How a Credit Union Reduced Abandon Rates and Improved the Member Experience

Over 40% Reduction

in Abandonment Rate

Improved

Customer Experience

Lowered

Average Handle Time

The Company

Industry

Finance (Credit Union)

No. Of Employees

201-500

Location

Denver, CO

Credit Union of Colorado (CUofCO) is a $1.6 billion financial institution with more than 130,000 members. With 15 branches, 250 employees, 35 call center agents, and more than 80 years of experience, the company has helped people from all walks of life access credit at fair rates.

With satellite locations across the state of Colorado, the credit union emphasizes the importance of delivering superior member service, proud of its history and achievements as a member-focused, customer-first financial institution.

The Challenge: Cisco Crashes During Call Spikes

Credit Union of Colorado first implemented Fonolo’s call-back solution in 2015, reducing abandonment rates in its call center by more than 40%. Despite this success, a business partner told them that their existing system, Cisco Finesse, could provide a similar call-back solution at no additional cost, so they switched.

In 2019, Credit Union of Colorado began experiencing dramatic call spikes due to its conversion to a digital banking platform. Cisco’s system couldn’t handle the increased capacity. Members’ call-back requests were ignored and the system stopped reliably performing them at all.

CUofCO’s team also couldn’t access any real-time data from the system, so they were unable to see that something went wrong. Their members were getting frustrated, their agents were getting stressed, and Cisco was having difficulty assisting with their concerns.

The seriousness of an unreliable call-back platform was enough for CUofCO to immediately return to Fonolo.

The Solution: Returning to Fonolo

Fonolo’s Voice Call-Backs, which gives callers the option of receiving a call-back when hold times are too long, was the solution of choice. Because of previous success, CUofCO regained the confidence and trust in a reliable call-back platform.

Fonolo’s cloud-based approach means that it can seamlessly interact with the credit unions phone system via SIP, performing the call-back function without interfering with their existing Cisco contact center software. To agents, a Fonolo call appears to be just another inbound call, so minimal training is required.

The ease of deployment and Fonolo’s conscientiousness are among the many reasons CUofCO was happy to return to Fonolo.

The Results: Time, Money, and Members Saved

When Fonolo initially deployed its call-back solution in 2015,Credit Union of Colorado almost instantly decreased its abandonment rate by an average of 40%.

This time, their Cisco system was failing to make the call-backs that were being requested. Added to that, the lack of real-time data about their hold queues meant that they didn’t have the ability to do much about it.

The second iteration of Fonolo’s solution has resulted in significantly reduced average handle times, a greatly improved members service experience, and much happier managers and employees.

To download a copy of this success story, click here.

The people at Fonolo and their level of commitment gave me confidence in reaching out to them in our time of need.

Laura Reinhold
MSCC Manager