California Credit Union Adds Chat to Mobile Offerings

LivePerson announced Tuesday a new customer of its mobile chat product: San Diego County Credit Union.

Mobile chat, which is designed to improve the customer service experience, lets members communicate with agents while using a mobile app.

In addition to basic chat, LivePerson's (LPSN) software provides screen sharing and visual cues that allow agents to point to places on the app to show customers where to tap, swipe or flick. It works with native iOS apps and iOS- and Android-optimized mobile sites.

San Diego County Credit Union (SDCCU) is making the mobile chat feature available on its mobile site, www.sdccu.com. Integrating the chat function with its mobile apps is next on the credit union's to-do list. SDCCU, which is the tenth largest credit union in the U.S., first introduced mobile banking in 2009.

The credit union is well ahead of the curb. Few banks added live chat to their mobile offerings. RBS and NatWest have launched a mobile text-based chat function for their business banking customers. USAA, Citi and ING Direct are testing video chat for their mobile apps, to provide personal assistance with more complex financial needs such as wealth management and mortgages. Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), Huntington (HBAN), PNC (PNC) and Webster Bank (WBS) are among the banks that offer live web chat on their online banking sites.

Meanwhile, banks are also incorporating chat features into their social media sites efforts. Citi, for example, uses LivePerson chat tools that work with social-media sites like Twitter and allow customer conversations to move offline.