Loyalty Credit Union Goes Live with Authenticated Chat Through Eltropy and Mahalo Integration

Loyalty Credit Union, a seven-branch credit union serving members across the Florida Panhandle, has gone live with authenticated chat powered by an integration between Eltropy and Mahalo, its online banking provider. The integration lets members chat with Loyalty's AI-powered virtual assistant, Lumi, and connect directly with live staff, on both web and mobile, without going through a separate authentication process.
​
With the Mahalo and Eltropy integration in place, Loyalty Credit Union has extended its chat capabilities to cover both web and mobile. Members can now engage in secure, authenticated conversations that move from the virtual assistant to live staff, without interruption, and without having to re-verify their identity along the way. With the integration in place, members logged into their Mahalo account are already verified when they open a chat session. If a conversation moves to a live team member, the agent picks it up with identity confirmed, and the routing reflects what the member asked about: a mortgage question goes to the lending team, not a general queue.

"We're able to launch right into a conversation about the member's immediate need, giving them instant information or assistance," said Jessica Herring, Vice President of Member Experience at Loyalty Credit Union. “And now we can do that on mobile, too."

Since going live, average chat session duration has dropped from 4.84 minutes to 2.93 minutes (a 40% reduction) as agents no longer need to walk members through identity verification before getting to the actual question. Incoming chat volume is also running 13.41% above the prior month's pace, with the month still not complete, driven largely by members now reaching Lumi through the mobile app for the first time.

The credit union has worked to make sure the human side of the experience holds up. When a member moves from Lumi to a live agent, they may still reach Carol or Debra – two Loyalty team members with more than 30 years at the credit union, known by name across the membership. For members new to digital banking tools, that familiar handoff matters.

"Lumi allows us to simplify the easy conversations and show up for the rest," Herring said. "That's what Eltropy does best. And that's what we do best."

Loyalty chose Eltropy in 2024 following a competitive evaluation. The credit union cited Eltropy's partnership approach, including on-site demos and access to the Eltropy user conference, as the deciding factor. "I have never had a support issue where I can't get a hold of someone, or where they don't jump to make something happen," Herring said. "It's the best vendor relationship I've ever experienced."

Loyalty plans to expand its Eltropy deployment to include Video Banking and is also tracking Mahalo's rollout of a new fraud monitoring tool that uses AI to detect out-of-pattern behavior, flag potential imposters, and limit account access without blocking legitimate members.

"The Eltropy side is pretty mind-blowing," Herring said. "Working with them, we've gone from zero to 100 in our call center and member-facing technology."