Devoted to its customers and the communities it serves, First United Corporation is a one-bank holding company that is approaching two billion dollars in assets, nearly 30 full-service or drive-up offices, and a customer service center.
The Challenge: An old and outdated contact center solution
First United Bank & Trust is a community bank, headquartered in Oakland, Maryland, that serves communities in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. For over a decade, the bank relied on Lumen’s on-premises Genesys solution.
First United began looking for a cloud platform that would help bring the organization into the future. The IT team was looking for a solution that offered an omnichannel approach with a top-notch MS Teams integration, excellent support, and a joint UC + CC platform.
With guidance from Bridgeport, a third-party technology advisory firm, First United evaluated 8x8 as well as other potential vendors, including RingCentral, Zoom, and Nextiva.
In the end, First United chose 8x8 to lead the company into the digital future. The decision came down to flexibility, a contact center solution certified for Microsoft Teams, and first-rate support from 8x8’s advisors.
The Solution: Partnering 8x8 + MS Teams
“The sales folks on the 8x8 team were quick and proactive, which was a big part of our evaluation,” says AJ Tasker, Vice President and Director of Information Technology at First United.
First United hit the ground running with cloud-based 8x8 Contact Center, establishing call flows, queues, and auto-responses. The contact center also takes advantage of 8x8 Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, combining two powerful communications solutions into one, seamless agent experience.
“Like any other project, the more due diligence you do up front, the more successful it is,” explains Tasker. “We looked through all 8x8’s features line by line, considering what we wanted to incorporate. The project team on the 8x8 side helped us to get everything programmed—it went really well.”
Together, 8x8’s agents and First United worked on a migration plan that suited the bank’s unique needs and goals. They chose a go-live date that made sense and put a rollout plan in place to ensure the goal could be reached on time. When it came to training and getting the customer service team up and running on the system, First United relied on 8x8’s 88 Second Guides and 8x8 University, which provided on-demand courses and quick tutorials on different features and functionality.
In the short term, First United’s focus is on building the best contact center possible with 8x8 + MS Teams, in order to provide excellent service to their customers on a variety of channels. Next, they plan to transition their internal communications away from their PBX.
The Result: Simple, smooth, and streamlined
“From the technical side, our migration to 8x8 was very smooth,” says Tasker. “We signed the contract in September and were live by November, with little to no snags.”
Without leaving Teams, First United agents can send and receive texts, calls, and multimedia messages, securely with customers, colleagues and partners, all while staying compliant and using their 8x8 business number.
“The chat piece in particular is really seamless,” says Christy Price, First United’s Customer Service Center Manager. “We did have a chat feature several years back, and it was a standalone and much more difficult. This has been effortless.”
