PSCU Launches New Contact Center Solution To Reduce Call Times

PSCU launched a new contact center solution, Unified Agent Desktop (UAD), Tuesday (March 16) to boost the efficiency of the call center program, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

UAD offers an easy-to-use interface, workflows and agent assistance in a consolidated desktop so that more questions and issues can be resolved in a single call, the credit union service organization (CUSO) said in the release.

“As just one example, UAD helps reduce travel notification call times for members from an average of eight to 10 minutes to less than three minutes,” said Rini Fredette, senior vice president of Contact Center Services and Solutions at PSCU, in the release.

PSCU piloted the program in the end of 2020 and found that it reduced average call time by 11 percent and call hold time by 30 percent, the release stated. The CUSO also found that, with UAD, agents needed 25 percent less classroom training time and reached proficiency two months faster.

UAD helps “ensure compliance” and “also facilitates a consistent, more personalized and more efficient credit union member experience,” Fredette said in the release.

The digital trends of credit unions (CUs) during 2020 and the pandemic will continue to expand this year, Denise Stevens, senior vice president and chief product officer at PSCU, told PYMNTS in January.

“In the past, we heavily relied on foot traffic,” she said, but to keep up and compete with banks, CUs need to “double down” on their digital strategies.

UAD, powered by Jacada, is now available for all PSCU Card Services agents in the U.S., according to the release.

The program is a part of PSCU’s Data eXchange application programming interface (API) platform, so that UAD can be incorporated in future technological solutions without disruption, the release stated. In partnership with Jacada, PSCU has been modernizing its contact center services since 2018 by replacing its legacy systems with open-sourced technology.

PSCU automated its desktops in 2019 with Jacada, removing several manual steps from the agents, reducing call times by optimizing the call center experience.

The modernization plans should be completed in 2022, according to the release.