Affinity Credit Union

Comm100 helps Affinity CU
improve both agent efficiency
and customer experience

Industry
Finance

Headquarters
Saskatchewan, Canada

Website
www.affinitycu.ca

Comm100 Customer
Since 2014

Need
Keep pace with the changing needs of its members for increasingly preferred newer, online channels for communication

Solution
Comm100 Live Chat

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Challenge

Affinity struggled to keep pace with the changing needs of its members. Customers increasingly preferred newer, online channels for communication. Affinity believed that maintaining this communication was the cornerstone of building quality customer relationships, but it lacked an effective way to speak with on-site customers in real time.

Colette from Affinity Credit Union spoke to the need for more diverse communication channels:

We thought we should really have the ability to chat with our customers through our website. Our younger generation - how they communicate is through text - to them that’s talking! This is a way to communicate with our members, and the more ways we give them to communicate with us the better we feel we are at keeping a solid relationship.

Colette Branigan, Affinity Credit Union

Without a convenient way to chat with a customer base that preferred online communication, Affinity’s customer outreach suffered.

Solution

Affinity was quick to select Comm100 as its first and only live chat provider. Deanna, the Development and Operations Manager at Affinity, noted how easy the live chat platform was to use:

Comm100 is the first solution that we’ve used and the program itself is quite user friendly. There are no real challenges with the software itself.

Deanna Hoffman, Development and Operations Manager

The primary features used to improve Affinity’s service include:

Reporting

Comm100’s live chat included extensive reporting to monitor and review service metrics:

The reporting is essential. We can see exactly how often our website is accessed and how many chats we received, through the reporting options.

Deanna Hoffman, Development and Operations Manager

Chat history

Affinity found significant value from the detailed chat logs made available after each customer touchpoint:

The conversation history is so detailed that we can determine what has been said by the member and the staff, if the information is correct, if grammar and punctuation are accurate, how long it took for either party to respond during the chat, which is a great tool for personal development of the staff and knowing that our members are receiving a high standard of service.

Deanna Hoffman, Development and Operations Manager

Proactive chat

Comm100’s live chat gave Affinity new ways to proactively reach out to its members:

We felt we need to become more proactive. Somebody goes to our website, and we proactively ask them if we can help them reaching out to the membership versus waiting for them; being more proactive than reactive and offering to help right when they land on our web page.

Colette Branigan, Affinity Credit Union

Canned messages

Comm100’s chat solution allowed staff to create canned messages that could be customized to streamline and improve service speed. Patti, the Contact Centre Manager at Affinity, described this process:

We adjusted [canned messages] based on the types of questions we were getting or just the idea of the verification process to make it smoother and quicker for the staff to respond.

Patti Lopinski, Contact Centre Manager

Mobile app chat

Affinity’s need for more diverse communication channels was supported by Comm100’s mobile app chat functionality:

[Mobile app chat] really is about convenience to members and having as many touchpoints as possible to communicate.

Deanna Hoffman, Development and Operations Manager

Benefits

Since its implementation in April, 2014, Comm100’s live chat platform enhanced Affinity’s business in two primary ways:

Increased agent efficiency

Affinity’s customer service team was able to more effectively handle customer touchpoints:

If it’s very busy on the phone line, they can still grab that live chat and work with that member as well so they are able to handle a couple of members at a time. [Live chat] gives us the ability to do that.

Colette Branigan, Affinity Credit Union

Improved customer experiences

Comm100’s live chat solution enhanced Affinity’s customer experiences across the board:

The members are using chat in a variety of ways. They are using it for everything as they would if they had called in, reset their online banking, inquire about their account, or find out when their loan payment is due. They are using it just as if they were picking up the phone and dialing to talk to us. It all makes a difference […] they can ask a question and get an answer right away.

Patti,

More broadly, adding a live chat solution to its website helped Affinity redefine its customer service goals. By increasing the number of communication channels available to customers, Affinity had new ways to interact with its members and proactively address their needs. The insights and flexibility provided by Comm100 helped Affinity give its customers more ways to access services, reach out with issues, and have a better service experience overall.

About Affinity Credit Union

Born from a merger of over 20 different credit unions in Saskatchewan, Canada, Affinity Credit union provides financial guidance, investing advice, and banking solutions. Affinity Credit Union is one of the largest in its province, serving over 130,000 members annually. Commensurate with its status as one of Canada’s premier credit unions, Affinity is constantly growing and seeking new ways to improve its customers’ experiences.

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