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Retail Banking Singapore: Shopping for personal credit www.foolproof.com.sg

Retail Banking Singapore: Shopping for personal credit What drives decision-making when consumers shop for credit cards and personal loans, and how bank websites help or hinder them Authors: Hong Khai Seng, Samantha Yuen and Neil Pawley

November 2014

Retail Banking Singapore: Shopping for personal credit

www.foolproof.com.sg 1

Contents

Introduction 2

Summary 3

Methodology 6

Bank performance 9

Top level insights 14

Shopping behaviour 15

Online behaviour 23

Bank account habits 37

Mobile experience 39

Conclusion 43

Appendix: Summary of opportunities 44

Appendix: Benchmark table 45

About Foolproof 46



Introduction

This report examines the way Singapore consumers use both the web and mobile to find, evaluate and make decisions on credit cards and personal loans.

In particular, we look at their journeys as they shopped online to better understand:

⎯ How people shop for banking products online ⎯ What information they expect to find online ⎯ What criteria people use to decide on products ⎯ Whether their existing banking relationships affect

the decision-making process ⎯ If bank websites help or hinder the shopping process

This is Foolproof’s first look at how consumers shop online for financial products in the Singapore retail banking sector.

Our study allows bank marketers, product managers and financial service professionals to optimise their online offering.

The report presents insights on consumers’ shopping behaviour, online behaviour and bank account habits. It also raises pertinent questions which may influence the way Singapore retail banking develops in the future.

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Summary

This report draws on 2 sources of evidence:

⎯ Expert review of banks operating in Singapore Using 3 core customer journeys – shopping and applying for a credit card, shopping for a car loan and locating the nearest bank branch – Foolproof reviewed the public websites of 9 domestic and international banks and rated them against 10 customer experience principles. These principles were developed from published best practice as well as Foolproof’s user research on the financial services sector globally.

⎯ Qualitative depth interviews and follow-up calls with shoppers looking for credit cards and personal loans 14 shoppers were recruited against a broad range of demographic, income and behavioural groups. These depth interviews helped us to observe the shopping process in detail, tracking their behaviour from search to sale.

Shopping behaviour

Neither existing bank relationships nor bank brand and reputation came into play as consumers focused on products and benefits. Bank websites were perceived as sales channels and consumers shortlisted products and banks based on feedback from people they trust.

Most people started shopping with very specific credit cards in mind. They were also focused on finding the bank with the lowest interest rate or largest loan amounts.

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Online behaviour

Shoppers rarely compared multiple products from a single bank. As they were focused on searching for products and benefits, the common online shopping pattern was to ‘bounce’ between a search engine and a number of bank websites.

This sometimes sent consumers to a credit card microsite that was geared towards getting people to sign up. Many shoppers struggled with microsites as they either offered little product information or had unfamiliar layouts.

Online was perceived as an inferior experience compared to the branch or hotline, and pushed shoppers offline. While banks offered relatively good content on their main websites, it wasn’t always easy to find the help needed online. Loan calculators were useful but not all shoppers trusted the examples shown and preferred to speak to a bank officer at the branch or hotline.

Bank account habits

On average, shoppers had 2-3 savings accounts with a range of different banks and used them for different purposes e.g. salaries, expenses, savings and investments. This behaviour is consistent with consumers in many other countries and presents a global challenge for banks in keeping their customers’ money within the same bank.

It was also common for people to have one dormant account which typically had low funds and had not been used in years.



Bank performance

The following banks performed the best in our expert review:

⎯ Standard Chartered ⎯ OCBC ⎯ ANZ

These banks performed the worst:

⎯ DBS ⎯ UOB ⎯ Maybank

The expert review showed that online has the potential to deliver for shoppers. Respondents in our study entered with high hopes and expectations that they would be able to find a product that suited their needs and apply online.

But look a little deeper (as we do in our report) and it is clear that shoppers were generally frustrated and confused by sites that didn’t adequately serve their basic needs.

Our study shows that no bank currently has the brand strength or online customer experience that can guarantee long-term loyalty. Given how it is more cost-effective to grow existing customers than gain new ones, most banks miss a signficant opportunity to cross-sell to these customers and be their first choice for a new product need.

