In February, Callahan & Associates welcomed 12 employees of Credit Union Student Choice to a private two-day Peer-to-Peer Bootcamp in St. Petersburg, FL. Callahan’s Peer-to-Peer Bootcamps are designed for users who are interested in learning how Peer-to-Peer’s performance benchmarking tools can help them do their jobs more efficiently.
Here, one of the Student Choice representatives who attended the event, Sami Stanley, client relations manager, discusses why she attended Callahan’s Bootcamp, her biggest takeaways, and how the information has helped her do her job better.
What were you hoping to accomplish by attending the Peer-to-Peer Bootcamp?
Sami Stanley: My role is to support Suzanne Wilkins, director of strategic partnerships, in her job. I do that by trying to find new prospects for her to target or pull information she thinks might help her while she’s out on the road with current clients. It was nice to see those tools demoed at the bootcamp, live, face-to-face.
Since attending, how do you feel the bootcamp has helped you do your job better?
SS: For me, it’s helpful to see which credit unions offer private student loans and find who their provider is. But the biggest tool that I use it for right now is prospecting. I can run a comparable with prospects to existing clients, easily plug in their information, and see how they compare. I know there’ll be other reports in the future where this tool will come in handy, too.
In the months you’ve been using it, any anecdotes that show how much time it’s saved you or any conversations you’ve had that have been different or better?
SS: I still have a lot to learn. It’s a handy tool and I love using the support where I hit the live chat option and an analyst is quick to respond to my request and willing to jump on a call.
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Can you talk about the instruction you received? How was it different than what you’ve seen at other training sessions? Did you find it valuable?
SS: I think most people are hands-on learners, but I am an extremely hands-on learner. It was absolutely beneficial to be face-to-face I can’t imagine doing the bootcamp on a web call or on the phone. Plus, we then have that relationship built so we don’t feel bad when we ask basic questions; we feel comfortable reaching out to ask for help. And our instructors did an amazing job. The really custom-build the content to what our work is. We’re not a credit union. We’re a CUSO, so our work is a little different. They tailored it to our needs.
What was your biggest takeaway from the bootcamp?
SS: I was blown away with how many fields there are in Peer-to-Peer all the different formulas. We barely hit the tip of the iceberg, I think. But for me, it was huge to know what’s there. Now, can I go use all the data in there on my own right now? I might stumble and need help. But it’s valuable to know what it does overall, so we can know what we can pull to do better comparisons for our clients.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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