Better Online Customer Experiences for Financial Services Firms by Karen Donoghue, HumanLogic The Internet empowers investors to directly access financial information and execute transactions in a real-time environment. Though demand for online financial services continues to grow, many financial sites do not deliver optimal value to the customer: they are often hard to navigate and fail to meet target users' needs. As a result, financial services firms are leaving money on the table by failing to create customer experiences driven by customers' needs and goals, and convert browsers to buyers. Planning and developing an online customer experience strategy that creates value for a financial services firm and for their customers takes attention to marrying the needs of the customer to the business goals of the institution. Focus on Target Users Different types of users value different online environments and functionality. Day traders want lightning-fast access to market data and news and the ability to do one-click trading, often from a wireless, handheld device. Employees managing their 401k plans want an easy-to-access, online customer relationship that makes them feel their money is secure. Institutional money managers want fast access to business-relevant news and information. At the outset of planning a web strategy, clearly define the target user segment(s) that your site will serve as well as their technology platform and aptitude. Analyze User and Business Goals A successful web strategy must be driven jointly by user goals and business requirements, not by technology. Rigorously define the target customer's goals, needs and processes in terms of how they will impact the user experience from the customer's perspective. Similarly, define the goals of the business. Table 1 illustrates this analysis performed for an online retirement planning site. User Goals   Business Goals Clearly understand investment alternatives Gain leadership position in ease of use Personalized and secure access to investment planning Gain leadership position in personalization and security Clear direction on how to enroll Increase the number of participants by 10% Monitor investment performance Make it compelling for participants to stay connected and engage with site Better and faster, more efficient enrollment Grow participant wallet share over time Universal access (i.e. home, work) Retain an increased number of customers Know that retirement planning is in good hands   Benchmark with Competitive Offerings Concurrent to defining the goals of target customers is the critical step of assessing the competition's site offerings and determining their strengths and weaknesses. Where they've failed, you have opportunity to entice customers to use your online services instead. Where have your competitors made compromises in their customer experience strategy? Have they incorrectly targeted their users, and does that leave open an opportunity to better satisfy customers? Are there tactics that can give you an advantage? In the example of a retirement planning site: Have your competitors forgotten to place the most critical information - the account balances - in an easy-to-access location? Analyzing competitive sites enables you to target weaknesses and look for opportunities to excel and differentiate your offering. Establish which are the best online user experiences for financial services in your target market, and why. In the world of online financial portals, Yahoo Finance! stands out as a leader because of its efficient user experience and no-frills rapid access to stock quotes and news feeds. Though the site is low on visual sizzle, it's utility that counts: the data feeds and speed are the aspects of the site that offer the real value to its target users. Validate the User Analysis After defining the target customer's goals and workflow, validate your assessment with potential users and adjust as needed, and establish any additional goals and requirements. In the case of building a retail day trading site, validate with the target users what they want to access. I recently had a project where a site evolved from "news-centric" to "security-centric". Users told the design team that they didn't want to search for and read financial news, they just wanted to trade quickly and easily. Own the Customer Experience Assemble a cross-departmental team of employees who will collectively own and champion the customer experience and who will represent the needs and values of the customer. For example, a strategy team can include members from marketing, IT, operations, customer sales/support and legal/compliance. Unique to financial services firms is the need to ensure that compliance is part of the early stage process of planning so that any legal issues can be dealt with rapidly as the strategy moves through stages of development. Define Metrics for Success Create benchmarks to quantifiably measure the success of the site, from both the business perspective and from that of the target users. If an increase in the number of new online accounts is a measure of business success, make this a driver in the design of the customer experience. Develop mechanisms in the user experience to enable users to understand the value of opening an account - for example, through online demos, tutorials or test drives. After launch, revisit the metrics for success and be sure to measure them against the initial goals. Mine the results of user sessions to understand what your users are doing and why. If they are accessing particular sections of the site frequently, consider placing contextually relevant links to encourage navigation to other sections of the site. Leverage the behavioral usage information to determine how well the site is answering to its strategic goals. Brand the User Experience Develop a strategy for enhancing your brand experience with each and every click. Through communication and connection, the site should be as concise as possible in reinforcing brand and the value you deliver to the user. The communication aspect of the site means using bandwidth judiciously in order to respect the user's time. Every step that a user takes must add value, and present relevant, easy- to-understand content, functionality and options to proceed on the path to accessing relevant information or completing a transaction. Again taking a cue from Yahoo! Finance, don't heap on the graphics or visual sizzle if there is no value for the user or for your brand identity. Base the architecture of the site and its navigation on what users need. Decide on a layout and navigation scheme that will help users find their way among the underlying areas of functionality of the site and complete their tasks as efficiently as possible. Elegant Equilibrium The most successful online customer experience strategies create an elegant equilibrium between value for customers and for the firm. Understanding the goals and needs of the correct target customers is the basis for creating a successful customer experience strategy. Those firms who do not rigorously plan a customer-centric web strategy leave open the risk of under serving their customers online. Convenience, efficiency and value delivery are all elements of the customer experience that, if executed well, will result in better customer retention and increased revenue. Karen Donoghue is Founder and Principal of HumanLogic, a Boston-based consulting firm focused on user experience strategy for financial services firms including State Street Global Advisors, Fidelity Investments, Reuters and Standard & Poor's. To see what we can do for your company, contact us at (781)646-6972 or via email at info@humanlogic.com or visit our website at www.humanlogic.com