Onboarding for Digital Capabilities
Role: UX Design Lead / Duration: 2 weeks sprint
The Problem
Our team was approached by a newly formed client irritant team to assist in an onboarding strategy that will contribute to a reduction in call volume to CIBC’s support center in regards to certain questions about online banking functionality. CIBC’s online banking has no onboarding experience, or a proper help section, so client’s are left on their own to explore online banking in hopes of discovering the information or feature they are looking for. A redesign of CIBC’s entire online banking experience would be ideal to make it more user centric and task oriented, but an approach like that would be part of a much larger initiative handled by a larger dedicated project team. Our team’s determined that designing a proper onboarding solution will empower our users with the knowledge they needed, thereby decreasing the number of inquiries made to the call center and reduce the amount of mailed statements.
Hill Statement
After logging into a CIBC digital platform for the first time, digital clients can develop a basic understanding of the digital functionality and set up their account preferences at their leisure without interrupting their task at hand.
Research Highlights
75% of Online Banking registrations occur on desktop, 25% registered on the native app
2.3 million calls to customer support in 2017 related to instructions on how to perform basic tasks in Online banking such as sending an e-transfer and changing an address
A robust onboarding experience increases app retention rate by 50%
People prefer onboarding experiences that highlight value up front. A short, interactive onboarding process along with reminders can successfully educate & encourage usage
A multi-channel approach is important in the creation of a great onboarding experience
Over 40 onboarding experiences from companies across a variety of industries where conducted
Sources: Forrester, Openview, Localytics, CIBC Digital insights
Persona
High Level Flow
Sets you up for success
Quick and simple
Thoughtfully designed
Personalized
Prototype
UX Research Methods
9 one-on-one usability testing sessions
2 prototype iterations made based on user feedback
UX Research Findings
Users are more likely to complete the account set up as they feel that it is of value to them
The process was seen as very simple, straightforward, and quick to complete
The ability to skip with reminders gives users control over their set up process and encourages repeat engagement
Account set up wizard facilitates awareness and understanding of the functions and capabilities of online banking
User quotes
"Nothing at all made me feel uncomfortable. It looked like the bank was just trying to get to know my preferences, what I want to know, when and where, and what they should explain”
"The preferences are very important. It's basically allowing you to tailor your online account to your interests in terms of banking or your financial picture"
"I felt like every step was well explained and I also liked the fact that it was very quick"
"A lot of the times people don’t know exactly what they are doing and are going through it blindly just because someone is telling them to. This way they are informed and 100% consensual with everything they put forward with their account"
Final Recommendation
A digital onboarding solution will positively impact client experience, providing new digital clients with a platform to set up their account. None of the other Canadian FI’s have a robust onboarding experience as they focus primarily on frontloading features or platform tours. By allowing clients to set up their account, CIBC enables self service thereby reducing call centre costs as well as increasing digital engagement.
Mobile Onboarding Experience
While the focus of this sprint was on desktop, I simultaneously worked on a separate onboarding approach for CIBC’s native app. My goal was to make the first time launch experience of the app much more logical to address common client pain points to get some quick wins that oddly, no team within CIBC was looking to address. Today, some client’s have an issue where they don’t even know how to get to the sign-in screen due to a misleading carousel present in the app when its first installed. This work-in-progress was tested with users and received positive usability feedback. However, continued work on the mobile version was descoped from the sprint due to lack of time and resources to complete it.
Project Outcomes
While this project did not receive funding, it kickstarted a bank-wide endeavour by multiple teams to improve the entire onboarding journey for CIBC clients, both digital and in person. On the digital side, I facilitated a formal handoff of this work to a design strategy team within CIBC. Over the course of 2018, that team has been building off this design and I have been brought in at key project milestones as a consultant.
My brief work on the native app was recently picked up by a delivery team tasked with designing an onboarding experience solely for the mobile app. Additionally, my prototype has made its way across various teams and small usability tweaks have been made to the app experience based on my work.
