Ask just about any credit union member why they chose their credit union over a larger bank, and they'll likely talk about the personalized service and community-focused experience. The member-first philosophy is what sets credit unions apart from other financial institutions, but it also creates unique pressures for contact center leaders.
The contact center plays a critical role in shaping the overall member experience, often serving as the primary touchpoint when members need help with complex financial decisions or when something goes wrong. Whether members turn to a self-service channel like chat or pick up the phone to speak with an agent, they expect high-quality service and an efficient resolution. A negative interaction can color their overall experience with the credit union, increasing the likelihood they’ll take their business elsewhere. (According to research from The Effortless Experience, 96% of customers or members who have high-effort service experiences report being disloyal, compared to only 9% with low-effort experiences.)
To help you understand how leading credit unions are addressing today's most pressing contact center challenges, we’re sharing highlights from a recent interview with Brian Stanley, Account Director, and Jason White, Director of Partnerships at Creovai. Jason and Brian both have extensive experience working with credit union contact center leaders (and Jason has been a member of a local credit union for over 25 years). They drew on their experience to discuss how credit unions can use conversation intelligence and real-time guidance technology to:
- Deliver seamless omnichannel service experiences
- Support agents in handling complex or emotional interactions
- Stay on top of evolving compliance requirements and fraud attempts
- Reduce time and cost to onboard new agents
- Strategically adopt AI technology while managing risk
How can credit unions deliver seamless omnichannel experiences?
The challenge
Credit unions need to offer different support channels to meet varying member needs and preferences. The goal is for members to resolve their issues in the first channel they choose, but when escalation from self-service to a live agent is necessary, that experience should be as frictionless as possible.
The solution
Conversation intelligence technology can analyze member interactions across all channels—voice, chat, SMS, and even virtual agent conversations—to identify patterns and pain points. “Any time there’s a back-and-forth interaction between a member and an agent, you can analyze that interaction for sentiment, satisfaction, compliance, and quality assurance,” says Jason. This comprehensive view helps contact centers understand:
- Where members are getting frustrated during channel transitions
- Which issues are commonly being escalated from self-service
- What causes members to abandon their digital interactions
With these insights, credit union leaders can make targeted improvements to their self-service options and ensure agents are properly prepared for the complex issues that reach them.
“Credit unions may be seen as a bit slower than some other industries to adopt new technology, but I’ve actually seen that credit unions tend to be faster at adopting conversation analytics, and that comes back to the member experience,” says Brian. “They want to meet their members where they are, and they understand there are a lot of different ways their members want to contact them.”
Conversation intelligence helps credit unions optimize service across channels so their members get a low-effort experience and can be confident in their issue resolution.
How can contact center leaders support their agents in handling complex or emotional member interactions?
The challenge
As self-service channels handle more straightforward inquiries, contact center agents increasingly deal with the most complex or emotionally charged situations. These might include lost or stolen credit cards, suspected fraud, or members facing financial hardship. Without proper support, agents can struggle with these interactions, leading to burnout and negative member experiences.
The solution
Real-time guidance technology acts as an "over the shoulder guide" for agents during complex conversations. This technology can provide:
- Dynamic checklists that adapt to the conversation
- Compliance alerts when regulatory requirements are at risk
- Real-time coaching prompts for difficult situations
- Intent-based suggestions for next best actions
Jason notes, “Real-time guidance increases agent confidence." They’re able to really address the member’s needs throughout the conversation while following best practices.”
Post-call conversation intelligence adds another layer of support by analyzing what agents struggle with most, allowing supervisors to focus coaching sessions on specific improvement areas.
“One really interesting thing that we’re able to track is agent sentiment,” adds Brian. “Over time, if you’re starting to see sentiment trend down for an agent, that could be an indicator for the team leader to pull the agent aside and say, ‘Hey, is everything okay?’” Supervisors can use agent sentiment analysis to detect early signs of burnout, determine what’s causing them, and work with the agent to improve their experience.
How can credit union contact centers manage compliance and fraud risk at scale?
The challenge
Contact center leaders face mounting pressure to maintain compliance with financial services regulations while also preventing increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts. Traditional quality assurance programs that review only a small sample of interactions leave significant blind spots, putting credit unions at risk for fines, reputational damage, and security breaches.
