What Happens When Members Choose to Call Back 

By now, the idea of member-led engagement probably makes intuitive sense. 

Let members hear the message. 
Let them decide when to engage. 
Have better conversations as a result. 

The natural next question is the practical one: 

Does this actually work when you put it into the real world — at scale, with real constraints and real outcomes on the line? 

For many credit unions, that question comes up most clearly around dormant or at-risk accounts. 

The Challenge: Reaching Members Without Chasing Them 

Dormant accounts are a familiar problem. 

Members drift. 
Balances sit untouched. 
Accounts edge closer to escheatment. 

The traditional response is outbound dialing — repeated attempts to reach members before a deadline. It’s labor-intensive, time-sensitive, and often frustrating for both sides. 

Staff make the calls. 
Members don’t answer. 
And when they do, the conversation starts rushed or guarded. 

The pressure is real, but the approach doesn’t always match it. 

A Different Approach to a Familiar Problem 

One credit union faced this exact situation with a large group of dormant member accounts approaching escheatment. 

Instead of assigning staff to weeks of outbound dialing, they tried something different. 

They delivered a clear, respectful voicemail message explaining the situation and inviting members to call back if they wanted to take action. 

No live calls. 
No repeated attempts. 
No urgency imposed mid-conversation. 

Just information — delivered — and space. 

What Changed When Members Called Back 

The difference showed up almost immediately in the conversations themselves. 

Members who called back: 

• Already understood why the credit union was reaching out
• Weren’t surprised or defensive
• Came prepared to act 

Instead of spending the first minute explaining the call, staff could move directly into helping. 

Over the course of the campaign, 85% of the targeted dormant accounts were reactivated. 

Just as importantly, this happened without increasing agent workload. Connect with us to learn more. 

Why the Results Weren’t an Accident 

The outcome wasn’t about a clever script or a lucky audience. 

It came from changing the starting point of the conversation. 

By allowing members to: 

• Hear the message on their own time
• Decide whether and when to respond
• Initiate the call themselves 

The credit union removed friction from the interaction. 

That small shift — from chasing to inviting — made a measurable difference. 

Fewer Conversations, Better Outcomes 

One of the quieter benefits of this approach was efficiency. 

There were: 

• Fewer total attempts
• Fewer unproductive conversations
• Less emotional drain on staff 

The calls that did happen mattered. 

They moved faster. 
They felt collaborative. 
They led to resolution. 

That’s a very different kind of scale. 

This Isn’t Just About Dormant Accounts 

The same dynamic shows up in other outreach scenarios: 

• Collections conversations that start calmer
• Product awareness calls that feel timely instead of salesy
• Member service interactions that begin with context, not confusion 

When members choose to engage, the entire tone of the relationship shifts slightly — but meaningfully. 

The New Question Becomes Operational 

At this point, most credit unions see the appeal. 

The next concern is practical: 

If more members call back, how do we handle that volume without overwhelming our team? 

That’s the final piece of the puzzle. 

In the next post, we’ll look at what happens when member-led engagement works too well — and how thoughtful pacing turns success into something sustainable.