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Options for staffing this hybrid communication channel
This is bonus coverage from “Web Chat” in the February 2014 issue of Credit Union Management magazine.
On many websites, including the sites of online chat providers, chat windows pop up proactively and follow users doggedly as they scroll and click. That kind of interface is available for credit unions, but Luis Bedevia says few take advantage of it. Instead, CUs gravitate toward highly visible boxes—say, in the sidebar or at the top of the page—that offer real-time help if the member has a question.
“It tends to be member-initiated,” says Bedevia, call center manager at Xtend, Inc., a credit union service organization in Grand Rapids, Mich., that offers call center and other back-office services for member credit unions. “[Active solicitation of chat] is not a credit union mentality, right? It's just not … we're not pushy as a general rule.”
On the other hand, credit unions are very keen to be available when their members need them. That means it’s important to have somebody available to answer chats as often as possible.
VA Desert Pacific Federal Credit Union—which offers Web chat through AliveChat (a software-as-a-service chat interface offered by Houston-based WebsiteAlive)—has three staffers on chat duty. During business hours, when the three staffers are available, the chat windows on the site say “Online.” When the $55 million CU is closed, they say “Offline—please leave a message.”
Because Xtend uses its call center personnel to answer chats for its CU-owners’ members, the service is available whenever Xtend’s call center is open: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, plus 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. That’s longer than most credit unions are open, so it cuts down significantly on the hours when client chat windows are offline.
Perhaps the most complete solution to the availability problem is to have a 24-hour call center available to answer chat. WebsiteAlive offers a service called AliveConcierge that does exactly that. If a prospective member, surfing the Web at 11 p.m., types in a question about membership eligibility, a representative will take a message and deliver it to the credit union via e-mail, SMS or instant phone transfer. The member service rep can then respond the next day. The service is priced on a per-lead basis.
WebsiteAlive CEO Adam Stass says the concierge service is aimed mostly at smaller organizations that don’t have a call center. He suggests it may also be useful during business hours for small CUs whose employees are stretched thin and are not always at their desks.
“The barrier is labor,” he says. “Even though they have people at the credit union to answer the chats, they may be on the phone and not be able to chat, so that member gets left out.”
A good goal for credit unions is to meet members where they are, and offering Web chat may help with this.
Jamie Swedberg is a freelance writer based in Georgia.
