I have now had some time to utilize various bank online capabilities. And I have come to the conclusion unfortunately, that not many employees at the firm are using the applications the way they want the clients to. For any financial firm who offers online capabilities, there are five things I wish they would do:
- Figure out the real voice of the customer and use it to judge the application. Remember user groups? They seem to have fallen by the wayside. Someone is deciding what functionality should be prioritized as part of a digital strategy…..but is it a market segment of one? Pick employees in the organization to represent your own internal user group. They have to log in and actually use the online system…particularly at high stress times like tax time, quarter end. It’s amazing the basic stuff that’s missing: new functionality links embedded too deep into the application, incorrect or missing data, system not up yet even though the market’s open, confusing emails regarding amended 1099s…the list goes on and on.
- Do side by sides with the competition: understand what your competitors are offering. Where do you need to catch up, what can you ignore? The variability in capability is wide enough that it’s worth watching…enough of a gap may make someone move their business elsewhere.
- Monitor customer annoying metrics: downtimes, unavailability of capabilities even though the system is up, number of requests for documents not kept on line (e.g. images of checks), client complaints.We tend to measure what we do well (love the all green status reports) or what’s easy to measure. And don’t assume your servicing makes up for glitches. One customer rep told me that “the clients don’t know how to use the online system and how to log in the system so we’re mailing them their amended 1099s.” What?!
- Be relentless with whether or not new functionality is/was a good idea. How many times did a user actually use the functionality? Why? Low usage could be for many reasons….but it should warrant a conversation.
- Define context. Applications can feel like a bunch of capabilities thrown together…a budgeting tool here, a wealth management tool there, a payment capability at point of entry. While capabilities are important, understanding the “because” is even more so……e.g. this is the application I use to monitor how much investment income I received this month BECAUSE I am saving for a house, looking to retire, etc. So it’s important for me to see dividend income, after-tax impact, or a recommendation on what to do with my free cash. Sometimes we get distracted by random capabilities which don’t fit the context, and therefore, don’t fill a need.