Credit Human Federal Credit Union
How a Leading Credit Union Uses RingCentral Video and Contact Center to Better Serve its 235,000 Members
297
requirements for their unified communications platform evaluation—and RingCentral met every one
$300+
saved per agent now that the support team no longer needs desk phones
61%
reduction in telephone-related service tickets after implementing RingCentral's cloud communication solutions
We’re using RingCentral for everything now—our phones, our contact center operations, audio and video conferences, team messaging, even fax. It’s great to finally have all these communication services integrated with each other and under a single partner’s solution.
Leslie Points
Department Manager, Member Service Center
A financial partner to underserved populations for decades
Americans unable to secure traditional bank accounts or loans can easily find themselves exploited. Check-cashing businesses often charge upwards of 10% of a check’s value, and payday loans consume more than a third of the average borrower’s paycheck. Fortunately, for thousands of underserved people, there’s Credit Human Federal Credit Union.
A not-for-profit, 100% member-owned cooperative, Credit Human offers its members a full range of financial solutions: checking and savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and investment planning services. But perhaps the greatest source of pride for Credit Human’s employees is the work they’ve done to help thousands of their members build “financial slack”—a monetary cushion that helps reduce the enormous amount of daily stress caused by financial instability.
Founded in 1935, Credit Human’s reputation for outstanding service and competitive lending rates helped the organization grow well beyond its Texas roots. Today, Credit Human also has loan origination offices in Washington, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Vermont, and serves 235,000 members all over the United States.
But with that level of geographic expansion, and a rapidly growing member roster, Credit Human found its 10-year-old telephony infrastructure falling short.
INDUSTRY
Financial services
HQ
San Antonio, TX
YEAR FOUNDED
1935
EMPLOYEES
800
Single points of failure, multiple points of frustration
IT Manager Justin Collins recalls the increasing challenges that Credit Human’s aging phone system caused the organization. “We had a lot of technical issues, largely because it was set up with several points of failure,” he says. “And because the system was so old, it was difficult to find people with expertise on it, even within the IT consulting firm that sold it to us.”
The system was also such a challenge to operate, Justin explains, that even simple tasks were time-consuming and usually required back and forth with the vendor. “There were no easy, self-serve features anywhere in this system,” he says. “If we wanted to change admin privileges, we needed help. If we wanted to generate a simple report, we needed help.”
Leslie Points, the Department Manager for Credit Human’s Member Service Center, explains that their legacy telephone solution was no longer meeting their needs.
The problems we were trying to solve was to have more reliable telephone service with little to no unplanned outages and service issues. We also needed dedicated technical expertise to troubleshoot and resolve issues quickly. And the other problem was that we wanted technology that was compatible with our new headquarters building design.
Leslie Points
Department Manager, Member Service Center
From an outdated phone system to a unified communications environment
When they rolled out RingCentral, Credit Human went from struggling to maintain reliable phone service, to improving every aspect of the staff’s IT communications environment.
With RingEX, RingCentral Contact Center, and RingCentral Fax, Credit Human’s employees now have access to a full range of cloud communication services—phone, fax, team messaging, audio conferencing, video conferencing, and contact center management—which they can access from any device. By eliminating the need to maintain over 500 end-of-life phones, Credit Human reduced costs and simplified maintenance. RingCentral now manages all updates and upgrades, relieving staff from labor-intensive tasks and ensuring a modern, reliable communication platform.
And as Justin explained, the organization is leveraging this new platform to create significant operational improvements that enhance collaboration and communication across all of their locations.
The flexibility and accessibility of RingCentral's solutions proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic, facilitating a seamless transition to remote work. Leslie astutely observed, "If we weren't preparing to be more mobile at the office, there was no way we were going to be able to do what we needed to do and get people set up from home." This foresight in adopting RingCentral's cloud-based communication system positioned Credit Human to swiftly adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic, ensuring business continuity and maintaining high levels of customer service even as employees shifted to working from home.
Improving operations with RingCentral Video and RingCentral Rooms
Before RingCentral, Justin explains, Credit Human’s distributed staff used several different online meeting platforms, and the conference rooms in the company’s offices were all set up with different AV equipment. “We always struggled scheduling and running meetings, because we weren’t using a consistent platform.”
