CUs 'Get the Message' for Loans, Collections & Caller Congestion
Member demand drives SMS and MMS adoption, and customer satisfaction scores for messaging are the highest of all channels.
Text messaging helps credit unions spur member activity and interaction in several ways: loan processing speed, abandonment reduction, expired application rescues as well as collection reminders including repayment and delinquency and contact center enhancement.
Bozeman, Mont.-based Quiq, which provides SaaS-based messaging software solutions, maintained that innovative, market-leading brands are currently evaluating or implementing messaging, creating a domino effect to drive adoption across industries. In many cases consumer demand is driving SMS and MMS adoption and that customer satisfaction scores for messaging are the highest of all channels. The thought process is once customers they interact with a company via messaging, they start to demand and expect the convenience of it from other brands and industries, such as financial services.
Danielle Wanderer, chief marketing officer at Quiq, explained, the messaging company best serves organizations with high numbers of consumer/member interactions, typically found in industries such as financial services (credit unions, retail banking, mortgage, retail/ecommerce, and insurance), travel/hospitality, consumer services, gaming/entertainment, and universities.
“Quiq makes it easy for customers to interact with companies via messaging. Customers can now engage in two-way conversations with companies over SMS/text messaging, rich messaging with Apple Business Chat and Google, Facebook Messenger, web chat, Twitter, and Kik for help with their pre-sales questions and for post-sales support,” Wanderer said.
Quiq found members driving text adoption by either asking for the capability, or in many cases, taking the initiative to text the loan officer’s personal mobile directly. Credit unions perceive leveraging SMS messaging as increasing loan velocity, closure rates, and the speed of processing. Emails and voicemails decelerate the process while text messaging provides higher open and response rates.
The $1.6 billion Jacksonville, Fla.-based Community First Credit Union implemented Quiq in August 2018. “We were using the standard method of calling and emailing to reach our applicants; however, we were successful at making contact only 39% of the time. We knew there had to be a better option,” Susan Grossman, Community First’s digital sales manager, recollected. “We did some research and found Quiq. Texting applicants was an obvious choice, because it’s something we all do on a daily basis. Applicants can easily see who is messaging them and respond when it is convenient for them.”
The texting process produced some tangible results for Community First immediately. Grossman recalled, “For the contact ratio, we saw percentages ranging from 60 all the way into the 80s.”
For more about credit union messaging, read the full article in the April 24 issue of CU Times.