ING is one of the most dynamic and innovative European banks in terms of web 2.0 and buzz/viral marketing. They have a Dutch "mini-state" on Second Life, they recently launched moveoutmoveup.com a viral marketing site with its own profile on YouTube...
On regular basis, I check the ING Asia/Pacific's blog initiated by Jacques Kamp, CEO ING Asia/Pacific. A couple of weeks ago, I found out about their excellent initiative in India, the Pick Your Financial Advisor blog.
I am always very pleased to see a leading bank innovating and utilizing web 2.0 features. Even if the new platform or service is not perfect. Recently, I reviewed the phase 2 of Join2Grow.biz, the European Network for Entrepreneur launched by another innovative bank in the Benelux, Fortis Bank.
My goal is to share my comments and my suggestions to improve the service and better engage their members. The customer experience is key: nowadays, in the web 2.0 era, people want more control. Before launching a new platform, companies should aim to create and build a community. Then, they need to make sure they engage their members and urge them to post some value added content on regular basis. Companies must focus mainly on providing a comprehensive and intuitive platform, and let their members produce the content.
But most banks refrain from implementing web 2.0 technologies because of potential brand damage. They are scared of user-generated content. But an aggressive comment or complain on your blog is not a problem, as long as you respond to it!
PickURAdvisor.com is a sort of blogging platform, not a social network. It is a good initiative, I like the idea of being able to choose your advisor, know a bit more of her/his background and put a face on the advisor, and see some activities and responsiveness from her/him.
As a potential client, it should definitely urge me to use the service and get in touch with the most suitable advisor. Moreover, I have a good feeling about ING which demonstrate they want to develop a good long-term relationship with me.
But how am I supposed to choose among the advisors? How do I get to use this service if ING don't promote it on its website? What if the interface is not intuitive? How comfortable with the service should I be if I find some inappropriate content or other visitors/members personal contact numbers?...
This is a good example of potentially damaging user-generated content. The good news is that it is easily addressable, with a moderator who constantly monitor the blog.
Please find below my comments and my suggestions.
Interface - main menu
FIRST COMPANY TO FEATURE ITS INSURANCE ADVISORS...
It links to the media section of ING's website. You are lost, and there is no link to the original press release...
Is this link targeted to potential clients, potential employees or investors?
BASICS OF LIFE INSURANCE
I think the Font used is too small, and not suited to older people.
There are no hyperlinks on the pages and at the end there is no call to action. For instance, on page 13, I was expecting to find a link to the "Lifemaker application" info page on their website.
It is an interactive book. Why not, but it is not ideal in terms of user experience, and it could have been more interactive. As best practice, I invite you to check "the Virtual Forest" section of first direct interactive.
DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER
Why would I do that? Moreover, it looks like the picture is not displayed on the website... I would be curious to find out a) the reasons why they decided to add that option... b) how many times this wallpaper has been downloaded!
GET TAX FREE INCOME ON RETIREMENT
It is merely a link to the website...
Interface - poor navigability
The interface is not intuitive and a bit messy: a lot of info or features are below the fold, the home button is at the bottom of the page... The user experience is critical if you want to drive traffic to your service, and urge your members to login frequently, be more active and contribute.
* A fair proportion of "communty blogs" are useless: you can only see the standard "Please enter your message here". Also, it is easy to duplicate your message by mistake... Before submitting the post, they should launch a script which controls the body of the message.
* Browsing the communty blogs is not user friendly, and it takes for ever to find a message which is relevant to you.
One of the key misses is the absence of categories or taggs. Tagging is the base of pretty much all the web 2.0 websites and communities. It is a very efficient way to find all the relevant info about a specific topic, share that info between members and urge them to contribute.
Registration & User Profile
Early in the registration process, they ask you to choose my advisor. But how are you supposed to choose your prefered advisor at that stage?
