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Costa Rican Credit Union Studies Call Center

By Lionel Green - The Reporter

Officials from Community Credit Union welcomed seven of their Costa Rican counterparts to Albertville on Tuesday to share ideas and fellowship.

The Costa Ricans work for Coopenae credit union who partnered with Community through the World Council of Credit Unions.

Brenda Gunnells, Community’s branch manager in Albertville, said the visitors were in town to observe the customer service call center here. Coopenae opened a call center earlier this year.

“They just came to see how we operate,” Gunnells said. “We have 11 employees that answer the phones in our call center. It has been very good as far as doing things over the phone. Our employees have been trained to be versatile, and you get that good, personal service.”

Gunnells said the Costa Rican contingent is staying in Gadsden this week and plans to leave Friday after visits to Birmingham and Fort Payne.

Sheila Smith of Mueller Co. presented the visitors with fire hydrant souvenirs and City Clerk/Treasurer Carolyn Camp spoke during a lunch Tuesday at The Lumpkin House.

Johnny Gutierrez Soto of Coopenae said his company’s call center is similar to Community’s with one major difference.

“You can do transactions,” he said. “Our system, we cannot. Our call center is just for information and pre-analysis.”

Soto was making his first trip to Albertville. Costa Rica’s official language is Spanish, but Soto spoke and understood English quite well.

Costa Rica lies between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south with the North Pacific Ocean to the west and Caribbean Sea to the east.

“Costa Rica is a very nature country,” Soto said, referring to the lakes and biodiversity of the country’s forests. “We haven’t had a chance to see much of Albertville. It’s a very nice view.”

Soto said breakfast Tuesday morning was filling.

“We had a typical breakfast,” he said. “I wish I had enough stomach to eat it all.”

The eggs, sausage and bacon were somewhat different than a common breakfast in Costa Rica.

“We have gallo pinto,” Soto said.

Gallo pinto means “spotted rooster” and is a mixture of rice and beans.

David Eubanks, Community’s executive vice president of operations, enjoyed the meeting.

“Our group visited them last year,” said Eubanks. “We’ve exchanged a lot of good ideas. We’re really proud to be part of the World Council of Credit Unions where we can partner with someone like Coopenae.”

Gunnells said everyone felt comfortable immediately.

“I was very impressed with them — everybody was — and how excited they were to come to our area and compare services,” she said. “Service was a big issue with them. I think they were impressed with the area.”

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