The rewards will be immense for the first bank to successfully rise to this challenge. Any provider delivering a significantly better user experience than the current norm will create valuable competitive advantage.



Methodology

Foolproof used 2 research techniques:

Expert review of banks operating in Singapore

We selected 3 customer journeys that would be commonly carried out by retail banking consumers:

1. Shopping and applying for a credit card 2. Shopping for a car loan 3. Locating the nearest bank branch

Using these journeys, a panel of 3 Foolproof experience design consultants reviewed the public websites of 9 domestic and international banks in Singapore:

1. anz.com/singapore/en/Personal/ 2. citibank.com.sg/portal/bluehome/index.htm 3. dbs.com.sg/personal/default.page 4. hsbc.com.sg/1/2/personal/personal 5. info.maybank2u.com.sg/index.aspx 6. ocbc.com.sg/personal-banking/index.html 7. posb.com.sg/personal/default.page 8. sc.com/sg/ 9. uob.com.sg/personal/index.html

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The banks were rated against 10 customer experience principles developed from published best practice as well as Foolproof’s user research on the financial services sector around the world:

1. The bank thinks about meeting customer needs, not just selling its products

2. The site gives me a clear idea about what it would be like to be a customer

3. It’s clear that the bank values its existing customers 4. It’s easy to search and explore the site 5. It’s easy to select and compare a product 6. Information on the site is easy to read and understand 7. Before I start an application process, it’s clear how it

works and what I need to do 8. Whatever I’m doing, it’s always clear where I am and

what I can do next 9. It’s always easy to find the help that I need 10. It’s easy to explore the website on my mobile phone

The expert review was carried out in April 2014 on the following devices and browsers:

⎯ MacBook Pro, OS X 10.8, Google Chrome ⎯ Dell laptop, Windows 7, Internet Explorer,

Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome ⎯ Samsung Galaxy S3, Android 4.0.3, default browser ⎯ iPhone 5S, iOS 7, Google Chrome ⎯ iPhone 4S, iOS 6, Safari



Qualitative depth interviews and follow-up calls with shoppers

We identified a range of demographic, income and behavioural criteria to recruit 14 shoppers, and conducted 1 hour depth interviews with people looking for credit cards or personal loans in the Foolproof Singapore research lab. Each interview started with a brief chat to learn more about their existing bank relationships and current financial needs. This was followed by a free exploration session, where we asked shoppers to browse online for a credit card or personal loan while one of our consultants observed in the background. The interview concluded with specific questions that explored their thoughts, motivations and choices during the exploration session.

2 months later, we conducted follow-up phone interviews with 6 of these shoppers (8 were uncontactable).

Qualitative fieldwork was conducted between April and June 2014.



Bank performance

Using 3 core customer journeys – shopping and applying for a credit card, shopping for a car loan and locating the nearest bank branch – Foolproof reviewed the following banks and rated them against these 10 customer experience principles.

Best performers

Design principle StanChart OCBC ANZ

The bank thinks about meeting customer needs, not just selling its products ! ! ! The site gives me a clear idea about what it would be like to be a customer ! ! ! It’s clear that the bank values its existing customers ! ! ! It’s easy to search and explore the site ! ! ! It’s easy to select and compare a product ! ! ! Information on the site is easy to read and understand ! ! ! Before I start an application process, it’s clear how it works and what I need to do ! ! ! Whatever I’m doing, it’s always clear where I am and what I can do next ! ! ! It’s always easy to find the help that I need ! ! ! It’s easy to explore the website on my mobile phone ! ! !

! Good ! Average ! Poor

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The full benchmark table appears as an Appendix at the end of this report



Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered scored above the group average for many principles to come in as the best performer. There was evidence of a good balance between promoting products and offering relevant information. While the primary navigation of the website was clear and offered a simple-to-use entry point to its categories, the subsequent dropdown menu failed to organise or present the products in the best possible light. We also found that a sizeable part of the search results was not useful or relevant.

OCBC The OCBC website contained clear and succinct content that was easy to read due to the range of visual aids and tools available. It was also the only bank that offered special loan deals for existing customers. However the search, product comparison and application experience was inconsistent across products, and the website was not optimised for mobile.

