Service CU Building Connections-Virtually

The credit union selected Genesys Meeting Center, an integrated Web and voice conferencing service designed to bring some 100 people together in a fully interactive environment. “With a membership that is spread across 10 countries and throughout the United States, we were looking for a better and cost effective way to connect with our members,” said Service CU Vice President of Marketing Ray Springsteen. “At the time we were also upgrading and revamping our Website through partnerships with Remax and H&R Block so this solution just worked best for us.” Here is how it works. Simple point-and-click commands allow moderators to manage conference calls online, download and deliver high-impact PowerPoint presentations, virtually share documents or applications in real time and manage question-and-answer sessions using an integrated chat function. Sessions can also be archived for later access. The meeting room is available 24hours a day, 7 days a week and Webinars and meetings can be scheduled online through the credit union’s Microsoft Outlook interface. Participants can then log-in to the meeting at www.genesys.com or through a direct link sent via e-mail. Those without Internet access can still access or follow the audio via telephone. For now the $823 million credit union uses the technology to offer a regular series of online member educational Webinars on topics ranging from Internet banking and tax strategies to investing for retirement. The Service CU marketing department also hosts regular online meetings to help employees keep up-to-date on the latest marketing programs and promotions. “These seminars are incredibly educational for us as well as our members – while we are teaching members about new offerings, we can solicit feedback from our members and encourage them to ask questions. It’s almost like having a mini-focus group,” said Springsteen. “The on-line seminars let us hear from members we would never hear from otherwise and maintain contact with members we don’t encounter in our branches because they are serving in remote locations abroad.” “We’re also able to have more control over what the members are seeing online,” Service CU Website Marketing Coordinator Angela Williams adds. “It is just a much better system for us. For example, our Internet banking seminar attendance has shot up from just 25-30 people to over 100.We also keep an archive of the education seminars on our Website for members.” Genesys has some 24 credit union clients and offers two hour-long online training sessions -Getting started and Advanced-for clients every weekday. “It has really improved productivity and communication among all employees,” said Springsteen. “One of the best values from this is that we hold our marketing meetings more often from semiannual to quarterly and reach a greater group of people, which has resulted in quicker adoption of marketing programs and promotions.” [email protected]