Adds self-service and flexible payment options
Background
Greater Nevada Credit Union (GNCU) was established in 1949 and is headquartered in Carson City, NV. They serve more than 80,000 consumers and small businesses and carry more than $1.6 billion in assets. Their subsidiaries include Greater Nevada Mortgage, Greater Nevada Insurance, and Greater Commercial Lending.
Greater Nevada Credit Union received feedback from several surveys that their members really wanted to be able to pay their loans from a financial institution outside of GNCU. Unfortunately, this service was only available by phone, so, to meet member expectations, they started researching new, more modern payment experiences for their members.
One of the biggest challenges GNCU faced due to not having a modern payments platform was call center volume for payments. They averaged between 700-900 calls a month to make loan payments. Members had to wait on hold to make a payment vs. having a self-service channel that would allow them to easily make a payment. “Not only did it put a burden on our staff, but it also made a less than desirable experience for those members seeking a self-service loan payment experience — whether it’s setting a recurring payment or a one-time payment. We needed to make a change,” said Rick Hassman, VP of Digital Solutions, GNCU.
Comparing
Solutions Before deciding to go with Alacriti’s Orbipay EBPP solution, GNCU considered other options. “I would say the reasons why we went with Alacriti were we really liked the staff, and it felt like a partnership from the beginning. Everyone was really knowledgeable. I could tell that Alacriti was innovative and really passionate about helping us improve our members’ experience. And there was existing integration with our core banking system. Overall, we felt that Alacriti was a lot more innovative and cutting edge and willing to take some chances,” shared Veronica Gomez, Digital Experience Manager, GNCU.
Results
After implementing Orbipay EBPP, GNCU saw fantastic results with their call center. They went from 700-900 calls a month to ~170 calls. The call center was really appreciative of the decrease in call volume because they were able to get to members with more pressing or complex issues quickly, such as experiencing fraud or account issues.
Members had been asking for self-service loan pay options for a while and appreciated the new capabilities. GNCU is now able to offer three different selfservice options. They offer Guest Web, Enrolled Web, and Text to Pay. The ability for members to use another financial institution’s account or debit card to make a payment gives them the flexibility they’re looking for to make loan payments. GNCU’s member engagement on digital channels moved from ~40% to a little over 46% (moving their metric by ~1.3 basis points). “The movement of that metric tells me we have been successful in meeting our members’ needs. The feedback has been positive based on the usage,” said Hassman.
Boden Dullanty, Digital Solutions Coordinator, GNCU, shared recent data. From GNCU’s go-live date at the end of July 2021 to February 2022, they processed 13,301 fast-pay payments (totaling $6,958,386.88) through all five channels. “With the ultimate goal of reducing call volume into our call center since going live with Greater Nevada Fast Pay in July, we’ve seen a reduction of calls just from the Greater Nevada Fast Pay metrics, by 61%. That’s a call decrease average of 234 calls since going live. We believe that’s a combination of member education through the call center and outreach from our branches, as well as just educating members on the different channels.”
Looking Toward the Future
GNCU has been driving engagement by assigning different solutions to each of its digital team members. They look for opportunities organizationally to tout the benefits and make sure their branches, website, and marketing is getting the message out. The reporting functionality has been very helpful. They like that in real-time, they can see the times and days that payments are being made.
As for future plans with Orbipay EBPP, GNCU is looking forward to leveraging the Apple Pay and Google Pay capabilities, and then also an SSO (Single Sign On) with their online banking platform. They’re also having conversations about real-time payments.
Conclusion
In addition to great results, GNCU is very happy with the support they’ve received before and after implementation. According to Gomez, “The partnership has really exceeded the expectations of what we expect from a vendor. The surprise for me is how well Alacriti understands and responds to the payment space. It is really moving fast, and it’s constantly changing, and I’ve just been pleasantly surprised at the conversations Alacriti is having with my team about keeping up.” Hassman agreed, “Alacriti has definitely set a much higher standard of what we expect from our business partners on this front because the digital space is so important, and the payment space is a bigger part of that. Alacriti has been a fantastic partner.”
