When moving countries, there’s actually quite a lot one must do to establish a foundation for your life in a new location. Having only been in the UK for eight weeks, I speak from recent experience.
One such activity is opening a bank account.
My wife and I innocently, after much research and disappointment, finalised our decision to open bank accounts with one of the large global banks here in the UK.As many of you well know, opening a bank account is effectively a pre-requisite to managing life in the UK. Without it, the friction associated with general tasks can be fairly significant. Not to mention costly.
My experience with the big bank went something like this.We visited a physical branch and arranged a time to go in for an interview for eligibility assessment. We were also told at this point what documents we would likely need to bring with us to assert our identity, income, right to work, and so forth.
A couple of weeks later this appointment occurred. The gentleman who sat down with us was very polite. He let us know upfront that the process was quite long – it would take around an hour.
We’d budgeted for an hour so this wasn’t a problem.The discussion between us and the bank representative continued, with documents leaving our hands, being scanned, details being manually entered into a system as we sat there, and plenty of small talk to fill the gaps in between.
Eventually the system had enough information and appeared ready to assess our application and come back to us with a yes or no answer. If the answer was yes, we’d be given an account the bank deemed was most suitable to us, and might even be offered some credit facilities. After all, money is pretty cheap right about now.Hooray! We were eligible for an account and a number of other services – including the aforementioned lines of credit. This was really great news. At this point, the low expectations we’d set for the experience had been managed effectively by the bank representative. However, that was before we begun the online and mobile banking onboarding process.
To set the context, onboarding is as critical as anything. I (the user) need to get from my starting point to some form of value realisation quickly. If you can throw in some delight during that process then I’ll be all the happier.Unfortunately with the bank, this process couldn’t have been worse.
An additional hour, on top of the hour we’d already spent in branch, was taken to onboard us to the mobile app.Great products balance core components of desirability, viability and feasibility. Unfortunately, in this instance, the business and technical drivers of viability and feasibility obviously won out.
Guess who looses? Yes, you guessed it. The customer.
I’ve worked with financial institutions in the past, so my frustration had a cap. My wife however, clearly not expecting the process to be so far left of human centered, couldn’t take it any longer. She had to get out and continue with her day.
To add to the frustration, to this day (over a month after this first occurred) I am yet to receive certain information from said bank so that I can begin using the credit instrument they have provided me.
There’s a lot more I could tell you, but let’s cut that part of the story short.Needless to say, I am not in any way shape or form an advocate of this organisation. I had an extremely negative experience, one that has since been poorly managed, and as a result, I will actively discourage my friends, family and colleagues from engaging with this brand.
Now for the good stuff.Since moving to the UK with Meeco, I’m required to do quite a lot of travel to meet the demands of the organisations we are working closely with through Meeco Labs¹. This is a great part of my job. However, in order to do this seamlessly, I need a way to transact easily with multiple currencies.
After a long search, I returned back to a product I’d come across a number of months ago – Revolut.
This onboarding experience was exceptional. The expectation set in my mind, from the context Revolut had set on their website, was managed effectively. The entire process, from downloading the iOS app to verifying my identity with Jumio (who, by the way, will have a run for their money as Yoti pushes further into the market), was less than five minutes. And, to top it off, my debit card came rearing and ready to go less than 48 hours later.I then took to Twitter.
I also began advocating the value of Revolut to my friends, family and colleagues. Four of whom have since onboarded themselves.
I’d put Revolut in a similar category to Moven or Monzo. All three are re-imagining financial services from the perspective of the human being and their job to be done.
I’ve written about² the importance of this focus when building products before.In these two scenarios, for me as the customer, the User Experience (UX) or Customer Experience (CX) couldn’t have been more different. Although I’m slightly biased given the work I do, this serves to clearly highlight the value of good UX.
I can’t speak on behalf of Revolut, but I have to imagine that me successfully referring four friends creates value for the business.Great UX should result in a viral co-efficient >1. If many of Revolut’s users are as happy as I am, then their cost of acquisition (CAC) will soon be pretty low — meaning more dollars for investment in product. This is good. As long as they keep their lifetime value (LTV) high, by remaining focused on the customer job and the delivery of value through a superior user experience, they are going to have a high margin business on their hands.In my opinion, although User Experience Design is at times a nuanced profession, the objective is rather simple.
I would define User Experience Design as the process of discovering genuine customer motivation (or the job to be done) and utilising that understanding to help a customer/user get from a starting point (such as a Google search) through to a successful outcome (transacting in multiple currencies whist travelling) seamlessly and effectively.
The metric is therefore the efficacy of the experience as it relates to the customer job to be done.
Using this definition, Revolut succeeded. The big bank failed.So where does Me2B fit into this story?
To start, intention is a way of communicating motivation. Then, with individuals being in control of their personal data, and through platforms like Meeco enabling seamless consent-based personal data exchanges between individuals and organisations, the customer job to be done can be met with a brand’s product or service seamlessly and effectively.
Imagine if I never had to enter the branch of the big bank. I could express my intent for a specific thing or even a category of things based on my motivation or need at that time. Then, I could progressively disclose information with particular brands – building trust in the process. At the point of the transaction, my identity is revealed and the fulfilment process is seamless, effective and personalised.
The purpose of Meeco Labs is to work with organisations and their customers, utilising consent based personal data exchanges to prove tangible business and customer value across a period of eight to 12 weeks. Meeco Labs is the starting point. New person-centric engagement models and compliant personal data practices are the outcome.
Some incredible work is already being done in this space across various industry verticals. Our offices are now open in Europe. Contact us to discuss a tailored program.
Thank you Damien Zalesky for the *Desk Image via Unsplash – Public Domain Use
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¹ This web page is no longer available. To view an archived copy click here.
² This web page is no longer available. To view an archived copy click here.