* Add testimonial: it is good to urge your members to leave a testimonial. But here, it looks like there is only one online! Does it mean that: no one ever left a testimonial? They received many testimonials but they were that bad? They receive many testimonials, but they don't bother checking and publishing them?
* Blog rating: this is an interesting feature. Now, I feel like I am in control. But am I rating each post? Or the whole private blog with my personal advisor? What is the impact of my vote? There is no point sending my feedback if no action is taken.
* Reminders: it is a basic reminder/alarm service. I couldn't find the list of reminders on my personal homepage.
* Face-to-Face meeting: when you click on the link, another page appear saying that you will be contacted shortly. That is it!
The Advisor profiles
* The way advisors introduce themselves is diversed but there is no consistency.
Is the goal of the blog to recruit more advisors OR to develop warmer, more personal, relationships with clients? As a potential client, do I really want to hear about "growth potential"? Nope.
* I was surprised to find some personal email addresses?
* I would challenge the value of displaying personal photos. Moreover, most of the time the advisors forgot to add a description. There is no checking: "Upload family photo and enter a caption".
* They introduce their personal background.
Fine, but I need to better understand what their approach is and find out about their key skills which could help me as a client. I need to understand how successful and popular my advisor is: it would be benefitial to have access to the nb of community blogs, private blogs, face 2 face meetings, and blog ratings by advisor.
No control? It means a higher risk of brand damage
No "moderator"? Visitors promote pharmacy, viagra, ringtones, porn...
It looks like the advisors themselves don't check their community blogs!
It does not communicate a positive image of the company. A visitor may well think: "OK it is a good service, but ING don't care. They don't even read the content of the posts..."
No promotion on ING Vysya Life Insurance website?
I briefly browsed the ING V.L.I. website. I may have missed them, but I couldn't find any references or links to pickuradvisor.com.
When companies launch such an innovative service they should: a) be proud, b) communicate and send press releases to early adopters and sneezers, c) promote the new service on their website.
Stats - 31 July 07
* 6 cities & 27 advisors: Bangalore (5), Chennai (5), Delhi (5), Hyderabad (4), Mumbai (4) and Pune (4).
* It looks like there are just 490 posts for over 20 advisors since the launch.
Terms and conditions
I rarely go trough all the T&Cs, but this time I wanted to find out more about ING's policy in terms of control and moderation on the blog.
Messages
This site hosts message boards, and chat services for both public and private forums. The Users may please note that any information that is disclosed in public forums becomes public information. Users should exercise caution when deciding to disclose their personal information on such forums.
Fair enough, but what if the advisors are asking for those contact details in the community blogs... Should they do it? On many occasions, I found some personal contact details in public posts.
Editing
IVL reserves the right to edit/delete the content contributed by Users in its blog forums, if the same in the opinion of IVL is against law, morality and IVL’s Business Principles.
Cf my "No control?" section...
first direct interactive
firstdirect interactive: video review on Visible Banking
first direct launched in 1989. It rapidly became the most recommended bank in the uk. It is a direct bank which belongs to the HSBC Group. It was the very first bank in the uk "to open" 24/7.
There are 7 main sections, from fd podcasts to fd decide.
To date (July 2007), they uploaded 12 podcasts between 28/08/06 and 04/06/07.
This is a regular FAQ service. There are 4 sections:
Providing a few video interviews of satisfied customers is a good idea. I would rather listen to someone I can trust (someone like me or a wellknown expert) than visit a purely "brochureware" website.
But how am I supposed to choose from all the friendly faces? The most good looking man or woman?... They should at least add a title or give more information when your cursor is on the pictures: profile, product holding, customer since X years, switcher, credit cards customer?
cf my video review.
cf my video review.
cf my video review.
One of the most interesting services on fd interactive. It is a kind of "deep dive" approach.
In February/March 2007, fd launched their fd interactive platform which goal is to enhance the way they communicate with their clients; they want to create a community.
It is an excellent initiative, but even though they use some web 2.0 features such as video & audio podcasts and a RSS feed, the content of the site is still not user generated.