But as Justin points out “RingCentral Video has been great for maintaining that sense of team, especially during the lockdowns when we were all remote. And now we are coming back into the office, having RingCentral Rooms is also great to make everyone’s conference room experience consistent and ensure we can always include anyone, anywhere, in our meetings.” Leslie agrees, adding that the adaptability of RingCentral’s solutions played a key role in supporting their new headquarters’ design and collaborative spaces.
Our new headquarters design does not have dedicated offices for team members, so we have to have a variety of meeting room spaces and collaborative spaces to utilize throughout the building to meet and collaborate with one another. We use the RingCentral Video room product in over 30 of these rooms in our headquarters. It was very easy to set up, hardware was easy to install, and the software integration was seamless.
Leslie Points
Department Manager, Member Service Center
Improving operations with RingCentral Contact Center
As Justin explains, the Member Service Center is finding several ways to improve workflows and service quality with RingCentral Contact Center. “From an administrative standpoint, Contact Center is so easy to use that we can easily make changes on the fly ourselves. If we’re getting a lot of calls on a particular topic, we can create a skill in the Contact Center for that right away or, if it already exists, we can quickly add more agents to cover it.”
This ease of use has also led to significant gains in efficiency across the organization. “We have had proven efficiencies by not having to rely on our internal IT team to resolve system issues, resulting in a 61% decrease in telephone-related service tickets,” Leslie shared. With fewer system-related issues bogging down IT resources, the team can focus on more strategic initiatives, further enhancing their operations.
And as Justin also points out, managers are leveraging RingCentral’s detailed reporting capabilities, which include pre-built system reports as well as the ability to create custom reports, to gain visibility and business intelligence.
Improving operations with RingCentral Team Messaging
In fact, for those moments when a support agent can’t reach another department, the Member Service Center’s team leverages another tool in the RingCentral platform. “Let’s say a member calls in with a fraud issue. Our Contact Center agent tries to transfer the call, but the fraud department isn’t answering. The agent can just pull up the RingCentral Team Messaging app and send a message to the Fraud group, which everyone in that department will see right away.”
A Partnership Built on Trust and Innovation
From the start of their journey with RingCentral, Leslie emphasizes how invaluable the Advanced Support package has been in ensuring a smooth implementation and continued success.
It's been one of the best decisions that we've made. We have a great relationship with our account team, and we greatly benefit from a highly involved Customer Success Manager and our Technical Account Manager. Their expertise and dedication has really enhanced our operations with reliability that our network is always on.
Leslie Points
Department Manager, Member Service Center
Credit Human's experience highlights how the partnership continues to deliver value over time. Leslie speaks highly of the ongoing relationship: “Building relationships with partners is challenging, but our partnership with RingCentral is outstanding. I deeply appreciate the effort everyone at RingCentral invests in understanding our business thoroughly to provide effective support.”
Leslie also commends RingCentral's consistency in personnel, stating, “The experience and tenured personnel RingCentral provides to support us are crucial. I've worked with other vendors who frequently experience turnover, which creates numerous issues. Bringing new team members up to speed can be challenging, but RingCentral's consistency in this area sets them apart."
Embracing AI innovation for the future with RingCentral
As Credit Human continues its journey with RingCentral, Leslie shares her excitement about exploring more advanced AI capabilities to enhance operations and member support. "We are interested in learning more about RingCentral’s AI Assistant for our phone system, specifically the features like the AI call notes and summaries," says Leslie. "There could be opportunities to use that tool to identify trends in training skill gaps, address issues our members are experiencing, and leverage that data to make operational improvements."
Looking ahead, Leslie highlights plans to integrate AI both internally and externally to drive efficiency and improve the member experience. "One of the use cases we’re planning to try in the next 12 months is agent assist with our contact center platform. We’re also exploring AI tools and technologies to provide our members with 24-7 support, ensuring they can answer any questions they may have themselves," Leslie explains.
With these advancements, Credit Human is preparing to optimize training, enhance operational insights, and deliver round-the-clock support—all while strengthening its partnership with RingCentral as they adopt increasingly innovative solutions.