HELPING CUSTOMERS INTO THEIR NEXT HOME
TRANSFORMING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE FOR WESTPAC’S HOME LOAN CUSTOMERS
In 2018, I led a cross-functional team to transform the Customer Experience for Westpac’s Home Loan customers. Focusing on the customers looking to move home, the goal of the project was to identify the key moments in the journey and develop a strategic roadmap for how the bank could support and retain customers as they moved home (and home loan).
THE CHALLENGE
In a highly competitive, rate-driven market, Westpac needed to find new ways to deliver on their brand promise of being “there in the moments that matter”.
With the core product and service delivery sitting outside of the project’s scope, gaining a deep insight into the customer mindset, understanding how to target them through data and media and developing a compelling customer value proposition was key to creating a positive change in customer retention rates.
MY ROLE
As the project lead, I was responsible for the research, strategic development and creative delivery of the project for the client.
Managing a large and diverse stakeholder group from across the bank (many of whom had not worked together before), I formed a cohesive working group aligned around a central CX vision and a clear implementation roadmap.
Within the agency, I led a team of 12 spanning service designers, data analysts, CX & Communications strategists, UX designers and a creative team ensuring clear alignment, shared knowledge sharing and fostering an environment where each individual was empowered to add value.
THE SOLUTION
Following a comprehensive study of the customer experience and needs, key moments were identified where the bank could play a valuable role in helping customers research where to live, how much they can borrow, explaining their home loan options and how the bank could make the process of moving easier.
Through understanding the customer mindsets throughout their journey, Westpac were able to deliver on their brand promise through the provision of educational content, tools and empathetic creative that helped customers feel that the bank was on their side as they moved home.
Using data points based on the customer journey, Westpac were able to connect with customers at critical moments across retail, owned and paid media, connecting individual channels to deliver a seamless, connected communication plan personalised to each customer.
THE PROCESS
DISCOVERY
Context study
Customer research
Staff interviews
Customer journey mapping
Customer pain point identification
Competitor review
UX Review
DEFINE
Theme identification & clustering
Insight generation
Deduce opportunity areas
Develop CX principles & vision
CX Strategy & roadmap
DEVELOP
Hypothesis development
Opportunity sizing
Customer value proposition ideation
Messaging matrix
Connections planning
Media planning
Creative concepting
Wireframe development
Clickable prototypes
Stakeholder reviews
DELIVER
Content development
Creative design & production
Connected media infrastructure development
Data targeting & selection
Campaign deployment
THE OUTCOME
The Customer Experience strategy was well received with the bank and the creative rollout was implemented in a phased approach due to the extensive list of assets required.
Home loan customer retention rates began to improve as the communications were introduced and within the business the customer connections plan was held up as a model for how to individually engage with customers throughout customer journey across every touchpoint.
The project taught me the importance of having a clear CX vision to help align stakeholders and also the need to invest additional time in nurturing stakeholders who were new to CX transformation projects.
