Client Story: First Heritage Federal Credit Union

Founded in 1954, First Heritage Federal Credit Union serves more than 48,000 members across eleven counties in New York and Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Corning, NY and managing over $747 million in assets, it has earned "Best of the Twin Tiers" recognition four years running.

The Challenge: Fragmented Information and Inconsistent Answers

Before Posh, finding reliable information was a daily hurdle.

"A lot of our stuff was scattered, folders here, the intranet there. Nothing was really searchable," said Zach Saunders, Director of Retail Operations and Training. "I'd think, 'I know that's in a procedure,' but finding it could take hours."

Rather than dig, employees asked whoever was nearby. "That led to different answers depending on who you asked, lots of opinions instead of facts," Saunders added.

Members hit the same wall online. "The search functionality was pretty poor. It returned a bunch of unrelated results, and we had no analytics, no idea what members were searching for."

The Solution: A Strategic First Step into AI

The push came from the top. Dave Walker, Senior Vice President, had been tracking AI developments and saw a practical opportunity in Posh.

"This was our first leap into the world of AI," said Saunders. "Posh made it feel accessible and useful right away." The demo impressed the team, and so did the people behind it. "The product wowed us, and honestly, the team sealed the deal."

Knowledge Assistant launched in April 2024. Before going institution-wide, the team stress-tested it.

"I tried to break it," Saunders laughed. "We pushed hard on all the procedures, asking tons of questions, and ended up making changes to how some were written. It helped us improve our content just by showing us how the AI interpreted it."

Once refined, Knowledge Assistant went to the contact center first, then expanded across departments.

The Results: Faster Support, Stronger Service

"It's just faster. Our frontline can get to answers instantly, and members don't even realize they're looking anything up," said Saunders. "It's a seamless experience."

Members get shorter waits and fewer transfers. "Calls don't sit on hold as long. It's noticeable."

With Posh Answers, the marketing team also gained visibility into member search behavior on the website. "The analytics are huge. We finally know what our members are actually looking for, and we use that to refine our messaging and support."

Embracing a Culture of AI: New Hires Leading the Way

First Heritage now builds AI into onboarding from day one.

"We introduce new hires to Knowledge Assistant right away," said Saunders. "It's what they learn from the beginning, no outdated habits to unlearn. They get used to trusting it and using it naturally."

Newer employees are often the most engaged users, which pulls seasoned staff along behind them. "The ripple effect is real."

His advice to peers: "Really use the analytics. I spent months diving into the questions, and that insight is where the real power is."

Posh Simulator: The Skill You Can't Cover in a Procedure

Knowledge Assistant had solved the information problem. What it could not solve was the seconds after, when a new hire has to deliver that answer to a member who is frustrated or pushing back.

"Before Simulator, a lot of it during onboarding was role play. This is how we think the members will talk, what will you say back?" said Saunders. "In branch there was a lot of role playing. In the contact center we didn't have role play."

The gap was consistent.

"They're pretty good on the questions," Saunders said. "But, they freeze when the first member walks up to them. We saw a lack of soft, conversational skills."

It never showed up in the training budget. It showed up in operations.

"If you don't have the soft skills, then you have angry members. Lots of escalations," Saunders said. "That's where we saw a big cost. Extra added time because the skills weren't there."

“We saw the Simulator from our CSM, loved it, and thought, this is what we need." As existing customers, they already trusted the platform. 

Rollout: Easy Conversations First, Hard Ones Second

The order mattered. First Heritage started not with the hardest conversations but with the ones the team already felt good about.

"The first ones we focused on were the member education side, educating members on our products," said Saunders. "It made them comfortable talking to the simulator. An easy start."

Then they moved to the conversations that actually hurt.

"The next focus was on the upset and pushy member conversations," Saunders said. "We're rolling out a new payment processing system, and there are a few changes members may not be thrilled with. We just rolled out a scenario to help the team handle those upset members."

Note the timing for any institution with a conversion or fee change coming: the scenario was built for a known event, before the calls started.

The Moment It Clicked

Saunders knew the tool had taken hold when the next idea for it did not come from him.

"On the payment system project, using Simulator came up as an idea. That's where it hit me," he said. "People know about this and they're excited to use it. The employees brought it up, not even the training team."

His trainers spend their time differently now. "We're able to spend more time looking for the areas where the team is still struggling."

The feature employees mention most is the one that makes practice stop feeling like practice.

"They like the ability to have different types of avatars. It makes it very real," said Saunders. "One avatar is super nice, one is harder to work with. Every time you talk, it won't say the same thing."

Measurement is the deliberate next phase. "Our focus has been getting everyone up and running. Next we'll start to track."

Looking Ahead: The Group Nobody Formally Trains

The next expansion targets a population most institutions assume does not need practice.

"The next big part I'm going for is the management group," said Saunders. "We take for granted that you're a manager who knows what you're doing, but the soft skills with your team, having hard conversations with employees, that's the next set of this."

CoachQA is also on the roadmap, and it is what Saunders raises first when peers ask him about Simulator.

"So many prebuilt simulations are in there. If you don't have the time to do individual ones, the system has what you need," he said. "The part I love is that it integrates with CoachQA. You can take real calls and make them into simulations. You can take reality and put it into your training."

Three products in, the pattern holds: build trust with one implementation, then let the next use case come from the people using it.

"If we ever walked away from Posh," Saunders said, "I don't think we'd find another partner that could compare."