Covid19 or the Next Crisis- Is Your Call Center Prepared?

How to Support Members and Call Center Staff Simultaneously

“The contact center is critical now because of the high emotional state people are in. It’s such a high stress time. People’s health and wealth are at risk.” Ian Jacobs, Forrester Research

The COVID-19 crisis has pushed a tremendous amount of change on everyone. There have been procedural shifts as society grapples with how to respond – everything from working from home, to teaching our children, to getting groceries. In such a tumultuous time, the last thing people need to worry about is how to do their banking. But as social distancing becomes the new norm, credit unions are instituting drive-thru only policies and are limiting in-branch services or closing branches altogether. These changes are creating a large influx of members using digital channels, and this sudden migration has left somecredit unions scrambling to support both members and contact center staff.

Members Must Have Support

Members who have never used their credit union’s digital channels want to speak to actual humans — people who can help them navigate and understand their credit union’s technologies. Digital onboarding is tough to do well at the best of times, but it has now become crucial.

Credit unions cannot afford to add to their members’ stress by offering frustrating or confusing experiences. The best contact centers are reducingmember stress by providing efficient, knowledgeable support that eases anxiety.  Credit unions that offer compassionate, hassle-free onboarding can forge deep, long-lasting member relationships. Those that fail risk alienating members. The stakes are high, and the pressure is mountingon contact center reps.

Call Centers Are Facing Adversity

This is a difficult time for contact center staff with higher volumes of support requests from anxious members. However, it is not just the increased volume that is putting a strain on them, changing work conditions exacerbate the problem.

Some call center reps are still coming into the office —others are working from home. For those at home, their health risks are minimized, but they are losing their typical workresourcesmaking their jobs more challenging. Many are also dealing with increased distractions like barking dogsor children needing attention.

If all that were not enough, these reps are also experiencing more members who specifically need help understanding how to use the credit union’s digital channels. Moreover, increased volumes mean they need to keep handling times as short as possible. Nevertheless, they still need to deliver an exceptional experience to the anxious member.

In their struggle to provideexcellentmemberservice, credit unions must remember that their members aren’t the only ones adapting to this ever-changing situation. Their call center staff is under extreme pressurewith increased workloadsandbeing pushed outside their comfort zone. credit unions need to be empathetic to them as well.

To ease the pressure of their call center staff and improve member service,credit unions can:

• Offer better support tools to make it easierto onboard members to their digital channels;
• Increase call center staff to reduce workload and stress; and
• Provide specific training on digital offerings sorepscan betterexplain them to members.

Increased Staff Can Help

Many credit unions are adding more contact center reps to onboard members and help them migrate to digital. While increasing staff will certainly reduce the average number of daily support requests per rep, credit unions must not forget the member experience. New staffneed to be quickly trained but under these conditions, training has become more difficult. When working from home, many of the training tools and tactics to which they are accustomed are no longer available.

• How do you shadow an employee who is working from home?
• How can you ask your office mate a quick question?
• How do you train large groups of people when social distancing prevents you from hosting instructor-led training?

The answer, for many, will be to use their learning management system (LMS) to deliver distance training. Unfortunately, most credit unions have antiquated LMSs that deliver poor learning experiences. Traditional LMSs lack the tools required to quickly author effective technology training, and their tracking tools don’t show how ready your reps are to field member requests. To overcome this,credit unions need to identify modern learning experience platforms that can develop effective online training as quickly as possible. Without effective training, new reps may cause more problems than they solve.

Technology Walkthroughs to Teach Reps and Members

There are two types of members who are switching to digital banking in light of COVID-19: “fence-sitters” (members who use some technology but are set in their ways), and older folks who are nervous about using new technology. These people are reluctant to try online or mobile banking ingeneral. Now, they realize they need help making the switch to digital.

To ease memberanxietywhenmigrating to digital banking, credit unions need to ensure their contact center staff is knowledgeableabout their digital products. In many cases, the staff does not bank with his or her employer, so they aren’t familiar with their credit unions’ technology. As credit unions increase call center staff to handle increased volumes, their need for technology training and support tools becomes more urgent.

Right now, the best tool they can offer is walkthroughs of their fintech that both call center staff and members can access. Giving members an environment to try the new tech without worrying about making a mistake or the fear of the unknown would reducemember stress.

For call center reps, technology walkthroughs would be an invaluable tool for onboarding members to digital channels and could reduce stress for both the member and the rep.Being able to share a link to a relevant walkthrough can ensure everyone is on the same page.

Technology walkthroughs are essential for new reps who have no experience with their credit union’s tech yet are expected to step in and handle high volumes of members who are switching to digital. The challenge for credit unions then becomes, how do they get technology walkthroughs built and deployed quickly?There are three options:

Build Them In House – Building technology walkthroughs in-house is a challenge for credit unions at any time. In house development teams are notoriously busy, so rolling anything out in this crisis isn’t likely to happen quickly. Contact center reps need support today, not next week.

Hire a Development Shop – Cancelled projects have left many development shops with extra bandwidth to handle custom jobs; however, going this route will not produce walkthroughs quickly enough. Reps need support right now.

Find a Tool – A walkthrough creation tool is the fastest way to build the needed technology. The right one will need an online portal to house the walkthroughs. And, it needs to be accessible to contact center reps and members. Having a public-facing hub for your technology walkthroughs will reduce volumes by giving members a tool to self-help. This will shorten call handling times by providing a reference tool for reps and members. Now is a time of great turmoil. People are worried about their health, families and finances. As social distancing is going to be required for the next few months, people are being forced to start using their credit union’s digital channels. Let’s be honest here, most credit unions have been looking for ways to drive digital adoption for a few years. While this crisis is scary and awful, it does present an opportunity for credit unions to help their members transition to digital banking. Credit unions that can react quickly to help their members and their contact center reps adjust to this crisis will build loyalty and deepen relationships with their members and staff. It is time for us all to step up.