By Ray Birch
CARMEL, Ind.—The pandemic is leading more credit unions to employ AI-driven call centers, which is saving cooperatives time, money and boosting service ratings, according to one company
Behind the growing shift, not surprisingly, is the growing demand on call centers as more members stay home and instead of visiting a branch pick up the phone, said Charlie Peterson, SVP of strategic initiatives at Allied Solutions.
According to Peterson, AI-backed call centers can be implemented in less than a week given existing APIs and within 90 days can be handling 60% of the financial institution’s call volume.
AI call centers are cloud-based systems supported by computers and artificial intelligence that can mimic human intelligence. Whether the contact is voice, chat, text or other online methods, AI call centers make decisions, recognize speech, adapt to circumstances and solve problems. The AI-driven systems learn from data and make decisions with minimal human intervention.
“Eighty percent of calls have a successful call to action,” Peterson told CUToday.info, referring to credit unions that have used Allied Solutions’ digital call center solution during the pandemic. “These centers show a 500% improvement in loan application conversion—that’s a big number.”
Peterson contended the digital centers also deepen relationships and make members more profitable, an issue he noted credit unions have been facing for more than 10 years. As CUToday.info recently reported, member profitability continues to slide at many credit unions.
“The CUs using AI-supported call centers are increasing the average revenue per consumer by 30%,” Peterson said, again citing Allied Solutions data.
Cutting Abandonment Rates
Call center abandonment rates have been cut to close to 0%, and there is no wait time, Peterson added.
“The credit union can say, too, it is saving members so many hours of wait time on the phone each month,” Peterson said. “These systems can handle 1,500 conversations at the same time, and that's scalable.”
Comparing the costs for digital call centers to those populated by actual people, and Peterson said the savings are significant.
“A person is going to run about a dollar and a half per minute, so the average call might cost $10,” Peterson explained, noting again the digital systems can handle thousands of conversations at the same time, whether they be via voice, chat, text or another means. Peterson said costs for the digital call centers are based on a startup charge and then a monthly fee based on a usage.
The health crisis just continues to test the limits of employee-supported call centers, asserted Peterson.
Ending Long Waits
Charlie Peterson
“We work with one credit union that before adding our AI-technology had members waiting over 50 minutes to reach a person,” said Peterson, adding that credit unions haven’t been alone in watching hold times extend longer and longer
Meanwhile, there can also be issues with wrong information handed out by a live call center agent, said Peterson, who pointed to a recent Forrester study that revealed just how much misinformation has been provided by call centers during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Frustration builds when someone either does not have an answer or does not have the right answer to someone’s questions,” said Peterson. “Forrester just released a report that revealed 36% of people reaching a call center in the past year are not getting correct information. Artificial intelligence has shown to be 90% accurate.”
Debt Collection
Peterson said AI for outbound call centers has been effective for debt collections, as well.
“We have seen a 200% increase in debt collection efficiency with AI,” Peterson said. “You no longer have borrowers feeling the embarrassment of speaking with a person about their debt problem. Research has shown that 83% of all consumers would rather talk to a chatbot than a human when it comes to debt collection.”
The AI call centers are not replacing people, Peterson said, and instead are providing live call center staff with additional time to do their jobs better and to be used for other needs.
“The credit unions using the AI centers don't see it as a replacement for people at all,” he explained. “They see it as supplemental. Whether the contact comes through phone lines or the Internet, the digital call center can sense whether the call is urgent, and if it cannot meet the person’s needs it transfers the call immediately to a staff member. It’s a warm handoff, with AI providing the employee with the reason for the call and the person’s basic account information.”
Raising Service Levels
Peterson again stressed the COVID-19 health crisis is ramping up the need for credit unions to add digital capabilities to their call centers to not only increase efficiency, but raise their level of service, Peterson said. As CUToday.info has extensively reported, credit unions for the second year in a row have fallen behind banks when it comes to consumer satisfaction, in large part to being rated at a “historic low” in one respected national survey.