Granite CU: Four New Branches, No New Staff

More Members. Better Service. Zero Hiring. 

What if you could open new branches without adding staff—while actually offering better one-on-one care to members who need it?

With virtual labor, you can. Just ask Granite Credit Union. 

Granite uses Glia AI to automate routine inquiries, eliminate tedious tasks for agents and managers, and take a smarter approach to staffing. As a result, Granite’s frontline team has more time for member support while leaders can focus on growing the business rather than growing their team. 

It all speaks to the real impact of virtual labor: Granite has opened four new branches, expanded service for its Spanish-speaking members, and improved member satisfaction—no extra staff required. 

Here’s how they’ve pulled it off. 

Overcoming Legacy Limitations

Founded in 1935 by seven educators, Utah's Granite Credit Union serves over 35,000 members across 10 counties. Along the way, Granite has continuously adapted its member service approach to stay true to its motto: “Always there…so you can make life happen.”

As Granite grew, it began to outgrow its legacy CCaaS solution. One challenge stood out: Granite’s in-branch and contact center teams relied on separate platforms, leading to a disjointed member experience and staffing inefficiencies. When Granite’s contact center was overloaded with high call volume, Granite’s in-branch staff were unable to help out—even if they had extra capacity. Adding to the staffing inefficiencies was a lack of reporting and analytics tools, making it hard for Granite to optimize workforce planning for peak hours.

Granite’s legacy CCaaS systems led to a host of other problems, including:

• Limited call center solution, no self-serve, and lack of digital channels led to long wait times and high abandonment  
• Lack of bilingual support added barriers for Granite’s growing Spanish-speaking population
• Agents were bogged down by tedious tasks like searching for information and post-interaction record-keeping
• Manual quality assurance processes drained valuable time that managers could otherwise use to coach and train agents

These constraints didn't just hinder Granite CU's service goals; they limited long-term scalability. To deliver on its always-there promise and position itself for continued success, the credit union knew it needed to upgrade its tech—and knew exactly who to turn to. 

AI Efficiency and Human Support on One Platform

In Glia, Granite had a partner to solve its diverse, wide-ranging needs. “We wanted a unified solution that could handle phone support, digital engagement, and multilingual service without the complexity of managing multiple vendors,” said Cindy Clark, Granite’s Chief Information Officer. “The Glia platform checked all of those boxes.” 

Working closely together, Glia and Granite formed a plan that would use Voice AI, virtual labor, and automation to clear the path for better service, smarter planning, and long-term growth:

• Glia Voice and Glia Digital gave Granite one AI-powered platform to improve member service and unify its in-branch and call-center teams
• Glia Virtual Assistants—built specifically for credit unions and banks—acted as virtual labor, automating routine inquiries in English and Spanish so agents had more time to assist members who needed personal assistance 
• Voice AI routed callers to the right agent with full context, ensuring staff always knew why members were calling and freeing them up to offer faster, more personalized service
• Agent AI offered staff real-time coaching and automated interaction wrap-ups, resulting in less manual work and more time to reinvest in member relationships
• Manager AI gave leaders instant insights for coaching and workforce planning, paving the way for Granite to get more out of each agent—without asking them to do more
• SMS Messaging let Granite send bulk payment due date and delinquent loan notice reminders, freeing up agents from tedious manual work

With its plan in place, Granite was excited to execute. The results proved every bit as impactful as Granite had hoped.

Saving 1400 Hours of Labor, Opening 4 New Branches

By deploying the Glia Virtual Assistant (GVA), Granite uses virtual labor to handle routine inquiries—freeing up agents to focus on more complex member issues. The bilingual GVA provides language-specific support to both English- and Spanish-speakers, 24/7, leading to a remarkable 81.3% containment rate.

At the same time, Granite has improved call routing and queue management using Glia Voice. By more efficiently getting callers to the right agent at the right time, Granite has slashed call abandonment rates by over 50%. 

Members clearly love accessing language-specific, “always there” assistance: Digital satisfaction scores have soared to an impressive 4.7 out of 5 since Granite launched its digital GVA.

For agents, Glia AI has delivered measurable productivity and efficiency gains, thanks to:

• AI Transfer Summary prepping agents with context before helping members
• Agent Assist GVA offering agents real-time coaching and surfacing reference materials during interactions
• Interaction Wrap-Up automating all post-call work

These features have helped Granite’s agents lower handle times by 25%—and freed up an astounding 1,400 hours of agent time in just four months, comparable to gaining a full-time employee without the added cost. 

With Glia’s unified platform and AI features, Granite now has the ability to strategically turn agent time savings into benefits across the business:

• The Glia Platform lets the in-branch staff serve as overflow support for call center staff, thanks to all team members now using the same tech instead of separate systems 
• Forecast Analyst gives Granite’s leaders AI-powered insights to predict peak and off-peak periods, so Granite can prepare for heavy volume with the right mix of call center and in-branch staffing
• Ask AI lets managers review calls 10x faster, giving them more time to offer coaching to agents who now have more time to focus on skills development

By empowering agent productivity and making smart workforce decisions, Granite has set itself up to scale. Since turning to Glia, the credit union has opened four new branches without adding staff. Even more impressively, their member service is now stronger than ever. 

