John Kustomer has just opened a checking account at Acme Bank and is now visiting the bank's Web site to set up on-line bill pay. After noticing the broad array of services Acme Bank is featuring on its home page, he enters his user ID and password or PIN to access the secure online banking site. He completes the set-up for electronic bill pay, adds the bank's online utility page to his bookmarks or favorites list and leaves the site.
What's wrong with this picture? Simply stated: When John returns to use the bill pay service, he immediately enters the on-line utility, without ever returning to the bank's home page. Acme Bank has developed a highly competitive repertoire of services and spent millions on the design of its Web site in order to turn shoppers into customers. But once shoppers have signed up, they are buried at the level of a utility where they perform tasks without ever viewing the many offerings attractively displayed on the home page. As a result, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities are unlikely. How then can Acme Bank promote its low-interest credit cards, home equity loans and premium accounts to shoppers, as well as present a global, yet personalized, view of its full range of services to existing customers at the level of on-line utilities?
As consumers' appetite for self-service continues to grow, banks are offering on-line banking to kill two birds with one stone: reduce costs while giving consumers the convenience of 24/7 access. Why then has on-line banking not caught on as rapidly as expected? Perhaps the business model sends the wrong message-that it's more about the bank's convenience than the customer's. The solution is obvious: start with a foundation of customer value and build a user-centric, on-line banking model.
It's important to ensure a successful first-time experience. Good design can mitigate any fear people may have of on-line banking. Rather than confusing users with mysterious privacy links and security protocols, continually reinforce how safe on-line banking is, for example, with a simple, step-by-step user interface that shows a clear transactional sequence. Also, reassure users that they will receive confirmation at every step and can back out at any time. The key is not to give too much information during the first visit while still exposing customers to all the possibilities.
Present a holistic, 360-degree view of the customer's relationship combined with functionality. To convert visitors into consistent users, provide a view of the totality of the customer's relationship with the bank, such as a task-level page that not only lists all of the consumer's accounts with adequate detail, but also enables quick action. While many sites currently offer the high-level view, only a sub-set of the overall functionality remains once customers drill down to act on accounts.
Make sure offers are also shown in the context of the utility being accessed. Don't expect customers to leave the on-line banking utility to return to the home page for other services.
Regardless of where customers navigate, acknowledge who they are. Many sites force customers out of the secure utility into the open Web site when they click on a link to inquire about loans or credit cards. A preferable architecture continually recognizes customers as top priority regardless of where they navigate.
Use interjections to up-sell and cross-sell. The most effective way to cross-sell and up-sell is to interject offers as people are viewing their accounts or performing transactions. Content-specific interjections, meaningful in terms of the customer's relationship with the bank, will double click-through and halve alienation.
Don't structure the steps to perform simple tasks (e.g., paying a bill) around more complex scenarios (e.g., creating recurring payments). Keep high-frequency tasks straightforward while still providing a mechanism for exception tasks. And don't use banker terminology. What a bank may call a transfer is a payment to a customer. Make on-line banking simple with laymen's language.
Provide interim and final confirmation. Working with money creates stress which can be alleviated with printable confirmation at the conclusion of a transaction, as well as interim confirmations as appropriate.
Personalize and customize; don't expect users to do their own setup. Increase the likelihood of return visits by tracking what customers do and then asking if they would like to set this as a default.
Create a unique channel for high net-worth customers; support them high with unique services and greater feature functionality. This is a high market-growth area sure to narrow the gap between banks and investment management firms.
Build a one-stop shop on a modular, scalable architecture. Whether consumers are paying bills or researching securities, present a holistic yet personalized view, all in one space. A site that reflects the bank's fragmentation into divisions and functions looks incoherent and confusing to non-bankers.
The principle behind user-centered design is to think about site design in terms of the tasks the customer is trying to complete, not in terms of the functions it provides. User-centered design generates an effective, efficient and learnable interaction model that is easy to explain, easy to learn and hard to forget.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) provides a case study for the step-by-step redesign of several Web sites according to usability criteria. RBC began the process with its on-line banking site. Barbara Bushe, manager of Channel Usability Solutions, explains, "Our goal was to create a consistent standard for functionality, features, look and feel that would serve as a 'blueprint' that we could use to leverage and align our other transactional sites. The process took away all the guesswork and enabled us to quickly design new sites while cutting development time and costs."
The second target for redesign was RBC's investing site. "We first developed a long-term vision for the site and a roadmap with features and functionality objectives for several years," says Bushe. "We then created detailed design specifications to implement immediate goals and develop a prototype that could be demonstrated to business partners and customers. We conducted three rounds of testing and incorporated client feedback into the design. Test early and test often," Bushe advises. "The redesign of the investing site demonstrated the critical nature of user feedback and the value of user-centered design as a strategic business function," says Bushe. "Because our vision is to be the client's first choice, a focus on client-centered design is a natural fit."
Most banking sites lack integration and mirror the bank's internal organizational structure and legal entities. Thus, a shift from an organizational focus to a customer and task-centric orientation is the first prerequisite to a more integrated, unified customer experience. A second area in need of integration is the customer's view of the current banking relationship within the context of all the other services the bank has to offer. With good design, based on human factor principles, occasional users of specific utilities can be converted to expert on-line bankers who take full advantage of the bank's multiple services and money management tools. Institutions such as RBC have seen the benefits of this incremental approach to relationship building in terms of increased use of utilities, lower costs and greater uptake of services and offers.
Jerome I. Nadel is executive managing director of Human Factors International.
