Eltropy Introduces Text-to-Talk for Outbound Communications
By John San Filippo
Like most fintech terminology, the precise definition of the term “omnichannel” can be elusive. At a minimum, omnichannel means delivering a consistent user experience (UX) across all delivery channels. However, one promise of omnichannel that’s been discussed for nearly a decade, but has seldom been delivered is the ability to switch channels in mid-engagement and continue that engagement without losing any context.
Eltropy, provider of a digital engagement platform called “Eltropy's Digital Conversations Platform,” took a significant step in that direction when it announced the availability of its Text-to-Talk feature at its annual user conference on May 23, 2023. The feature marks the company’s foray into voice communications.
Designed with outbound communications such as collections or lending in mind, Text-to-Talk allows a credit union employee to initiate a conversation via SMS text and then, if necessary, move the conversation to a voice discussion, all as part of the same engagement. Finopotamus spoke with Eltropy’s Chief Product Officer Jed Taylor to obtain more details on this advancement.
Why Outbound Calling
To illustrate a use case for Text-to-Talk, Taylor offered the example of a loan collector. “What we've found in collections is, if you call somebody directly, they're not going to pick up,” explained Taylor, “but if you text them, the response rate is really, really high. You can engage them in a conversation by text saying, ‘Hey, I noticed you’re past due. What's going on?’” Once the member has been engaged and it’s time to discuss the matter in more detail, (e.g., terms of a repayment plan), it takes one mouse click for the credit union employee to move that discussion to a voice call.
According to Taylor, a similar scenario is likely in a lending environment. “Let's say the lender is texting back and forth, ‘It looks like I've got all your documents.’ Then they text the member again, ‘There's actually a question on one of these documents you submitted,’” he said. “‘We have a question about your proof of income.’” Rather than force the member to type a lengthy response on their smartphone, he added that a “simple voice call” will be “much more efficient” in situations like this.
Taylor told Finopotamus that for existing users of the Eltropy's Digital Conversations Platform, deploying Text-to-Talk is easy. “We just need to provision their phone number for voice,” he said. “As an Eltropy Digital Conversations Platform user, their phones are already provisioned for text, so we just need to provision their phones for voice.”
Fighting Phishing
With text communications, there’s always a risk to the member that the person at the other end is not a credit union employee, but rather some sort of cybercriminal. The most obvious indicator that the member is dealing with an authentic credit union employee is if that member engaged with the credit union previously via that same credit union phone number.
Taylor explained that oftentimes, unprofessional language, spelling or grammar are clear indicators of fraud. “We provide our customers with call templates that include very well-crafted language that references the member specifically,” said Taylor. “We provide guidance from a compliance perspective about things that you should include in there, such as the name of the financial institution and certain details. We want it to be super clear to the member that this is not some sort of phishing attack.” He added that having some specifics – but decidedly not personally identifiable information (PII) – in the text provides reassurance to the member.
Looking Forward
Using Text-to-Talk in its current iteration could prove problematic for inbound calling, since chat agents may be juggling multiple chat sessions at any given moment, but Taylor said a version of Text-to-Talk suitable for inbound calling will be available later this year. He indicated that integrating video – a specialty of Eltropy – is also not far off.
“What we're trying to create here in our digital conversations platform is the ability for all of credit union agents to have access to all of these channels so that they can choose what channels are most effective for them and the member to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish during that particular engagement,” said Taylor. “That way, they don't have to make a choice based on where the customer started. They can seamlessly transition from channel to channel, or in some cases use these different channels simultaneously.”