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September 25, 2001
Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Illinois processes "Credit When Credit Is Due" course registrations for American Family Insurance. Insurance clients who successfully pass the credit education course receive a discount on their insurance policies because they are statistically lower-risk customers.
For over a year, CCCS has been processing these registrations through the postal mail. With hundreds of registrations per week, this resulted in a huge data entry/paperwork load. The goal of the AMFAMCreditCourse.org web site is to shift much of that load off of CCCS by automating most of the registration process. This presents us with the core solution to many of the problems which CCCS was encountering in processing course registrations. Problems and solutions associated with this web site were:
Problem: too much manual data entry, resulting in data errors and a need for more data entry workers.
Solution: take client data entered on the site, validate it using advanced data validation techniques, and copy that data directly to the registrations database. This means no data entry by CCCS staff, and a greatly reduced number of data errors.
Problem: too many course registration payments were returned because of insufficient funds or an invalid payment type.
Solution: only credit cards are accepted through the web site, and they are validated in real-time to ensure that the card is valid and payment is authorized.
Problem: too much lag time between clients sending registrations, and actually receiving course materials.
Solution: online course registrations are visible immediately to CCCS staff, who process those registrations by the next business day.
Problem: CCCS staff was fielding many phone calls and emails from insurance clients and agents with various questions about the Credit When Credit Is Due course.
Solution: An FAQ is on the web site, which answers all of the questions commonly asked. More popular questions automatically "bubble to the top" of the list, making it easier for site visitors to use.
Problem: many people are hesitant to give their private information out over the Internet, especially when it concerns their credit rating.
Solution: a detailed security statement is included on the web site, which explains how the site uses industry-standard SSL encryption to encrypt all data gathered through the web site.
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