ANZ ANZ’s website provided clear and detailed content. However, the bank’s secondary-level pages had inconsistent organisation schemes and layouts that made it difficult for people to browse. Although information on the mobile site had been specifically written and organised to simplify use on the device, making it easy to read, people still had to visit the full website to obtain basic information like credit card fees.



Mid performers

Design principle HSBC POSB Citibank



HSBC The bank’s primary navigation was clear, with consistently

placed secondary navigation offered on the left of all subsequent pages. This was supported by effective breadcrumb links throughout. Product pages were very comprehensive but people had to click on multiple tabs and pages to access them. HSBC’s site lacked a clear starting point when we entered through a search engine – the hompage failed to showcase the bank’s products upfront. The bank also did not have a mobile-friendly site, making it difficult to read on a small screen.

The full benchmark table appears as an Appendix at the end of this report



POSB POSB’s site had clear and simple navigation. The information was easy to read because a summary of product benefits were provided upfront. There was also a good balance of illustrations and tables to present content. Application processes were difficult to understand as no information or links were provided at times. The bank also did not have a mobile-friendly site.

Citibank Citibank’s homepage was relatively uncluttered and product benefits were promoted well. The navigation system was also clear and helpful. It was difficult to locate bank branches or ATMs as information was provided in a table rather than a map. The bank did not provide basic information about the application process.

Poorest performers

Design principle DBS UOB Maybank



The full benchmark table appears as an

Appendix at the end of this report



DBS DBS’ product comparison tables were comprehensive and addressed most queries customers might have. DBS provided a mobile-friendly landing page, although this was let down by the rest of the site which was not optimised for mobile. DBS’ homepage had 11 banners targeting different customer segments which gave the impression that DBS is perhaps more interested in selling products than meeting customer needs.

UOB UOB did not have product comparison features to help customers decide. The bank did not have a mobile-friendly site, making it difficult to read as the width of the site pages did not fit a mobile screen. The bank branch and ATM locator required people to know the specific location when searching, making it difficult to use.

Maybank Maybank’s primary navigation was clear, although there was no secondary navigation to organise sections within the site. The bank provided good information for applications but only allowed customers to apply by post. The bank’s homepage was busy and cluttered with many visual elements. It also did not provide product comparison features to help customers decide.



Top level insights

Through our conversations with retail banking shoppers, we uncovered 11 major themes on their online shopping experience, current behaviour relating to savings accounts, and general bank and product strategy. The remainder of the report goes into details about each theme.

#1 People choose products and benefits, not banks

#2 Personal networks heavily influence shopping behaviour

#3 Sales strategy is focused on acquisition rather than deepening product relationships with existing customers

#4 Shoppers rarely compare multiple products from a single bank. It’s more common to compare a single product across multiple providers.

#5 Microsites often hinder rather than help sales conversion

#6 Text-heavy pages lower engagement and conversion

#7 Inadequate help pushes shoppers offline

#8 Online shopping is accessible but faceless and impersonal

#9 Customers move money in and out of a range of different bank accounts

#10 It is common to have at least one dormant account

#11 Mobile sites do not support basic tasks, let alone offer smart assistance

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Shopping behaviour

Short-term marketing strategies centred around deals and privileges have led to a plethora of credit cards, but despite aggressive marketing, banks are not always the ones that influence shopping behaviour.

#1 People choose products and benefits, not banks

Credit cards

Throughout our depth interview sessions, most people gravitated towards credit card benefits that aligned with their lifestyle and made their decisions purely on the promotions offered at that point in time.

The bank’s brand and reputation seldom came into the picture when shopping for a credit card, even for banks that people had existing relationships with. It did not help that banks did not communicate their values and promise to customers.

Most started off their shopping with very specific credit cards in mind. Some could even name the card they wanted, along with cards that had similar benefits from other banks.

This is a great achievement for banks’ credit card marketing departments. Heavy advertising, roadshows and restaurant banners are just some of the channels that get a credit card’s name out to people – and it seems effective in drawing customers’ attentions.

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“Brand is nothing.” 27 yrs old, Female, Admin Executive, Credit card shopper



While this may work to a bank’s benefit at the start, it also has several unintended implications further down the decision-making path.

One-upmanship of credit card benefits has led to a tactical rat race to see which bank can offer the best deal on dining or entertainment privileges. This can put a lot of pressure on banks to find the next benefit that might hook people in.

