Using AI to Improve Member & Employee Experience
“Things moving to digital, and being more self-service focused, has put a lot of pressure on credit unions to keep up with those very large banks."
The member experience can make or break a credit union. Maybe, just as important is the employee system interaction. But how they are engaged can play the most critical role.
“So many businesses are really struggling with helping to create a great customer experience and also help to make their employees more efficient and effective,” Ryan Lester, senior director of customer engagement technologies at Boston-based LogMeIn, a provider of software as a service and cloud-based remote connectivity services. “When you look at credit unions it’s even more so the case, credit unions historically have really focused on customer experience, on being differentiated, on really knowing their customer base.”
Lester discussed how artificial intelligence tools can help credit unions shape a member experience that exceeds expectations and allows them to remain competitive. LogMeIn offers Bold360, an artificial intelligence-based conversational chatbot and virtual customer assistant solution. Bold360, LogMeIn maintained, allows members to ask questions and manage their accounts with self-service or human agents across digital channels and devices; empowers member service representatives with easy access to reliable information such as member data and company policies; and proactively guides web site visitors through a personalized journey to help them open an account or complete transactions.
“Things moving to digital, and being more self-service focused, has put a lot of pressure on credit unions to keep up with those very large banks,” Lester noted. Consequently, credit unions are trying create great personalized experiences but facing the reality of spending more to get to know their members better and challenge the technology larger banks deliver. “That’s really where we see as an opportunity for credit unions to look at a technology like AI that to help them scale, help them better understand their customer needs and keep them up to pace with those very large banks.”
Lester explained LogMeIn works with a number of credit unions making technology accessible and eliminating friction. “We’re really focused on building business applications. That could be a marketing person at a credit union or it could be in customer service. It is a tool they could utilize that helps them to run their business better.” The company does that in a couple of different ways.
One way is taking something organizations do, such as a customer service page, and putting AI behind it. “In the old world, you had a customer service page and it had a frequently-asked-questions.” Lester pointed out content can become very outdated and not help figure out what information members seek. “Instead of having a static FAQ page, we have an AI powered customer service page. The AI can start to tell us what are the most frequent questions, what are new things people are asking us about.”
The second item LogMeIn works on is using AI to eliminate the mundane work a credit union team manages daily. Such as addressing common queries. “Putting a chatbot on their website, instead of a customer asking an employee about fees, common policy questions, or providing directions to the closest branch removes the burden of having an employee answer them. It also gives [members] a 24-hour response rate,” Lester said. “Beyond AI helping you better understand customer needs, it also can really help to stretch your teams and offer more real time responses at a lower cost.”
Of course, in order to apply AI, the credit union needs to comprehend the issue at hand. Lester pointed out, “What usually works the best is when they really understand their pain point.” Is it for example more about better access to information or about cost management? “If you do not understand the problem, then oftentimes you can spend a lot of money towards the wrong outcome or even no outcome.”
Lester explained they are seeing more interest in this AI-type of functionality lately from credit unions. “We’re definitely starting to see a little bit of a flywheel effect. This is something that’s approachable; something that’s solving a real tangible problem.” The primary use case LogMeIn has seen among credit unions using Bolt360 so far centers on improving the member experience and employee support.