Southeast Financial Credit Union connects branches and boosts productivity

Overview: Southeast Financial Credit Union has elevated team collaboration by creating a unified workspace for accessing all calls, video conferences, chats, recordings, and analytics. Deploying 8x8 Work® and 8x8® Contact Center™ in parallel enables seamless transitions between contact centers and branches, boosting service efficiency, revenues, and positive member outcomes.

“The ability to switch incoming calls between our contact centers and branches positively impacts revenue. It helps us process customer requests for loans and mortgages more promptly, for example. That's definitely been a huge plus and something we couldn’t do before.”

Andy Lockhart

Director of IT, Southeast Financial Credit Union

Top financial expertise with a caring touchlink to this section

Headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, and present in 13 U.S. locations, Southeast Financial Credit Union guides members through life’s challenges to achieve greater financial stability and independence. The institution is known for personalized solutions that include loans, mortgages, credit cards, debt consolidation, and vehicle financing.

Unifying contact center and branch operations on one 8x8 cloud communications platform means the institution is even better placed to combine its trusted financial expertise with compassionate, responsive service. Leading this transformation was Director of IT, Andy Lockhart.

“I didn't jump right into IT—I actually started out in the insurance business,” Andy explains. “But, I’ve always liked taking things apart to understand how they work. Twenty-five years later, I still love helping people and seeing smiles when we solve their issues.”

Eliminating silos across contact centers and brancheslink to this section

The credit union ran three contact centers on siloed systems from Cisco, Avaya, and Cloud9. As a result, agents handling member services, loans, and payment collections were effectively stranded, with no way of enlisting support or bringing colleagues onto calls.

“It was like each contact center and branch was its own island,” says Andy. “Maintaining three different systems was expensive and time-consuming. Plus, we lacked the reporting tools we needed for performance tracking and compliance.”

Smooth migration to a unified cloud platformlink to this section

These legacy communication obstacles, together with strict requirements for customer privacy and data security, meant there was little scope for Southeast Financial employees to work from home. That all changed when Andy and his team implemented 8x8 Work® and 8x8® Contact Center™, in parallel in just 16 weeks.

“I had experience with 8x8 in a previous role and convinced our board it was the right path,” says Andy. “The actual changeover was incredible. There were zero hitches, and it couldn’t have gone any better. Our weekly check-in calls quickly became monthly because there was so little to troubleshoot. In fact, since moving to 8x8, we’ve only had one notable issue in six years.”

“I had experience with 8x8 in a previous role and convinced our board it was the right path. The actual changeover was incredible. There were zero hitches, and it couldn’t have gone any better.”

Andy Lockhart

Director of IT, Southeast Financial Credit Union

The unified UCaaS and CCaaS solution provides a standardized workspace across desktop and mobile. Now, Southeast Financial employees can instantly collaborate and access voice, video conferencing, chat, recordings, and analytics—boosting service efficiency and positive member outcomes.

The transformation paid off, especially at the start of the pandemic.

“We avoided a disaster when the pandemic struck,” adds Andy. “Having all employees and locations on the same 8x8 cloud platform simplified the switch to remote working. With the mobile app, our users can take calls on the go without exposing personal cell numbers, which also improves security.”

Productivity, visibility, and member satisfactionlink to this section

Productivity is estimated to have risen by 25% thanks to faster internal communication. Employees now resolve questions through real-time chat, calls, or video conferencing instead of waiting on email.

Unifying branch and contact center data gives employees a consistent member view, which improves first contact resolution and eliminates redundant follow-ups.

“The ability to switch incoming calls between our contact centers and branches positively impacts revenue,” says Andy. “It helps us process customer requests for loans and mortgages more promptly, for example. That's definitely been a huge plus and something we couldn’t do before.”

Additional benefits seen by Southeast Financial include real-time performance reporting, dropped call visibility, and supervisor tools for coaching new agents. These capabilities help reduce training time and increase service quality.

Strategic savings fuel innovationlink to this section

Consolidating three systems and vendor relationships has provided Southeast Financial with an annual cost saving of around $30,000—funds now reinvested in member and employee experience enhancements.

“We’ve built a strong partnership with 8x8,” Andy says. “It's not like working with other companies where they say they’ll get back to you and you’re left hanging. Our account team jumps on things right away. That’s allowed me to step out of managing phone systems, which we barely even touch now.”

Looking ahead, Southeast Financial is exploring 8x8 AI capabilities and CRM integration, two ready-to-go initiatives easily facilitated by the platform roadmap.

“I come from a family of teachers,” Andy adds. “And that's the culture that we’re creating here. We want our colleagues to feel excited when IT turns up and opens their eyes to fresh possibilities.”