An increasingly crowded market has become flooded by benefits and promotions from every conceivable lifestyle sector. In the long run, the banking sector might begin to have difficulty differentiating themselves in a meaningful way.

The result of this one-upmanship has had the effect of creating a large product line-up, with most banks averaging about 12 credit cards on offer currently. When visiting the bank website, the choices generally became overwhelming even if they wanted to consider alternatives.

DBS had 16 credit cards on offer, the highest of the 9 banks we reviewed



Loans

Similar shopping behaviour was found in people looking for personal loans. The people we interviewed were primarily focused on discovering which bank had the lowest interest rates or largest loan amounts. They didn’t necessarily look to their existing bank relationships to start the shopping process.

Based on the findings on how people react to promotions and benefits in a crowded market, the market is ripe for a bank to rise to this challenge and innovate in this area.

Maybank and OCBC were the only 2 banks to offer interest rates upfront, however, the information on OCBC was presented more clearly

Maybank

OCBC

“Any ‘kucing kurap’ [small-time] bank also can, as long as it’s the cheapest.” 31 yrs old, Female, HR Officer, Credit card & loan shopper



#2 Personal networks heavily influence shopping behaviour

Influence spanned across credit cards & loans

While advertising, roadshows and other marketing efforts brought awareness of the product to people, it did not necessarily push them into an active state of shopping around.

Family and close friends proved to be the most effective trigger when it came to conducting research or considering signing up. Often, the people we interviewed remembered seeing people they trust take out the credit card in front of them and experiencing the immediate benefits of using it.

Opportunities:

— How can we get shoppers to break away from the focused mindset of evaluating product benefits?

— How can banks compete on a more strategic level through building on the bank’s brand and reputation?

— How can we make the bank’s brand and reputation develop a ‘halo effect’ for increased product sales?

“All my friends have the Citibank Clear card.” 21 yrs old, Female, University student, Credit card shopper

“I’ll ask around – how is their experience with the bank? Are they aggressive with marketing or are they nice?” 36 yrs old, Female, Church Executive, Loan shopper



Examples of benefits over bullet lists

There are two things we can learn from these findings:

1. People react strongly when they see how their lifestyle might change because of the bank’s product

Most bank websites present bullet-point lists of the many promotions and benefits in a matter-of-fact way. Shoppers have to make their own conceptual leap to imagine what it would be like because they lacked tangible examples of how their lifestyle would be changed for the better.

Throughout our expert review, many banks also performed poorly for the principle “The site gives me a clear idea about what it would be like to be a customer”. 5 out of 9 banks had a lower than average rating, and could do better in explaining product benefits through a more persuasive format.

Credit card benefits were usually presented in one long table, making it harder to assess why one should pick one card over another

“Got my last two credit cards because I saw my friend using them.” 39 yrs old, Male, Marketing Manager, Credit card shopper



Bank websites were seen as sales channels

2. People perceive bank websites as a sales channel for banks and prefer to trust feedback from someone they are familiar with

This resonates strongly with our expert review findings where several bank homepages looked more like virtual billboards with much of the page consumed by aggressive placement of advertisements. These banks generally scored lower for the principle - “The bank thinks about meeting customer needs, not just selling its products”.

Given the knowledge that personal stories can have major impact on decisions, each bank’s digital and social media strategies are essential elements in harnessing and reinforcing content that drives people through the sales conversion funnel.

“Websites have hidden agenda. Friends are more reliable.” 37 yrs old, Male, Technical Specialist, Loan shopper

“I trust the car agent (who’s my friend) to find me the best loan options.” 36 yrs old, Female, Church Executive, Loan shopper



POSB, DBS, Maybank and HSBC were most aggressive with homepage advertising, with 50-80% of screen real estate given over to hard marketing messages

Opportunity:

How do we create compelling content and sales journeys that either complement, or challenge, the power of personal recommendation?



#3 Sales strategy is focused on acquisition rather than deepening product relationships with existing customers

No bank clearly showed they valued existing customers

Throughout our expert review, there was almost no credit card or loan content directed at existing customers. As a result, all banks across the board fared poorest on the principle of “It’s clear that the bank values its existing customers”.

The only bank that stood out slightly was OCBC as it was the only bank to provide a sales offer in the Cash Loans section that favoured existing customers (see right).

