Dowell Federal Credit Union's primary purpose is to promote financial stability among our membership. There are a lot of ducks my team needs to get in a row, including requesting information from members, connecting them to loan officers, and getting their information in the books so we can meet NCUA standards. Every time a member doesn’t respond to one of our calls or emails reminding them to push through this process, we get backed up. We needed a way for our small team to manage communications with our large membership, so we looked into texting.
Text Request specifically appealed to us because the dashboard was so easy for a small team like us to use. The four of us can hold multiple conversations with members at once and get way more done in the time it would normally take to make calls. Texting is great for getting loans set up—and for collections in general—because we know we’ll get a response when we send messages to members. Emails can go unread for days or even months, but text messages are opened within seconds regardless of who they come from. We’re finding that our members prefer to text because they don’t have to disrupt a meeting or move out of a room to answer them. It frees up their time and allows them to take charge of what’s needed.
We’ve gotten a ton more results on follow-ups, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and our response rate in terms of collections is significantly higher than email and phone calls. Texting is just expected now, and I don’t think we could go back to the time before we were using Text Request. It drastically decreases the amount of time it takes for us to get loans processed, plus ensures we get all the stuff we need on file.
