Credit Unions Leverage PSCU’s Call Centers for Emergency Member Service Support

CUSO’s 24/7/365 call center teams help mitigate service challenges during Hurricane Matthew

St. Petersburg, Fla. – (Oct. 24, 2016) – When Hurricane Matthew tore up the eastern coast of the U.S. two weeks ago, several PSCU Owner credit unions with branches in Florida and South Carolina temporarily suspended or curtailed operations to ensure the safety of their employees and members. But while their branch-based services may have been impacted, members of the credit unions were still able to get their inquiries addressed and resolved through PSCU’s 24/7/365 call center resources located in Arizona and Michigan. The CUSO’s business continuity plan makes PSCU’s call center services available to Owner credit unions during a crisis or when the credit unions’ member service operations are compromised.

“PSCU’s Member-Owner credit unions own 100% of PSCU’s call center facilities, technology and infrastructure in Arizona and Michigan,” said Chuck Fagan, president and CEO of PSCU. “That autonomy of ownership means they can expect PSCU to act quickly and make call center support services available to help them through times of distress and high demand, while still maintaining extra capacity and meeting service levels.”

PSCU’s call center technology enables its representatives to seamlessly access members’ credit card accounts as well as the credit unions’ core processing platforms to assist members with questions on their other deposit and loan accounts. As part of their contingency plans for service support, PSCU Owner credit unions can prearrange with the CUSO’s Total Member Care call centers to reroute their cardholders’ calls during an emergency situation, such as the unexpected closure of their own member services operations.

“We appreciate the quality service PSCU provided our members prior to and during Hurricane Matthew,” said Travis Hicks, Contact Center Manager with Heritage Trust Federal Credit Union (Charleston, S.C.). “Our branches and the Corporate Office had to close prior to landfall in preparation for the mandatory evacuation in our area. After the storm, we experienced intermittent power outages at multiple locations, including our Corporate Office, which negatively impacted our Contact Center team. PSCU was able to effectively assist 100% of our members’ calls during the recovery period and maintained our service level and member expectations.”

A total of 14 PSCU Owner credit unions, representing over 1.3 million members, collaborated with the CUSO to quickly arrange after-hours, weekend and overflow call center support. The call centers increased staffing levels to process an additional 10,000 calls over a three-day period. In addition to providing account status and balance information, the CUSO also assisted impacted credit union members with emergency credit limit increases and daily authorization limit resets to accommodate extraordinary demand for funds availability and higher transaction rates.

About PSCU

Established in 1977, PSCU (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is the nation's leading credit union service organization (CUSO) and was awarded CUSO of the Year recognition by NACUSO. The cooperative is owned by over 800 member credit unions representing more than 20 million credit, debit, prepaid, online bill payment and mobile accounts. Comprehensive 24/7/365 member support is delivered through contact centers located throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.pscu.com.