Given that all banks did relatively poorly in this aspect, there appears to be an opportunity for banks to differentiate themselves by stepping up to take leadership in this regard.

Opportunity:

Which aspects of service are most influential in driving multiple product holding? How can we leverage this?



Online behaviour

Text-heavy pages, unfamiliar microsites and insuffficient information on bank websites do not help consumers who may be led to seek assistance from a bank employee offline.

#4 Shoppers rarely compare multiple products from a single bank. It’s more common to compare a single product across multiple providers.

Shoppers bounced between search engines and bank websites

As we discussed earlier, the majority of people approached their shopping session with no strong bank brand preference. Instead they had a few specific cards in mind and were focused on exploring only those. This approach was demonstrated in their browsing behaviour. While the specifics of each person’s browsing path were different, a clear pattern emerged.

Few shoppers moved from one bank website to another in a linear way. Instead the most common shopping pattern was to ‘bounce’ between a search engine and a number of bank websites. The search terms used were also specifically targeted, often using terms like ‘posb everyday credit card’ or ‘uob one’.

As few people were browsing for credit cards in an open-minded approach, comparison table features were also rarely used to compare cards within a bank’s offerings.

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Benefits have to match people’s lifestyles

The speed at which people looked at each bank website was also determined by the types of benefits and promotions shown. They spent a longer time reading if the benefits were highly related to their existing way of living. For example, dining privileges were only read if the restaurants listed were the ones they dined at regularly.

“I go to Jack’s Place often, so the two cards I checked both have promotions. One gives a percentage discount, the other just a free soup of the day. Of course, I’m thinking of getting the card with a larger discount.” 58 yrs old, Male, Business Manager, Credit card shopper

“I was comparing between these two because they both have Resorts World Sentosa promotions, where I was thinking of going with my family.” 31 yrs old, Female, HR Officer, Credit card & loan shopper

Represensative timeline of 'bouncing' browsing style



The implication for banks is that it’s not enough to present a large list of benefits. People scan the first few benefits and only continue to read on if they relate to people’s specific lifestyles. Only then will the product be part of the shopper’s mindset and shortlisted.

OCBC credit card benefits presented clearly and concisely

Cross-links to alternative products

While people were more likely to be focused on specific card benefits and promotions, we noticed that Standard Charted attempted to promote navigating to other offerings by using cross-links in “You might also be interested in…” sections (shown on the next page).



Cross-promotion of other credit cards on a Standard Chartered credit card page

However, shoppers did not notice these recommendations during the depth interviews as they regularly failed to scroll down the page. This goes back to our findings about how people mainly looked out for benefits and did not read on if they felt the benefits were not related to their lifestyle.

While cross-links are a good idea, their position on the page is crucial. Banks could also highlight why such products are recommended and how they relate to people’s interests.

Comparison sites

Another emerging behaviour to take note of is the use of comparison websites such as imoney.sg, moneysmart.sg, moneyshop.sg, smartloans.sg and sg.loangarage.com. They are still new to many Singaporeans and are only used by those who are more internet-savvy.

As such websites make it easier for shoppers to quickly compare what’s on offer and choose the best deal, this removes the need to trawl through many bank websites for manual comparisons.



Comparison sites like Money$mart let you assess credit cards, loans, insurance, fixed deposits and savings accounts across providers

We expect that comparison sites will become more popular with Singaporeans in the future, following the success these sites have in the UK and US. Given their potential to change the market, it will be essential to track how such sites affect decision-making and traffic flow to the bank’s website. A customer using comparison sites will have done a lot of research and need a different sales journey on the bank website than the customer arriving from a search engine.

In summary, this poses an interesting challenge to banks who want to strengthen their product positions relative to other banks, keep visitors on their website and get people to consider their whole spread of offerings.

Opportunity:

How can banks come out on top when their products are compared against competitors?



#5 Microsites often hinder rather than help sales conversion

Shoppers did not notice what links they clicked on

Sometimes, people clicked on search results or Google Adword entries that sent them to a credit card microsite. Typically these microsites existed separately from the main bank sites, and had very different layouts, navigation systems and content.

Many of the people we observed struggled with microsites in two ways:

1. Disorientation between the main bank website and microsite They typically have had experience with the main bank website before coming to the microsite and were disorientated due to the unfamiliar layout and navigation system.