Please find below my video review of the platform.
first direct's history of innovations
first direct (fd) is one of the most innovative banks in the UK. They were the first bank to launch a text banking service and they even tried a 3G/UMTS video banking service back in October 2006.
* October 1989 - launched as UK's first telephone bank
* May 1999 - launched the UK's first text banking service
* November 1999 - launched internet banking
* July 2001 - launched its offset mortgage
* April 2004 - launched internet banking plus, aggregation service
* August 2006 - launched webchat service
* October 2006 - tested video banking service with 3
* February 2007 - launched their fd interactive plaftorm
first direct interactive: 7 main categories
Some sections cross reference each other such as fd energy & fd virtual forest which both direct to fd podcasts.
I was surprised by how much exposure fd give to their interactive service on their homepage. Based on my experience in online sales at Lloyds TSB, product visibility is critical. Indeed, the homepage, the logon and the logoff pages are the most valuable non-restricted areas of the website to drive sales. first direct allocate up to two tiles to promote its interactive service.
fd podcasts
* 4 audio podcasts were produced by the Financial Times
* 2 video podcasts
* It is an average of only 1 podcast per month. Unfortunately, you can't leave a comment nor rate the podcasts. You can't see how many people listened or downloaded them.
* Like on YouTube, I would love to be able to recommend the podcasts to a friend. It lacks of "community features".
fd ask
* changes to internet banking
* charging information
* mortgages
* behind the scenes
* I don't see the need for flash here. It is simply a list of FAQ with answers. There is usually no call to action, it is simply informative.
* Please note that mortgages is the only product with a dedicated category (and check fd decide!).
* It is just an anecdote, but it is not up-to-date. In the "changes to internet banking" section, there is still a question entitled "why can't I access internet banking with Safari". Whereas fd are proud to advertise on the homepage their new compatibility with Safari...
fd clarity
I selected Jennifer, a first direct customer for 8 years...
* In the text only version of fd interactive, you have access to the list of testimonials per topic (personal loans, credit cards, mortgages, high interest, credit cards, account service, mortgages, firstdirectory, customer services and current account)
* I doubt there is no script: if you listen closely to Jennifer, you will hear "in terms of them not being a high street bank, that's not an issue"...
fd virtual forest
It is a clever way to communicate a positive image of the company and urge their customers to register to internet banking and their e-statements service.
Online, most sales are coming from the internet banking customers...
fd magic bus
fd energy
fd decide
Mortgages are traditionally products which are complex, it is a lot of money and a significant commitment for customers. They usually want to talk to a professional. But more and more banks are providing at least a partial online application process. In their search for value, and as part of their integrated channels strategy, banks want to convert more and more customers online.
Qo is a kind of virtual assistant/advisor or advanced product selector which guides the customers: it identifies the 2 most suitable products, it guides you to the right pages on the website and it provides the right telephone numbers.
After the first question (remortgaging or new mortgage), it is a 6 step process. Qo asks you a set of fairly generic questions. During the process, it gives you some info and advice.
Well done first direct. It is another very interesting experiment, even tough I didn't find it that useful. It merely lists the allegedly two most suitable products, and it directs you to the mortgages category page.
You still need to better understand the products, and I wouldn't start the online application process before speaking with an expert.
I can only assume what first direct goal was with this service. I would love to find out:
* How many people start the fd decide process?
* Of those, how many answer all the questions?
* What was the uplift in terms of start of online application or volume of calls to a dedicated number?
* What is the next level for fd decide?
Key stats about first direct (July 2007)
* first direct has 1.2 million customers
* 885,000 of them use internet banking
* 390,000 customers use SMS text message banking.
* 43% of first direct's sales are via e-channels
* 80% of customer contact with first direct is electronic
Find more about firstdirect.
Posted by Christophe on July 18, 2007 in Customer comments, Marketing, Podcasts, Videos, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: firstdirect, interactive, internetbanking, onlinebanking, web2.0