Turning AI Efficiency Gains Into Better Service

More Availability, Any Language, Any Communication Mode

Thanks to the bilingual Glia Virtual Assistant (GVA), Granite now offers automated language-specific support. With virtual labor handling routine inquiries in both languages, Granite’s agents have more time to meet the unique needs of its diverse membership. In particular, Granite’s Spanish-speaking agents have more time to serve its growing Spanish-speaking population—whether in-branch, online, or over the phone.

“Certain members still like to interact face-to-face,” Clark said. “Others call on the phone only when they can’t make it into the branch. As member preferences evolve, and as new members come on, we expect some of that volume to naturally change, too.”

While member needs will shift over time, Granite now offers them around-the-clock service, 365 days a year, without adding headcount.

“If a member wants to do their banking at 11 p.m., we can now offer them that ability,” says Cindy Clark. “We don’t always need an agent waiting on the other side.”

Service With Empathy, Backed By AI

As virtual labor offers more availability to Granite’s members, it also paves the way for better human service. 

AI Transfer Summary provides reps with rundowns of previous interactions before assisting members. This not only eliminates redundant questions and enables faster problem-solving, but allows for agents to provide personalized, empathetic service. 

“Before even talking to a member, reps know if they’re going through a challenging life event, like losing a job,” says Clark. “Reps can immediately put that member at ease rather than asking them to re-tell a difficult story.”

Faster Answers, Faster Onboarding, Faster Growth

With the Glia Platform, Granite’s agents find it significantly easier to do their jobs—leading to quicker onboarding and more scalability for the credit union. 

“With Glia, our agents no longer need to move between different applications,” says Clark. “They’re able to do everything in one platform—from a digital engagement to a video chat or CoBrowsing or voice. This creates a seamless experience for members while making life much easier for staff, too.”

Granite's agents have also taken advantage of a powerful ally in their day-to-day work: the Agent Assist feature. With real-time answer suggestions and agent coaching and prompting, Agent Assist GVA helps agents work more efficiently, in effect reducing the costs of onboarding and training. 

Rachel Winn, Systems Administrator, raves about Agent Assist’s impact: "Our call center manager used to have sticky notes all over her desktop. Agent Assist has transformed this into a virtual system, pulling in information exactly when it's needed. It's like having an expert colleague always at your side, ready with the right information at the right moment."

Granite has also leveraged AI to accelerate one of the most time-consuming aspects of call center operations: post-call documentation. AI Interaction Wrap-Up automatically and accurately summarizes interactions in one concise, standardized format, allowing reps to quickly assist the next caller. 

Implementing AI Interaction Wrap-up has helped Granite free up an astounding 1,400 hours of agent time in just four months, comparable to gaining a full-time employee without the added cost. 

Granite’s AI efficiency is instrumental as it expands branches without adding headcount. It’s also unlocked a goldmine of insights for leaders like Clark.

Amplified Insights with Manager AI

While Clark’s agents had long wrestled with the tedious process of post-call surveys, Clark recognized a similarly tedious process for contact center leaders: quality assurance. 

"So many of us are spending so much time listening to phone calls just for quality assurance," Clark notes. Granite tackled this challenge head-on by implementing Ask AI, a powerful feature of Manager AI.

With Ask AI, managers now extract insights from Interaction Wrap-Up summaries simply by asking questions in natural language—no more laboriously listening to entire calls.

"We can now review ten calls in the time it previously took to analyze one,” says Winn. “We simply ask questions about the interaction in natural language, and the AI provides instant, unbiased insights."

This efficiency gain doesn’t just save time for leaders like Clark and Winn. It gives them the insights they need to optimize their operations—a huge driver of Granite’s scalability. As Clark puts it, "Now managers can actually manage rather than spending all their time getting the information they need to manage." 

The freedom to focus on strategic decision-making and agent development translates across the business. Leaders provide agents with timely, constructive feedback, fostering rapid skill development and improving service quality. For members, this translates to more personalized, efficient interactions and quicker resolutions—helping Granite deliver on its initial promise of “always there” service, wherever members need it.

“We recognize some members still want that personal touch, while others want these digital tools,” says Clark. “Glia helps us to meet our members where they want to be—to communicate the way they want to communicate—now and into the future.”

How Will You Use Your AI Efficiency Gains?

By improving member service and expanding its reach without adding headcount, Granite Credit Union proves that AI efficiency results in measurable growth for financial institutions like yours. But Granite’s success leaves one key question unanswered: What will AI make possible for your financial institution?

With Glia, you can turn AI efficiency into real impact across your organization. Reach out today to find out how we can help.

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