The remodelling of modern client onboarding via Service Design approach
Client onboarding in Private Banking is usually a lengthy journey, full of friction, where in extreme cases it can even be a deal breaker. In 2018 my former colleague Daniel Chiam, who managed the client lifecycle programme, asked if we could use Design methodologies to adopt a client centric approach on the project.
Here is an example of how Service Design helped an international team be aligned on the vision and deliver value to clients by shortening the onboarding time by 70%.
CONTEXT
Onboarding a millionaire / billionaire requires some background analysis (typically known as know your client), it’s not a straight forward as for the rest of us :-) From gathering the legal documentation, getting all the needed information for filling the forms (and there are a lot of it!) it can take up to 6 months according to the type of account. There are a lot of pain points in the journey and first they all needed to be collected and analysed by the team.
CHALLENGES
Naturally, the first intent was to go digital and digitize the forms so there is no duplication of data entry and as a result the process is faster. It’s not as simple as that, in order to deliver a delightful client experience we need to get a human touch in the process to follow through end to end.
Going 100% digital was also not an option. It may be a misnomer to think that PB clients are not as tech savvy as retail clients and in this context its rather more the requirements to open a PB account that may impede the use of digital rather than client preference itself. In addition, PB clients join a private bank to get the service from a relationship manager hence the client journey has to be thought through from all angles.
ACTIVITIES
Map the research into an end to end onboarding experience and highlight the pain points based on user feedbacks (clients & internal). Note the journey map is illustrative and not for onboarding per se.
We organised a few Design Thinking workshop to align on the vision and ideate on potential solutions.
Due to the high number of dependencies (systems, processes, teams) we mapped the target vision in a service blueprint so it was easier to communicate with the rest of the organisation. Note the service blueprint is illustrative and not for onboarding per se.
A key idea was to provide Relationship Managers & clients a digital platform where they could fill the needed forms jointly or independently. We designed a prototype using sketch app and Invision demonstrating a self service journey and another one where the RM is filling the forms on behalf of the client. I still remember the demo to some stakeholders not going as well as I wanted as a few believed a private client would not be willing to perform the steps shown on their own.
RESULTS
We used the feedback to reframe the problem statement and with that the team, using human-centered design thinking, came up with several other ideas looking at the entire journey front to back across the dimensions of people, process, policies and platform. This resulted in the onboarding time shrinking on average by 70%.
RELEVANCE
It is said that the first touchpoint a client has with a bank is the onboarding process. It is therefore crucial for banks to ensure that onboarding is looked at from a client centric point of view, nowadays the competition is harder with the rise of digital banks, robo-advisors and the next generation have high standard in terms of digital experience.
