visit a physical branch.
But ICCU was also focused on furthering its mission of spreading financial literacy to its members. Could a virtual assistant deliver on this goal?
ICCU tasked Glia with helping it to find out—and soon found its answer.
ICCU launched a branded credit union virtual assistant named Ava Answers, a cartoon character that resonates with the demographic that the credit union is looking to help educate. Like Tely, Ava Answers embodies the ICCU brand to offer a unique chat experience for members. And like Tely, ICCU also eventually rolled out a Spanish-language version of Ava Answers to serve its growing Latino population.
Thanks to the success of Ava Answers, ICCU’s VP of Operations, Adam Ferguson, had this to say about the future of AI-powered virtual assistants in the financial industry:
“All you have to do is look around you in a competitive landscape and if you don’t have this technology, you’re going to be left behind. AI is not going to get rid of people. What’s going to happen is that institutions that don’t use AI will be replaced by institutions that do use AI.”
Discover why Ferguson is so excited about the future of AI in the financial industry by reading our Member Growth & Community Education case study.
What else can financial institutions do with Glia?
Want to find out how your credit union can partner with Glia to unify voice and digital member support? See our platform yourself—request a demo today.