The solution
Conversation intelligence can analyze 100% of interactions to identify compliance violations and potential fraud patterns. This comprehensive coverage enables credit unions to:
- Spot trends in compliance violations across agents and teams
- Detect suspicious language patterns indicative of fraud attempts
- Build alerts into real-time guidance systems for prevention
"You can take all those learnings [from post-call intelligence] and then you can alert agents when they're talking on the phone," says Jason. "Based on what's said in the call, [credit unions] can present actions they want their agents to take."
This might include alerting agents when someone calls claiming to be hacked, or when keyword patterns suggest an impersonation attempt. The system can prompt agents to ask specific verification questions or take other protective measures in real-time, preventing fraud before it occurs rather than discovering it after the fact.
“We’re able to take insights from post-call analysis and apply it in a way that’s going to be helpful to the agent throughout the conversation,” adds Brian. “It helps them improve performance and call outcomes while also staying in compliance.”
How can credit unions reduce the time and cost to onboard new contact center agents?
The challenge
Training new contact center agents has always been time-consuming and expensive, particularly for credit unions that often ramp up hiring to meet seasonal demand. The complexity of financial services regulations and products makes the learning curve steep, while the high-stakes nature of member interactions leaves little room for error.
Traditional onboarding programs at credit unions often take six to eight months, during which new agents aren't fully productive and require extensive supervisor time for training and monitoring.
The solution
Real-time guidance technology can dramatically reduce onboarding time by providing new agents with contextual support during live interactions. Brian shares that many of Creovai’s credit union customers "have reported cutting their onboarding time in half (going from six or eight months to three or four months)."
The technology helps new agents by:
- Providing step-by-step guidance for complex processes
- Suggesting appropriate responses for difficult situations
- Building confidence through consistent support
"When [newer agents] get on the phone, if they just had prompts to guide them, they would just feel so much more confident on that first week of calls," Jason says. “And that in turn provides a great member experience.”
The impact extends beyond faster ramp-up times and increased member satisfaction. Brian notes that many of his credit union customers also report "their agent retention is a lot higher" since implementing real-time guidance, meaning credit unions need to onboard fewer replacement agents overall.
Jason emphasizes the financial impact: "Not only are training sessions taking up that the agent's time, they're also taking the manager’s time." When contact centers reduce their onboarding time by 50%, they get new agents on the phone faster and free up their managers to focus on other high-impact activities, leading to a significant return on investment.
How can credit union contact centers strategically adopt AI while managing risk?
The challenge
Credit unions want to leverage AI technology to improve operations and member experience, but they must balance innovation with security, regulatory concerns, and cost. The rise of generative AI has brought both opportunities and additional scrutiny to AI adoption in financial services.
The solution
Rather than rushing into AI adoption or avoiding it entirely, leading credit unions are taking a measured approach that combines different AI technologies strategically. Brian predicts that "more credit unions will begin embracing a hybrid approach of GenAI and machine learning."
This hybrid approach recognizes that different AI technologies excel at different tasks:
- Machine learning excels at structured tasks like identifying compliance violations, detecting fraud patterns, and automating objective quality assurance scoring.
- Generative AI is better suited for contextual discovery, such as understanding why members are calling and uncovering edge cases.
A strategic hybrid approach reduces overall processing costs while giving contact centers the best of both worlds: accurate and consistent insight recognition and pattern detection with machine learning, and contextual analysis and summarization with generative AI.
Brian notes that in the past year, he’s started seeing more credit unions establishing clear governance frameworks for AI adoption, ensuring that new technologies meet their security standards while delivering measurable improvements to operations and the member experience.
Combining intelligence and guidance for continuous improvement
The biggest theme that emerged in Brian and Jason’s conversation was that leading credit unions are finding success by strategically combining conversation intelligence and real-time agent guidance technologies rather than treating them as separate solutions. This integrated approach creates a continuous improvement loop:
- Conversation intelligence analyzes all interactions to identify patterns, problems, and opportunities.
- Real-time guidance operationalizes those insights by providing agents with contextual support during live interactions.
- Performance data from guided interactions feeds back into the intelligence system, refining insights and improving guidance over time.
By combining conversation intelligence and real-time guidance thoughtfully, credit union contact center leaders can overcome operational challenges while maintaining the human touch that sets them apart from other financial institutions.
The credit unions that master this balance will be best positioned to serve their communities effectively while building sustainable, efficient contact centers that support long-term success.
