Client Story: Freedom First Credit Union

Freedom First Credit Union ($1.2 billion assets) serves over 60,000 members with a mission of "helping people prosper and helping communities thrive." Since its humble beginnings in 1956 with $40 in assets, Freedom First has grown into a successful credit union that prioritizes creating a positive impact for their members and community. 

Telina Hiser, VP of the Contact Center, has been at Freedom First Credit Union long enough to remember what it was like before Ginny, their Posh Voice Assistant. Before self-service was the default. Before a member calling about a lost debit card got an answer in seconds instead of a hold queue.

AMIE was the credit union's old telephone teller system, reliable…until it wasn't. Members calling in with routine questions faced longer than ideal waits, and after-hours calls were handled by a third-party overflow provider. Although the system worked, it was expensive, and it left Freedom First's own employees cleaning up things the outside provider couldn't fully resolve.

Sarah Andrews, EVP & COO of Freedom First, recalls her experience deciding to upgrade: “As an organization, we recognized an opportunity to modernize the member experience by implementing a more comprehensive solution than a traditional IVR. We wanted an all-in-one platform that could do more than provide basic account information, helping us better understand callers’ needs and route members to the employees best equipped to assist them.”

“We selected Posh because of their specialized focus on applying AI specifically within financial institutions, enabling us to improve operational efficiency while continuing to deliver a high level of service to our members.”

The Shift to “Ginny”

In September 2022, Freedom First replaced their full phone menu with Ginny, Posh's Voice Assistant product. Ginny answers questions, follows up by text when needed, and authenticates members before handing a live agent full context the moment a call needs a human.

Freedom First hasn't stopped there. Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency support gave members who don't want to talk to a bot a button-press option, which has helped win over reluctant callers. Spanish-language service came next. Additionally, an SMS option lets a caller get a link to self-serve on the website before they're ever routed to an agent. Posh’s Content Studio gives Telina room to quickly react and make changes herself. When a branch had to close for a day due to a power outage, she updated Ginny's opening message easily, flagging the closure and the day it would reopen without an IT ticket, and could just as easily take the update down remotely from home once it was no longer needed.

Ginny keeps the credit union running outside business hours too. Callers can still check their balance or handle routine tasks any time, and if they do need a person, she routes them to the right queue instead of a generic one.

Ginny also remembers context through the conversation. If a caller says they are calling about a credit or debit card, she routes them into that flow. Even if they later ask for "an agent," she doesn't send them to a general queue, she uses what they already said to route them to the right one."That's a prime example of her remembering more from the beginning of the conversation," Telina says. "That's a really successful chat."

Today, Ginny greets roughly 910,000 calls a year and fully resolves 65% of calls. For a contact center of just 7 agents, that's real room to breathe. Retiring AMIE and the third-party overflow provider has provided significant cost savings for Freedom First.

Knowledge That Doesn't Live in One Person's Head

Alongside Ginny, Freedom First uses Posh's Knowledge Assistant “Millie” to give contact center, loan operations, deposit operations, collections, and branch staff instant answers, reducing reliance on policy documents or institutional knowledge.

Posh's Knowledge Assistant has become as much a training tool as a reference tool. One recently hired agent had the second-highest number of questions asked to Millie of anyone on the entire team within her first month. Another new hire began asking hundreds of questions per day after gaining access to Millie. 

Without it, that same volume of questions would have gone to current agents instead, pulling them away from their own work. Knowledge Assistant absorbs that load, giving new hires answers at their fingertips and even helps draft compliant emails and documents, so ramping up doesn't come at the cost of everyone else's time. Today, Millie fields roughly 2,200 questions a month across the team, with Account Opening, Mortgage Application & Documents, and Fees & Charges topping the list of most-asked topics.

Practice Before It's Real

Freedom First's training team also uses Posh's Simulator to prepare employees for real member interactions before they ever happen. New hires get to practice in a low-stress, controlled environment, building muscle memory and confidence long before they're facing those same situations with an actual member.

The team has built out simulations around some of the most sensitive conversations employees face, including elder abuse concerns, past-due accounts, and members who refuse to provide identification, giving staff a safe place to rehearse before the stakes are real. Simulator has also become a coaching tool for leaders, offering a similar way to practice difficult workplace conversations before having them.

The clearest signal of impact has been employee feedback. Staff members consistently say practicing in Simulator leaves them feeling more prepared and confident once they're working with members directly, smoothing the jump from training to the real thing. As the training team states, Simulator effectively "bridges the gap between knowledge and real-world application."

Agents Freed Up for the Conversations that Matter

With balance checks, PIN resets, and simple lookups off their plate, Freedom First's team can spend real time where it counts. "They enjoy their job even more because they’re able to spend less time on routine requests and more time helping members navigate situations that require personal attention," Telina says.

Where It Goes From Here

Freedom First is now exploring Posh's Coach QA to enable them to scale quality assurance efforts. They're also continuing to expand Spanish-language service and growing Knowledge Assistant's use across branches. Posh's Partnership for Life means constant support whenever Freedom First needs it. Telina notes their Posh partnership contact is “right on top of things” and responds within a day. Her advice to another credit union considering Posh: "It's been a big upgrade for us in the contact center. I would highly recommend it."