2. Microsite content was geared towards signing up

“It frustrates me that I can’t go back to the main site. I just came from there.” 58 yrs old, Male, Business Manager, Credit card shopper

“Huh? Am I supposed to apply? I want to know more first.” 49 yrs old, Male, Technical Specialist, Credit card shopper



Content in the microsite was limited and geared towards people who were already mentally prepared to sign up and apply online. For most of those who landed on the microsite looking to find out more about the credit card, they were surprised at the lack of information.

The Citibank microsite only offered a few points on the card compared to the main site

Timestamp: 3 Jul 6pm



Not all microsites did poorly though. OCBC’s Frank had a self-sufficient microsite with enough information for people to make an informed choice.

However in most cases, encountering a jarring and disjointed microsite experience while browsing for information might reduce the chances of converting someone into being a bank’s customer.

Opportunity:

How can we increase microsite conversion (or eliminate them from the sales journey)?

Timestamp: 3 Jul 6pm



#6 Text-heavy pages lower engagement and conversion

Credit cards From our expert review, most banks did relatively well with the amount of content on their site. This garnered good scores for the principle “Is the content clear, succinct and personal?”

Similarly, most people we observed appreciated the amount of information, but lamented text-heavy presentations. Some also commented about small text size and how it made the website look messy and difficult to find the information that they were looking for.

Maybank’s credit card benefits were presented in one continuous column, giving it a wordy first impression

“If the presentation sucks, I don’t feel like reading further.” 21 yrs old, Female, University student, Credit card shopper



Banks with the most positive feedback were able to balance between having just enough relevant information and visuals that helped make the page easier to scan and read.

Loans While there were instances of information overload for consumers shopping for credit cards, loans had the opposite issue. Shoppers were expecting to find indicative interest rates and the loan amount they could borrow. However, some bank websites had either very little information or had words and acronyms that were difficult for most people to understand.

People also appreciated the playability that loan calculators offered. These were only available from a few banks within the study but, when encountered, they gave shoppers a sense of the numbers without having to read a lot of detail or do the math themselves.

“I just want to know the best features. If you give too much information, it’s like hard sell.” 39 yrs old, Male, Marketing Manager, Credit card shopper

“The more I see, the more blur [confused] I am. I’ll ask the bank teller instead.” 39 yrs old, Male, Marketing Manager, Credit card shopper



This is a missed opportunity for banks as interactive tools such as calculators not only help shoppers make informed decisions, but increase engagement and dwell time within the bank’s website.

Only HSBC (shown), Citibank and Standard Chartered provided loan calculators upfront; none of the banks offered calculators related to credit card benefits

There is a fine line between providing more information for people to make a buying decision and overwhelming them. Consumers gravitate towards calculators and other tools to help them make sense of the complex calculations that might be involved.

Opportunity:

How can we lower the quantity of copy while raising sales effectiveness?

“It’s not interactive enough and doesn’t project what I wanted. I expected a calculator so that I can customise it to my needs.” 31 yrs old, Female, HR Officer, Credit card & loan shopper



#7 Inadequate help pushes shoppers offline

Some banks did poorly on the principle “It’s always easy to find the help that I need” because there were no FAQs or those that were available were hidden away and difficult to find.

We noted that web chat facilities were not offered by any of the 9 banks reviewed, even though this is quite a common feature in the US and UK.

Offering immediate help for quick factual information can prevent people from turning to already busy phone or physical channels for simple enquiries.

Opportunity:

How might we lower the costs-of-sale by improving help resources online?



#8 Online shopping is accessible but faceless and impersonal

While most bank websites provided the basic information people need, some people we observed still preferred to go to a bank branch. For these people, the perception of the website differed from their branch experiences.

“There’s nothing useful on the (Auto Loans) website. I still need to research further.” 44 yrs old, Male, Service Delivery Manager, Loan shopper

“I feel they are down-to-earth and always take the time to explain things to me at the branch.” 36 yrs old, Female, Operations Executive, Loan shopper

“I don’t trust the example listed on the website. I want to speak to someone so that I know it’s customised for me.” 36 yrs old, Female, Church Executive, Loan shopper



Far from feeling connected and guided, people perceived bank websites simply as sales channels and expected the different touchpoints of a bank to provide similar levels of service.

