Quality Customer Service: Are U satisfied with your Financial Institution?

How often have you walked into a financial institution and felt intimidated by the lingo or terminology that Customer Service representatives often present in their approach. Here at U Financial, we believe that first impressions last and offering our clients the best customer experience is key.

Recently, we sat down with our Manger of Customer Service, Carmel Whittaker and asked her some very important questions that our clients will want to know:

Q. Being that you are our Customer Service Manager, what do you feel is the importance of Customer Service?

CW – A lot of the times Customers come to us and they are in a bad place financially because they have a lot of debts and collection agencies are phoning them every day. From a Customer Service perspective, we’re dealing with people who are already upset, annoyed, and feel like they are backed into a corner and don’t know how to get out of it. For us to be that person, that shoulder they can lean on to help them through those times, I think, is the most important part of what we’re doing here at U Financial.

A lot of the times people are not aware of the options they have available to them unless someone sits down and walks through it with them. Even something so simple as the Financial Capacity Assessment we do here (FCA report of income and expenses), people don’t realize where their money goes on a monthly or even weekly basis. Being able to help our clients visually see this is very important.

Q. Where do you see U Financial going over the next year in terms of growth?

CW – Massive. (laughs) That would really be the best way I could describe it. Over the next year, we’re going to look at opening a couple of additional storefronts. We are looking at three in Edmonton, and then look at branching out towards the Red Deer and Calgary areas. With our referring agencies that are sending clients to us at this moment, we’re definitely not going to run out of leads. The main goal of opening the additional storefronts is to be able to handle the influx in addition to launching new products and services for our clients.

Q. What are your thoughts on U Financials’ impact in community engagement at events? What do you feel is the importance of it?

CW – I think anytime that you have a platform where you can speak out is important to get involved in. We have identified some of the things that are important to U Financial: organizations that support children or pets and families in need. Being able to utilize the people that we have available to speak publicly at these kinds of events and help raise awareness through fundraising efforts embodies who we are: a company that is helping people who aren’t able to help themselves.

Q. What can clients expect when they walk through the door at U Financial?

CW – A friendly environment. We want people to feel comfortable here so there’s no judgement. Most of all, we want our clients to feel relief. We’re helping to pay off their debts, so that automatically provides relief for our clients.

Q. How do you feel we can help clients long-term once they have an established history with us?

CW – Reporting to the credit bureau is one of the main ways that we can help establish a client’s credit history. We are also looking at incorporating financial education pieces that we are really excited about because this helps people build their credit right away by us paying off their old debts for them. We offer interest rate reductions as well which is very important because if one is ‘credit-challenged’ already, it’s difficult to get any sort of manageable credit products. By manageable, I mean: manageable interest rates, etc. By helping people to acquire an affordable loan and work with us on the interest rate reduction, we are helping them to move forward financially.

Long term, for example, we are looking at the divorced mom who had a hard time in the divorce process and suddenly, she has these debts and doesn’t know how to get out (of debt). Now this mom is going to be able to co-sign for her child’s education. She’s going to be able to buy that house that she wasn’t able to before. She’s going to be able to co-sign for her children for a vehicle and things of that nature that she wouldn’t be able to previously. I also think that when we get into the financial education aspects of it, we’re going to be talking to these clients about savings, retirement funds, and all those other things that schools don’t teach youth today. It’s going to be important to help people have a better financial future.

Q. I know our interest rate is at 49.9%, and of course, we look at a reduction of 2% every six months provided that the customers payments are on time. How do you, from a Customer Service perspective handle the odd client whose reaction is shocked that the interest rate is high?

A. It’s 49.9% yes, but that’s not the actual interest rate. Throughout the course of the loan, because we work off simple interest and it does descend, interest is only charged on the principle balance at the time. So, every payment a client makes, they’re paying less and less interest. The actual interest rate throughout the course of a loan averages between 23 - 30% and that’s without any interest rate reduction. It does seem high at the very beginning, the reality is, we have a responsibility to disclose that APR (Annual Percentage Rate) to our clients because that’s what the percentage rate is if you never make a payment on your loan.

Q. What can you tell us about other companies who aren’t disclosing this up front? Meaning: if a client comes to you and compares our interest rates to the financial institution down the street – how do you advise them on the actuality of the situation?

CW – We had that happen just the other day with respect to a client who took out a title loan with us. He mentioned that the other company had a much lower interest rate and payback. So, I did a secret shop on this company and found out that they disclose their interest rate at 3.8% per month. When I asked them what the APR was, they refused to disclose anything further to me. I then did the math myself and their actual APR was 47% plus fees. When I asked more about the fees, they advised me that the fees depend on the size of the loan. In my mind, this tells me that it’s probably a broker fee (which we don’t have here) which you have to incorporate into the APR, so their APR is higher than ours once you incorporate those fees in.

Q. Interesting. Have you had to ever explain that to anyone? Have they unde3rstood what you are explaining to them?

CW – We do it all the time when we are talking on the phone. We tell them that we are working off the descending interest rate and is only charged on principle which means that every payment made, clients are getting charged less and less on interest. Clients seem to be receptive to this. We don’t really get a lot of follow up questions. That could be good or bad because it could mean that they have no idea what you are really talking about or it could be that they understand completely. It is our hope that if they are signing a contract with us and they have questions they would feel free to ask them.

Q. Would that be something U Financial would look at in terms of customer service going forward when we do start to roll out new products? Would our staff be trained to identify if the customer is comprehending and would we then be having these kinds of discussions with clients?

CW – I think it’s important. Definitely. Right now, it’s a little more difficult because we are doing a lot of things over the phone vs. in person consultations. My ideal situation is once a customer hits the six-month mark of their loan, we begin investing a lot of time into their financial education, helping to build their credit by having these types of discussions. We will talk to them about APR and what that means.

Q. How do you feel about the team we have assembled here at U Financial?

CW – I love everybody. (laughs) Everyone works so well together and I think it’s always important to have such a cohesive group. Not everyone’s going to like each other all the time but for the most part, everyone is very proactive, takes the bull by the horns, and get’s the job done. The team is amazing. I’ve never seen so much camaraderie with one another in a workplace.

Q. How do you feel the team work transcends into when we do community fundraisers and events? Even how we present ourselves through our branding (with Kate & Alvin) – what are your thoughts on all of that? If someone were to come up to you and say: ‘Hey, what is the team like over there? What is the environment like at U Financial?

CW – Fun. I think that would be the best way to put it. We assembled a team of intelligent individuals – they are people who don’t take things personally with clients. We talked about customers earlier in this discussion about how they are in a tight spot and may already be very stressed, so to have Customer Service staff who don’t take this projection personally and continue to move throughout their day happy and friendly is important. When we are talking about community events, and U Financial being active in our community, I would have to say that we are an extremely fun group. People like to be around us and I think that translates well in terms of the public facing aspect of Customer Service.

Q. Absolutely! How is U Financial different than other financial institutions? How would you define it as different?

CW – We are different in a lot of ways. People will look at us and see that we are offering some of the same products and services, etc. as other financial institutions, but we are doing it in a way that benefits the customers more than the norm. For instance, you asked me earlier about other institutions who aren’t disclosing fees up front. I think that the transparency we give is one of the things that makes us different. We disclose everything right from the beginning, in fact, we over-explain really. I think that’s one of the things that make us different is that we are honest. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t legitimately believe that we are helping people. Obviously, we are a company and we need to make money, but if we can come to work every day and be happy knowing you can really help people, that’s something to be proud of. Every single person here feels that way about our products.

Q. Great! Well thank you for your time!

CW – No problem! I hope this helped to clear up some questions. Have a great day!