Credit union members increasingly expect and demand a frictionless experience when paying bills and interacting with their member-owned financial cooperative.
To provide that experience, savvy credit unions rely on tools and teams from technology providers who not only ensure their own offerings stay leading edge, but are true partners that continue to meet and exceed member expectations.
Alacriti already offers electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) and digital disbursements with a powerful AI chatbot embedded, and now has partnered with another leading provider to strengthen digital support.
Here, Carl Robinson, senior vice president of payments for Alacriti, discusses his company’s Orbipay EBPP solution and their new partnership with Glia.
Please describe your flagship platform.
Carl Robinson: Our Orbipay EBPP platform is the most customizable billing and payments solution designed for credit unions of all sizes. It’s a highly scalable, cloud-based solution built to adapt quickly to the changing needs ofcooperatives and their members.
With Orbipay EBPP, members have easy access to multiple payment methods, payment options, and payment channels. For example, members can easily make payments via SMS text messages.
Ella, our AI-powered conversational chatbot offered on the Orbipay EBPP platform, gives members the option to use emerging channels for payments such as intelligent personal assistants and Facebook Messenger.
Ella facilitates seamless, personalized, and context-aware interactions between credit unions and their members. Members can have natural conversations with Ella to address queries, resolve issues, and make payments.
Tell us about your new partnership with Glia.
CR: Glia is a leading provider of Digital Customer Service. Our partnership with Glia enables credit unions to leverage our AI chatbot, Ella within Glia’s Digital Customer Service platform.
That means Ella is now included in Glia’s ability to combine all member communications into one unified experience that starts where the member is, and provides a seamless experience when moving between channels. These channels include chat, social,SMS to phone, online voice, video, and even co-browsing where agents can co-pilot members’ on-screen experiences.
So if a member starts out with an online chat and then wants to call, they don’t have to re-state any of the information they provided in the chat with the live agent. It’s truly a member-centric interaction.
What challenges and opportunities do Orbipay and your Glia partnership address?
CR: Providing an exceptional digital member experience is critical to the sustained growth of any credit unionit promotes loyalty and helps retain members. One of the most vital touchpoints with members is when they’re initiatinga loan payment.
Common frustrations for members include finding it difficult to make quick payments due to lack of digital channels options, not finding answers to simple questions quickly, and being transferred between different representatives or transitioning fromone support channel to another and having to repeat information.
The result is wasted time and a negative member experience. Members want to make payments, find answers to simple questions and resolve issuesfast.
The Alacriti and Glia partnership helps credit unions meet members where they are and allows them to pay how and when they want to pay, moving between channels without losing context or starting over. The result is a positive modern digital experience.
How do these capabilities increase member value?
CR: In today’s competitive landscape, an exceptional member experience can be the difference between you and the competition. Companies that lead in consumer experience outperform laggards by nearly 80%.
Providing multiple options to pay and easy transitions from one channel to another allows members to make payments and get the help they need without being inconvenienced.
These frictionless touchpoints provide a positive customer experience that promotes loyalty, helps retain members, and encourages brand advocacy.
What differentiates Alacriti from competitors?
CR: Alacriti was founded as a payments business. Payments is not just another offering for Alacriti it’s the core of our business. Because of this dedication, we are known for speed and great service for implementation,product development, and issue resolution.
Alacriti is also the only payments company with a chatbot integrated with Glia. Our partnership enables us to provide credit unions with a single unified experience that supports members effectively in any channel.
Members seamlessly transition between our payment chatbot and Glia’s customer service platform without any interruption, creating a truly one-of-a-kind experience.
To learn more about Alacriti’s chatbot, Ella, go to www.alacriti.com/ella or visit the company’s credit union resource page.
