For credit unions, knowledge is everything. Providing financial services is a difficult and costly business, with numerous regulations to follow and demanding customers/members who expect top-quality services.
Better knowledge management makes this easier! A modern knowledge management system (KMS) allows you to consolidate all your institutional knowledge into a single easy-to-access system. This includes:
- Member records
- Laws and regulations
- Loan processing policies
- Dispute / fraud management
- Managerial cost control and oversight
Rather than relying on paper binders full of policies, you can have all your organizational knowledge in one place. With AI-powered searches, a good KMS brings nearly-instant answers to questions, straight from your approved knowledge sources.
The end result is better cost management, improved member services, and fewer compliance breaches. A new KMS can overcome the knowledge challenges currently facing credit unions.
What Unique Knowledge Management Challenges Do Credit Unions Face?
Credit unions have two big burdens. First, member experience is paramount. Credit unions pitch themselves as a better, friendlier alternative to traditional banks, so they must be able to keep their customers happy.
In addition, as financial insitutions, credit unions are under significant regulatory burdens – and they change often. Your knowledge management process must be able to quickly implement new policies and ensure that employees are adhering to them as soon as they go live.
On top of that, credit unions typically see high staff turnover, especially in their member services department. Training new staff is time-consuming and expensive, making this a substantial financial drain. Any KMS policies which reduce onboarding times will save money.
What Are Core Use Cases for Knowledge Management in Credit Unions?
A modern AI-powered knowledge management system can bring across-the-board benefits to your credit union. This includes:
Member Services
You'll likely see the biggest gains to your member services department. The faster your agents can resolve member issues, the happier your members will be. A new KMS can centralize all your institutional knowledge, eliminating time-consuming searches for information. AI systems can even handle natural-language queries, making it simple for agents to find the right solutions.
You could even implement a customer-facing self-service portal that allows customers to handle their own inquiries, further reducing the burden on your contact center.
Compliance
Laws and regulations surrounding the financial industry are many, and often burdensome. Worse, they change frequently, and you are expected to keep up.
A well-implemented KMS allows you to update listed policies and procedures at any time, and have those updates go live across every part of your credit union at once. This greatly increases the chances of agents being aware of regulatory changes and properly adhering to them.
Onboarding
Training new employees is costly and time-consuming in the best of cases, and credit unions have a lot of training to do. Fortunately, the latest generation of knowledge management systems can include training modules built directly into the KMS.
This provides a dual benefit: You know your agents are training on accurate up-to-date information, and they're doing so within the same system they'll be using day-to-day. Combined, this can lead to substantially reduced onboarding times without compromising agent quality.
Loan Processing
Loans are your bread and butter; they must be handled properly at all times. Similar to regulatory changes, your KMS can prioritize loan processing policies to ensure agents remain in compliance.
AI powered systems are even capable of overseeing agent behavior and flagging actions that might be in violation of policy.
Best Practices for Knowledge Management in Credit Unions
How can you implement a better knowledge management strategy that empowers your agents? We have extensive experience helping companies implement a better KMS; here's what works:
- Centralize all information in a central database. Choose a KMS system which can do a 'deep dive' into your institutional knowledge, including elements such as email threads that could hide critical information.
- Digitize all paper-based information, such as loan policies, so everything is in once place.
- Clean your knowledge base before implementing an AI system. You want to train it on accurate information.
- Focus on high-impact areas that need improvement, such as disputes or credit card fraud situations, to see immediate benefits.
- Don't roll out the new system all at once; do a phased deployment so that you can learn from the initial test deployment before going large-scale.
- Have a focused team of humans who are always 'in the loop' and overseeing the KMS to ensure proper behavior.
Frequently Asked Questions
Credit unions run on knowledge. From internal procedures, to maintaining regulatory compliance, a well-run credit union needs a single centralized source of institutional knowledge. Even minor mistakes could cost you customers, or lead to legal troubles.
When agents and employees have accurate, reliable, centralized information they'll be able to handle member inquiries faster and with greater accuracy. This leads directly to improved custsat scores.
Banking regulations change frequently, so you need a way to ensure agents are instantly updated with new procedures. A good knowledge management strategy ensures these updates happen instantly, across the entire operation, and increases compliance.
With the right knowledge management system, your agents can obtain the information they need quickly. There's no searching through binders or having to ask other employees for help. The system simply takes their query and offers the right answer.
For a credit union, the most important tasks for a KMS are improving your members' experience and improving regulatory compliance. An AI-powered system offers answers quickly, while overseeing the system to flag potential compliance violations before they become problems.
In addition, be sure your new KMS integrates training modules to reduce onboarding times and costs.
In Conclusion: Credit Unions Need Better Knowledge Management!
If your credit union is still relying on binders full of policies on paper, struggles to implement new policies, or can't keep your customers happy, it's time for a better knowledge managment system. A good KMS creates a one-stop-shop for all your credit union's information needs, improving compliance and member experience at once.
KMS Lighthouse can make it happen! Our next-generation AI knowledge management tools are trusted by businesses around the world. Whether your goal is reduced costs, improved custsat scores, or better compliance, we're your knowledge management partners.