Veridian Credit Union transforms member support with Webex Contact Center

Veridian Credit Union, a non-profit financial cooperative, opened its doors in 1939. Since then, a lot has changed—it spans all 50 states, serves over 300,000 members, and has branches in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

Yet, Veridian’s philosophy remains the same: “People Helping People.” With this guiding principle, the organization’s mission is deeply rooted in delivering exceptional customer service. However, as member expectations evolved and call volumes increased, Veridian recognized a need to modernize its contact center operations.

But not just any solution would do the trick. It needed a platform that could scale with its growth, integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, and take the member experience to the next level. The good news? That’s where Webex came into play.

Embracing digital transformation

Veridian’s Member Contact Center plays an important role in the member experience. It’s a central hub where Veridian provides guidance on products and services, answers customer inquiries, offers problem resolutions, and builds relationships through personalized service. Whether someone needs to apply for a loan or transfer funds, they can do so with the help of an agent.

Of course, technology is a key piece of the puzzle. Veridian relied on a legacy platform for many years, but eventually decided to migrate to a cloud-based alternative.

“We know everything is moving to the cloud,” explained Alan Stalnaker, Member Contact Center Manager. “And we wanted to ensure that whatever solution we chose wouldn’t be antiquated as soon as we rolled it out.”

As a forward-thinking institution, Veridian needed a future-proof platform with plug-and-play capabilities. In other words, it sought to leverage innovative technologies as quickly as possible to enhance member satisfaction—namely, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-driven decision-making.

“At the heart of our decision to move from an on-premises solution to a cloud-based system was our desire to meet the evolving needs of our members while positioning our credit union for future growth,” added Christi Hulme, Vice President of the Member Contact Center. “One of our main goals for improvement was to efficiently leverage data and insights throughout the member journey. That would help us personalize our service to ensure every member’s interaction feels relevant and tailored.”

A seamless transition to the cloud

Fortunately, Veridian didn’t have to look far to find the ideal solution. The organization was deeply familiar with Cisco and its communication tools, having leveraged Cisco Jabber for several years.

“We decided to choose Webex Contact Center as our solution because we already had a great partnership with Cisco,” Stalnaker said. “We wanted to harness the synergy you get with having a single point of contact for the relationship. Having a company the size of Cisco, a leader in the contact center space, was valuable to us.”

Like any digital transformation, cloud migrations can be complex endeavors. But with Webex’s help, the transition was seamless. As Stalnaker recalled, several representatives visited Veridian on-site a few months before the official rollout to walk him and his team through the process.

“They listened hard and intently to what we wanted to get out of the system,” he said. “Working with the Webex team has been eye-opening. It’s truly a partnership where we’re giving feedback and the Webex team is listening and making improvements.”

Veridian also collaborated with Cisco Partner CX Advanced Solutions (CXAS). Hulme said these experts played an integral role in the cloud migration as part of the Cisco partner network.

“From the very beginning, CX Advanced Solutions demonstrated a strong commitment to Veridian’s success,” she explained. “They worked closely with our team to understand our unique needs and ensure the solutions provided were aligned with our long-term goals.”

Veridian expected its Cisco partner to thoroughly trial the environment and test the solution before pricing, especially after their original partner failed to meet their needs. Veridian, being the most meticulous customer to date, tested every aspect of their Webex Contact Center solution and evaluated CXAS’ ability to support their complex environment and meet partner KPIs. This rigorous testing demonstrated CXAS’ technological capabilities and expertise.

Ultimately, Veridian took its time with the transformation, rolling it out over two years. It did this by design, hoping for an effective, frictionless transition. Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

“Our migration to Webex Contact Center was extremely smooth,” Hulme said. “With the Flow Designer, we were able to quickly streamline and optimize our call flows and make real-time adjustments without any need for complex coding.”

Indeed, the low-code, no-code Flow Designer tool enables organizations to create robust customer experiences without burdening IT resources. Using its intuitive canvas, Veridian could hit the ground running and drive continuous improvements—ensuring a tailored experience every step of the way.

The complete package of collaboration tools

In addition to Webex Contact Center, Veridian also deployed several other solutions throughout the business, including:

• Webex Calling: A cloud-based telephony system for anytime, anywhere communication.
• Webex Meetings: A video conferencing platform with engaging collaborative capabilities.
• Webex Messaging: A tool for asynchronous communication that empowers you to stay connected through file-sharing, co-creation, and more.
• Cisco devices: All-in-one collaboration equipment that brings AI into the workspace and enables you to work more efficiently.

“The advantage of having the full Webex Suite, including Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center, is the single point of administration,” Stalnaker said.

All these solutions share one common architecture, allowing Veridian to manage them through one pane of glass—Control Hub. It’s a centralized dashboard for adding new users, controlling devices, changing settings, and more.

“Control Hub brings it all together,” he added. “It gives us a single point to manage information rather than having to use several different systems.”

Raising the bar for member satisfaction

How has Veridian’s Member Contact Center taken to its new platform? As Hulme explained, it’s been a big success.

“Our agents and supervisors really enjoy their new desktop dashboards,” she said. “They serve as powerful tools to provide real-time insights on our contact center operations.”

In particular, Webex Contact Center’s Customer Journey Widget is one of their favorite features. According to Hulme, “the functionality has truly transformed how our contact center operates.”

For example, agents no longer have to send emails inquiring about who last assisted a specific member—it’s all right there in the dashboard. Also, with a total record of past interactions, they don’t need to ask customers to repeat themselves.

“It helps us get a complete picture of the member’s history,” she added. “Agents can anticipate needs and address potential issues before they arise, providing a more personalized experience to show we’re understanding the member’s preferences.”

Critically, Veridian integrated Webex Contact Center with its member relationship management (MRM) system. This provides agents and branch staff with a complete 360-degree view of member interactions. This data helps them make decisions and drive operational efficiencies.

And the best part? It led to tangible business results—most notably, through the power of automation.

“The migration to Webex Contact Center allowed us to implement a voice bot, which has greatly reduced the volume of incoming calls handled by our teams,” Hulme explained. Overall, Veridian’s bot services about 43% of calls—over 11,000 per month. Not only does that reduce the agent workload, but it also simplifies staffing decisions for supervisors.

More importantly, members are happier with their experience. “We’ve seen a positive uptick in member satisfaction,” Hulme said. “We’ve increased from 9.36 in 2023 to 9.41 in 2024.”

A future-proof partnership 

After a successful migration, Veridian looks forward to the future. With Webex by its side, the organization knows it’s well set up for long-term innovation.

“I think we’re very confident in the capabilities of Webex Contact Center,” Stalnaker said. “I’m really excited about AI and the way it can free up our agents to truly enhance their relationships with our callers and members.”

He especially can’t wait to implement AI-generated customer satisfaction scores using the Cisco AI Assistant. This ability will help Veridian understand the member experience on a deeper level, even when survey responses are low.

“Moving to Webex Contact Center has been a huge benefit for Veridian Credit Union,” Hulme added. “It has really allowed us to become more efficient and focus more on increasing member satisfaction. We look forward to what the future brings by partnering with Webex.”

Contact our team today to learn more about how Webex can improve collaboration and customer experience for your organization.