Like mentioned in a recent Finextra article, there’s one fundamental thing that separates banks from many other businesses; customers don’t want to do business with them. Customers don’t want a mortgage; they want a home. They don’t want a loan; they want a car, or a holiday trip, or something else. Banks for a customer are a means to an end. And those banks that get this also recognise that they need to be offering services beyond the banking product.
Then, how can banks offer services online? A typical situation now is that a website has been designed to bombard visitors with everything possible. Still, for example, new and returning visitors often have different kind of needs which means that it would be wise to personalise the offering to meet the customer's actual situation better.
The most important thing, when trying to engage customers online, is to take a look at what customers are experiencing and then think about how to get their attention and help them. One way to do this is to use different kinds of situational reminders, like personalised and informative banners or proactive live chat, on a company’s website.
Let us show you how!
The truth, in a nutshell, is that the secret to charming website visitors is to make sure you offer them something they actually believe is worth the interruption. That means that you should only use situational reminders on relevant websites and pages. The best way to do this is to be creative and try to address actual problems experienced by your website visitors.
"Make sure you offer your website visitor something they actually believe is worth the interruption" [Source: @giosgCom ] #Banking #FinTech Click to Tweet
Know what your customers want and make it your mission to deliver that
Take a closer look at the possible use cases; what kind of situations your visitors are facing and how could you help them?
Here are a couple of examples, to give you a better idea of how you can try to engage your customer:
- It is the visitor’s first time on your site, and he is browsing on Loans page -> Show him a pop-up encouraging to ask for a loan promise beforehand. Then, depending on your strategy and resources, offer him a loan calculator, ask him if he would like to book a time for a negotiation or open a chat window for real-time personal guidance.
- The visitor in filling in a loan application on your site but is showing signs of hesitation (e.g. the cursor is moving to close the tab) -> show him a form with a situation relevant question like “Too many questions to answer? We understand” and then either start a live chat conversation with him or ask for his contact details. Try to prevent him leaving the site frustrated and never wanting to come back.
- It is the visitor’s first time on your site, and he has spent 5 seconds on your homepage or ‘Daily banking’ subpage -> Show him a pop-up saying ‘Looking to switch banks?”, then summarise some the main advantages of being your bank’s customer and give the visitor an easy option to find out more (e.g. start a live chat discussion, leave contact details, read more on your site etc.)
- The visitor is spending a lot of time on your ‘Corporate customers’ page -> show him a pop-up asking if he is starting up a business and would like to book a time for an online or face-to-face negotiation. Or offer him a possibility to chat right away with a specialist.
- If the visitor is browsing on ‘Saving and Investments’ subpage -> show him a list of your top 5 mutual funds and tell him about an offer related to them. Or remind him of an upcoming investment-related event. Or offer him a possibility to chat with a specialist.
- The customer has been on your ‘Loans or Saving and Investments’ site three (3) times before -> ask him if he would like to book a time for an online negotiation to discuss matters in more detail with a loan or investment specialist
- If your service offering also includes insurance, show a visitor browsing on your insurance page a pop-up that says “Ask for a special offer” and then request contact details for more information.
- If you have a campaign site or a special offer that you advertise (like “Get -50% off from your next year home insurance”), provide visitors coming from that particular URL seamless customer experience by opening a chat window. That way you can offer real-time counselling to the customer or ask for their contact details so that you can contact them later.
Get down to work
After you have gained a deeper understanding of how your customer's process of selecting, securing and using products and services goes, you can move on to the next step and start innovating and creating situational reminders like pop-ups, banners or autosuggest messages for a proactive live chat. Think about what kind of design and message you should use to catch your customer's attention?
If you want to learn more about our solutions for banks and financial institutions, come and chat with us!