For banks hoping to channel-shift and encourage more people to self-service online, creating a sense of personal engagement on the website might be an important element to address. There is an opportunity to offer content that not only addresses customers’ top information needs in a clear and useful manner but assures and guides them in making the right decisions.

Opportunity:

How might we encourage greater use of online channels for sales and service by creating consistency in service quality and personal engagement across all channels?



Bank account habits

Sales strategies focusing on acquisition have also impacted savings accounts – consumers spread their cash across different banks in pursuit of various benefits.

#9 Consumers move money in and out of a range of different bank accounts

Throughout the depth interviews, we found a pattern emerging from the relationship people have with their bank accounts. On average, people had 2 to 3 savings accounts with different banks and use them for different purposes.

Some accounts were linked to salaries, and funds were transferred out to another bank for expenses. It was also quite common in our interviews to hear of another bank being assigned for savings or investment purposes.

This behaviour is consistent with consumers in many other countries and presents a global challenge for banks. The implication is that banks lose the chance to deepen the relationship with existing customers because their customers are “outsourcing” complementary financial services to a competitor bank.

Opportunity:

How can we better understand multiple account holders and maximise ‘share-of-bank’ by taking other banks out of the picture?

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#10 It is common to have at least one dormant account

We also observed that it was common for people in Singapore to have at least one dormant account. This could be due to the need to open a bank account for salaries from a past job or an account from childhood.

Such dormant bank accounts typically have low funds and have not been used for transactions for years. Shoppers we interviewed had no intention of closing these accounts. Such dormant accounts pose operational burdens for banks as they still have to be maintained.

‘Sleeper relationships’ provide banks with the opportunity to communicate with these customers, whether it is to enhance the account’s features or offer a different banking product that aligns with the customer’s lifestyle.

Opportunity:

How can we encourage re-activation and prime usage of previously dormant accounts?



Mobile experience

With many banks focusing their efforts on mobile apps, it appears that the mobile website experience has been deprioritised. Many of the banks we reviewed neither had a responsive desktop website or a specialist mobile site. This could potentially make it difficult for many consumers to shop for a financial product on their mobile phone.

#11 Most mobile sites do not support basic tasks, let alone offer smart assistance

Accessing a mobile site

From our expert review, only Citibank and Standard Chartered had specialist mobile sites with navigation that was consistent with the desktop site. While the content was not tailored for mobile, it was clear, succinct and easy to read.

DBS, Maybank and ANZ had partial mobile sites that consisted of a mobile landing page offering limited information and services. Most links were redirected to the desktop site.

HSBC, OCBC, POSB and UOB did not have any mobile sites, making it more difficult to read on the phone. However, OCBC fared the best due to its bold and clean design (shown on the next page).

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Shopping for a banking product

Only 5 out of the 14 shoppers we interviewed currently shop for a bank product on their phone. The remaining shoppers preferred to use their computer partly because of the information they expected to evaluate, and partly because of their lack of exposure to responsive bank sites.

This finding is not surprising given how most of the bank websites were not optimised for mobile - a great deal of zooming and scrolling was required to look for and, in some cases, compare credit products. The information was generally very wordy and did not contribute to a pleasant browsing experience.

“Sometimes I see a credit card advertised when I’m on the bus, so I’ll use my phone to check it out.” 25 yrs old, Female, Sales Manager, Credit card shopper



Locating a bank branch

DBS stood alone as the only bank that offered a relatively good map search experience on its mobile site. While Citibank and Maybank were less effective in providing branch and ATM locations in a table, the information was clear and helpful.

The other bank websites did not make it easy for a customer to search for the nearest branch or ATM within Singapore. Map search did not always work well on mobile and suffered from poor user experience issues e.g. maps cut off, inability to zoom in easily and a lack of relevant search results found when there should be.

In some instances, the map kept zooming back out automatically to show the entire map of Singapore whenever an address was entered into the search bar.

Map search did not display fully on the Standard Chartered mobile site but worked relatively well on DBS. The third example is from Maybank.



By improving basic tasks such as the branch and ATM search experience, banks have the opportunity to create more usage of their website on mobile and encourage people to shop for banking products more often on their phones.

