Nelnet is one of the leading education finance companies in the United States and is focused on providing quality products and services to students and schools nationwide. Nelnet ranks among the nation's leaders in terms of total net student loan assets with $21.3 billion as of March 31, 2006. Nelnet provides college student loans and associated services to schools, vendors, guarantors, and online borrowers.
One of Nelnet's main products is their Consolidation Loan where consumers with existing Federal Government or Private student loans can consolidate those loans into one loan at the current rate. Nelnet offers a Premier Rate Guarantee which promises to offer the lowest rate available at the time of the application. This has enabled Nelnet to garner a large market share in the consolidated student loan business.
Every year on July 1, the Federal Government resets the Federal Student Consolidation Loan Interest Rate. The announcement is made at the end of May. If the rate will be going up, the Nelnet call center is swarmed with calls by consumers wanting to consolidate their loans before the increase goes into effect. Nelnet has one month before the rate increase to acquire the new customers. In prior years the call centers were unable to handle the call volume spikes and potential customers got busy signals, were put on hold, and business was lost.
This year Nelnet anticipated a greater challenge as the Federal Government was expected to increase the interest rate as much as 40%. The announcement would trigger thousands of calls to consolidate loans. It would be an opportunity to acquire thousands of new customers but that meant that every call would need to be taken without busy signals and hold queues.
Problem
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High call spikes the month of June as customers consolidate their student loans before interest rates increase on July 1
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Busy signals and hold queues means lost business as customers hang up and go to other loan consolidators
Solution
Benefits
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