TABLET APPLICATION

Account opening
self-service iPad app

B2C • Product Design • Service Design • User Experience Design • Interface Design • Responsive Forms

Results

Reduced a possible 1-2 week customer experience down to only 10 minutes.  The update delivered an increased uptake of cross-sales (ISA's & Insurance) and meant less personal bankers' time required for account openings. 

Challenge

In the previous year of this programme, the business opened 900,000 new bank accounts with 97% opened in high street branches and only 3% opened online. Customers had to wait 1-2 weeks for an appointment and spend 40-60 minutes per appointment to open an account, often requiring a second appointment if documents were missing. This resulted in a slow and resource-intensive experience for both customers and this retail bank.

Scope

UX Strategy
User Research
Usability Testing
Service Design
Stakeholder Management
Information Architecture
UX Copywriting
Design System

Original in-branch experience

• 97% of accounts opened in-branch
• 1-2 weeks time for an appointment
• Old systems, Too Many data points
• Each appointment = 40-60 minutes
• Awkward cross-selling
• 60% of staff time opening accounts

Challenges

How was the current in-branch account opening experience working for both the business and its customers?

Customers

• Not at consumers convenience
• Long waiting times 
• Long appointment durations
• Second appointments required
• Unclear customer questions
• Inefficient data entry
• Cross-selling unwanted by 60%
• Irrelevant questions

Business

• High costs to open accounts
• Most accounts opened in-branch 
• Extra staff required for demand
• Slow application processing
• Difficult to support non-UK nationals
• Customer loss to competitors
• 87% drop off online 

Above: Welcome page for the responsive account opening online experience

Online experience into the branch

Using the research completed for the online account opening experience the next logical step was to bring this touch optimised experience into the high street branches where banking staff could immediately assist customers with the correct documentation requirements, one of the biggest challenges within the process.

Optimised experience with the second iteration of this service design

With learnings gathered through the initial development of the online account opening experience, we were able to further improve the experience with its second iteration, streamlining and simplifying complexities from the original implementation.

Aove: User interface design for improve progression tracking for account opening experience in-branch

Above: Sample interface design for in-branch iPad experience

Prototype testing in-branch with customers

Testing within the environment that a customer would naturally interact with the experience was invaluable. It meant that we were able to witness first hand challenges around labelling and copywriting of signage. This gave us the opportunity to iterate before the installation of the offering.

An important lesson was if you want to draw attention to a valuable product offering than an entire space should be taken into consideration when bringing services into a branch.

From left to right: iPad fixed onto desk with chair, pens & pad for note taking, iPad securely fixed into desk to avoid theif, Initial sign posting directing customers to the iPad experience

Additional systems design components

Below is a selection of some of the additional components we added as part of this project to the Banks responsive system design for the account opening programme. 

Above: New components added to the banking design system to improve the customers' user experience

Results

Above: Current in-branch account opening experience 

300 + High street branches

The initial phase of the in-branch iPad account opening experience was so successful that role out of the solution to 300+ branches was agreed as part of the programme development strategy

• Reduction from 40 to 10 minutes for the account opening process in-branch
• Account openings now available for walk-in customers
• Reduced waiting time for scheduled appointments
• Increased awareness of additional products; ISA, Mortgages, Insurance etc
• Simplification of the process of account opening
• Freed up Personal Bankers time