Building a Client Service Model Rooted in Research

There's a crowded list of brands in the financial services industry, and little differentiation other than "Wall Street Bank" and "Community Bank." We set out to explore how our middle-sized bank can compete with the big guys in the eyes of aspiring business owners – who, turns out, are regular folks like you & me.

Problem

As the pandemic carried on, our bank saw lower-than-expected customer growth compared to competitors and a growing concern over attrition. There was an appetite from leadership to kickstart a new engagement model for the small-to-medium-sized business vertical of the bank.

Empathize

With no digital account opening platform, it was obvious there was a competitive need to build one. This served as a starting point but we needed to understand what we were going to build and how it would be used by entrepreneurs. I was asked to join a newly stood-up innovation group within the bank created to redesign the overall small business customer experience. With limited digital tools and an old-school banking brand, we set out to answer Why do small business owners choose our bank?

Over the course of 4 sprint cycles, we conducted:

From the interviews conducted, we aimed to learn why customers needed a new bank, what they were looking for after deciding to switch, and why they chose to open an account with a bank.

Key Objectives of Interviews:

• Understand what drives the choice of bank for a business owner from a rational and emotional perspective and what forces are at play when choosing to switch banks

• Learn about the perceived value proposition of the bank as it exists today

• Understand what these customers were trying to accomplish by "hiring" the bank

• Document each step the average new customer goes through to establish their business with the bank

Define

In speaking with customers and the employees who served them about their distinct journeys, we uncovered the motivations driving them to a bank and the issues they ran into which potentially pushed others away. Our team collaborated to organize and distill these conversations into the four primary jobs to be done by a financial institution for a business owner. These would help guide our strategy and solutions in future sprints.

Ideate

With defined jobs for the bank to address, we needed to explore how we should position ourselves differently from other banks and fintechs in the marketplace. Looking at messaging from competitors, we succinctly described their unique value prop to the SMB audience and how our bank can differentiate itself from the pack.

We help online businesses accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses by offering a complete payments platform (tech-forward, global)

We help small businesses securely and efficiently manage their finances by offering products, resources, and tracking tools (all-in-one, secure)

We help resilient businesses thrive by offering specials on products and services in addition to robust online tools (deals, all-in-one)

We help new businesses get started by leveraging tools they already use so they can focus on the business. (easy, familiar)

Now we have a complete picture of competitors' value props, we dedicated a sprint to digest the insights gathered from customers, employees and peer banks to chart an ideal path forward as a "north star".

Prototype

We illustrated a complete Business Owner experience for the organization to iterate into. From realizing they need to partner with a bank, to growing our relationship, we aimed to understand each phase in detail to simplify their experience.

An ideal state would have dedicated customer care teams in each customer phase. When they are starting their relationship with our bank, the Business Welcome Team would help startups get the documents and platforms needed to get their business up and running. The Business Success Squad would focus on helping established owners power through any growing pains or hurdles that may come their way.

Test

Leadership feedback was positive about the methodologies used and the plan for moving the line of business forward. With approval, organizational processes were evolving to make this vision a reality and we began applying what we learned into our customer-facing practices.

While maybe unsurprising with a traditional FI, we learned our community banking at-scale model was our key driver of growth. With localized decision-making happening for each new customer today, relationships with staff make it possible for personalized packages to entice new clients. With this better understanding, and omnichannel personalization tech being sourced, we attempted to differentiate ourselves as a brand business owners hire as partners in their business.

The Bank's New SMB Value Prop:

With this value prop as a defining guardrail, we begin implementing this "big idea" into our brand messaging and product marketing.