Think omnichannel, act mobile-first

Smartphones have completely changed the behaviour and expectations of consumers. With the increasing popularity of mobile devices, many companies including banks have rushed into building new apps and innovating on its features.

However, being 'mobile first' does not mean neglecting the desktop site. Our study has shown that most shoppers browse bank sites designed for the desktop on their phones and have to put up with a poor experience, pinching and scraping to find the information they need.

Banks should reconsider their omni-channel strategy and think differently about the mobile shopping experience:

⎯ Meeting the needs of both customers and business ⎯ Understanding how customer behaviours shift

depending on their context ⎯ Enhancing product and service information for

mobile browsing ⎯ Engaging customers in a helpful and meaningful way

Opportunity:

How can banks serve basic customer needs, then deliver a helpful shopping and banking experience on mobile?



Conclusion

Our study reveals that the online shopping experience offered by banks in Singapore still has a long way to go. While consumers want to obtain personal credit online, the majority of the banks reviewed are still struggling to serve basic needs relating to site navigation, content and support when needed.

More importantly, banks are faced with larger challenges beyond serving basic expectations: Short-term strategies centred on deals and aggressive marketing have led consumers to focus solely on promotions and benefits. At no point in the shopping journey did the bank’s brand, reputation or their existing relationships with customers come into play.

While Standard Chartered performed the best in our expert review, no bank currently has the brand strength or online experience that can guarantee long-term loyalty.

Instead of luring people with deals, banks should focus on understanding their customers, build long-term relationships and create meaningful value.

The rewards will be immense for the first bank to successfully rise to this challenge. Any provider delivering a significantly better user experience than the current norm will create valuable competitive advantage.

If you would like to discuss this report in more detail or explore any implications our findings may have for your organisation, please contact Keynes Yeo ([email protected]).

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Appendix: Summary of opportunities

Shopping behaviour

⎯ How can we get shoppers to break away from the focused mindset of evaluating product benefits?

⎯ How can banks compete on a more strategic level through building on the bank’s brand and reputation?

⎯ How can we make the bank’s brand and reputation develop a ‘halo effect’ for increased product sales?

⎯ How do we create compelling content and sales journeys that either complement, or challenge, the power of personal recommendation?

⎯ Which aspects of service are most influential in driving multiple product holding? How can we leverage this?

Online behaviour

⎯ How can banks come out on top when their products are compared against competitors?

⎯ How can we increase microsite conversion (or eliminate them from the sales journey)?

⎯ How can we lower the quantity of copy while raising sales effectiveness?

⎯ How might we lower the costs-of-sale by improving help resources online?

⎯ How might we encourage greater use of online channels for sales and service by creating consistency in service quality and personal engagement across all channels?

Bank account habits

⎯ How can we better understand multiple account holders and maximise ‘share-of-bank’ by taking other banks out of the picture?

⎯ How can we encourage re-activation and prime usage of previously dormant accounts?

Mobile experience

⎯ How can banks serve basic customer needs, then deliver a helpful shopping and banking experience on mobile?

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Appendix: Benchmark table

12

2014

BANKI

NG B

ENCHMARK

SCOREC

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About Foolproof

Foolproof is an experience design company with offices in Singapore and the UK.

Our purpose is to create measurably better digital products and services that deliver value for both brands and their customers. By understanding the needs of both the business and the end-user we guide the design process towards what we call the win/win.

Our design approach is based on 3 principles: collaboration, iteration and measurement. The result is evidence-driven design, where both clients and customers are part of the design process to create new and better digital experiences.

We work with global brands from a wide range of sectors such as HSBC, Shell, Sony and Unilever in over 20 markets including Brazil, US, China, Australia and many EU countries.

We employ 80 people across 3 offices. Our team is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds including psychologists, researchers, ergonomists, product and service designers, social scientists, data analysts and graphic artists.

Our practice spans 4 specialisms: Strategy and Planning, Design Research, Interaction design and Conversion Rate Optimisation.

Foolproof

25 Seah Street #03-02 Singapore 188381

+65 9435 2731

Harella House 90-98 Goswell Road London EC1V 7DF

+44 (0)20 7539 3840

Seebohm House 2-4 Queen Street Norwich NR2 4SQ

+44 (0)1603 230 800

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