Personalising service and contact by focusing on user segments
Company ABN AMRO - August 2022 Services strategic user research
ABN AMRO uses personas to segment customers’ needs and behaviours for retail banking. The goal of this project was to extend these profiles regarding service and contact, but also to evaluate what would have been a good approach to make self-service information and tooling more personal. As I closely work in this field, I saw an opportunity to gather new insights and support multiple departments. This project was done in collaboration with Laura Birker (Senior UX Researcher).
Context & Business goals
When designing for 5 million customers, we can’t assume everyone is the same.
While we know customers have various attitudes and needs when it comes to managing their finances, we didn’t know if this also translates to their needs for customer service. In this project, we compared these segments and additionally looked for opportunities to fit the customer service journeys to the business strategies. Which were; to be a personal bank in a digital age (1) and enable customers to take care of their finances on their own and digitally (2).
Approach
Interviewing 24 customers, 4 per persona segment
Together with Laura Birker (UX Researcher), we set up the planning for the project. To get a valid understanding of each persona, we needed to speak with at least a number of customers while keeping it realistic in terms of time. Laura suggested doing duo interviews, which was a new method for me.
Stakeholder workshop
Online kick-off with various colleagues working on service and contact. Including teams from the app, open domain and Internet Banking.
Interviews with each persona segment
12 duo interviews, speaking to 24 participants in total, in which we had 4 persons per segment. Every participant was asked to do a preparation assignment.
Analysis of results and visualising insights
Analysing the results in Figjam, grouping quotes by persona segment and feedback on the current solutions. All the insights were visualized in a report.
Presentation and co-creation sessions
Results were presented to a large group of stakeholders. For each team, a co-creation session was facilitated to make sure the insights could be used in their daily activities.
Analysis
Digging through results, mapping and clustering quotes.
At this scale, it’s essential to have good notes and look thoroughly at the quotes of customers. By doing this we were able to easily compare various attitudes and opinions of customers without our own biases interfering.
Analysis done in Figjam, grouping all the results and quotes of customers.
User quotes
“138 results… that's no fun anymore. Never mind... Wouldn't take a look at this anymore, I get the urge to call.”
“Great, that makes a difference too. It also feels like service, anticipation, and less searching.”
“I always go to the app because that also contains my data. I wouldn’t call that easily.”
Insights
Clear indicators of friction
From all the interviews we got a clear overview of the current self-service landscape, and which areas have room for improvement. By displaying the current solutions to customers, they were able to indicate triggers when or why they would drop out in the journey.
Overview of the sentiment regarding various solutions mapped on the various segments.
Insights
Main take-aways for follow up activities
No clear relation with personas
No clear relation between persona segments and their needs and attitudes towards service and contact
Customers start online
All customers start online and try to solve issues themselves, preferably in the app
Human contact
Only for urgent or emotional topics tend to quickly contact the bank. In most other scenarios it’s because the information is unclear or hard to find.
Focus on 3 segments
Non-digital
Help me out
Doing it myself
Maintain current strategy
Keep digitalizing processes and optimize digital channels to reduce the need for human support.
Non digital customers
Make sure to include digitally savvy customers in the services targeted at the ‘Non-digital’, as they feel responsible to take care of them.
Outcome
Creating momentum for a holistic approach and bringing various departments closing together
The insights were directly used in new projects to tackle our existing services and work together with the E-commerce and Internet Banking teams.
Would like to know more?
For ABN AMRO
Year 2022
Objective Evaluate the customer needs and attitudes of various segments regarding service and contact. With the goal to improve the customer journeys for web and app.
Role Initiating this project to support multiple departments. Teaming up with Laura Birker (Senior UX Researcher) we prepared the research, facilitated workshops and conducted the interviews.
Feedback — Laura Birker (Senior UX researcher)
“Your sense of 'what people say between the lines' is well developed. You are sharp and driven – this took the project to a higher level.”
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