Since its founding in 1939, Harvard Federal Credit Union ($1.3 billion assets) has continuously evolved to meet a changing market. Originally opened as an employees’ credit union, it changed to a federal charter in order to empower members to thrive in today’s dynamic financial marketplace. Its 150 full-time employees serve over 50,000 members.

An Aligned Solution to Service Members

Harvard Federal Credit Union (HFCU) has always had a strong focus on member experience, carefully balancing the potential of new technology with what will work best for their organization. With the belief that members want self-service if it’s well done, HFCU was always waiting for something that would both improve their operational efficiency and cater to the needs of their members. In 2022, the launch of ChatGPT intrigued the HFCU team, seeing the potential of how to get ahead of the competition.

“We saw AI’s potential, and we realized this would change a lot about our business,” explains Tom Montilli, the EVP and Chief Experience Officer at HFCU. “We knew that if we didn’t embrace AI, we would be left behind. This wasn’t something we wanted to be behind on.

Simultaneously, HFCU struggled to scale efficiently and had yet to provide 24/7 support. The team realized providing exceptional member service was vital to growing their business, and providing 24/7 self-service was non-negotiable. HFCU turned to Posh’s Digital Assistant to empower their members and improve operational efficiency. HFCU also understood the importance of Responsible AI and data security, knowing that Posh would be the optimal vendor. “You want to partner with someone who has the best integration and the best solution,” says Montilli. “You want them to align with your organization. Posh is focused on the financial industry and what’s important to our type of institution. There’s lots of value in that alignment.”

Educating Leadership to Empower Employees

Before moving forward with the integration, Montilli knew the importance of demonstrating value to the leadership team and debunking common myths about AI. While some leaders were concerned that AI might reflect poor experiences seen in other chatbots or would make the member engagement feel robotic, Montilli and his team quickly educated leadership on how integrating AI aligns with their mission and values. 

“We're not turning the business over to the robots we're using,” Montilli explains. “We're using these tools to enhance what our folks are able to do. The focus is not to eliminate employees but rather reallocate their skills.”

Before investing in AI technology, the HFCU team underwent a rigorous AI Readiness strategy. First, they recognized their need to be competitive and innovative in the market in order to improve member experience, employee engagement, organization efficiencies, and growth. Montilli worked closely with the senior leadership team, the board of directors, and their staff to align on their goals and risk appetite. Finally, they ensured the data infrastructure was set up for a successful implementation. Through these steps, HFCU was much more prepared to succeed in their rollout. 

To learn how to educate your leadership team on the importance of AI, download our C-Suite Guide

Digital Assistant & Knowledge Assistant Reduces Costs and Enhances Member Experience

In November 2022, HFCU launched Digital Assistant on the website and mobile channels. Since then, the team has seen a decrease in phone volume, lower hold times, and an 80 percent containment rate. They were able to accomplish all these outcomes without needing any new hires or support staff and can, in fact, reallocate their current staff to support other channels.

“We thought we’d need to add another support representative every year, or even more with chat functionality,” explains Montilli. “But with Posh, we’ve put a freeze on the additions of new folks in the department because we have more room for growth within the department itself.” 

Since integrating Posh’s Digital Assistant, HFCU has offset budgets in headcount, recruiting, onboarding, training, and marketing. By reallocating skills and reducing staff churn, while simultaneously growing member relationships thanks to Digital Assistant, the team is operating more efficiently and developing more valuable skill sets. 

“Overall, we’ve seen a consistent reduction in call volume,” says Montilli. “The chatbot is satisfying more member inquiries and our agents are much more efficient. At the same time, we aren’t making it difficult to get in touch with a human if they want.”

More recently, HFCU launched Knowledge Assistant to centralize and provide quick and efficient access to information. 

“We’ve tried a lot of different knowledge management systems, and the downfall is how much manual intervention is needed to maintain it,” says Montilli. “Posh’s Knowledge Assistant doesn't require manual effort on our end. They’ve taken something complicated and made it very easy because of their focus on outcomes and end-user experience.”

Future Expansion and Scaling Initiatives

Looking to the future, HFCU will deploy Posh’s solutions for Voice Assistant to provide after-hours service and manage call volumes. 

“Voice Assistant will be able to help us grow our staff slowly because of the reduced call volume and freeing up agents to do more high-profile member interactions,” continues Montilli. “It creates convenience from an experience perspective, serving people after hours, and giving people an easy quick channel for people to self-serve.”

Want to get the same results? Check out Posh's Digital Assistant & Knowledge Assistant →