HELPING PARENT’S OPEN THEIR CHILD’S FIRST BANK ACCOUNT
CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN BRAND PROMISE AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
In a world where money is increasingly invisible, a key concern for many parents is how to teach their children healthy financial habits from a young age.
To help Westpac bring to life their brand promise of ‘helping in the moments that matter’, I led a customer experience project that sought to give parents confidence when opening their child’s first everyday bank account.
THE CHALLENGE
Cross-selling transaction accounts to parents is a critical moment in acquiring the next generation of customer. Therefore, it was important to understand when and how parents approach the decision to open a bank account for their children, how they involve their children in the process and the emotions they go through.
The scope of the project was to deepen the bank’s understanding of the customer motivations and mindsets throughout their journey and to understand how the bank can deliver on its brand promise in a valuable way for their customers.
MY ROLE
I was responsible for overseeing the delivery of the project to the client. This included scope of work development and project planning, stakeholder management, research stimulus preparation, customer research and prototyping facilitation, co-creating the service blueprint and customer value proposition.
THE SOLUTION
Customer research highlighted that the act of opening a child’s first transactional bank account is a key life moment for children.
Using this insight, we explored how the moment could be developed into a unique, high-value experience, that reinforced the importance and responsibility that comes with having access to your own money.
The solution was to design an experience from the child’s perspective, inviting them (via their parents) to meet their local Bank Manager, creating a coming of age ritual that was unique to the bank. Upon meeting the Bank Manager, they would explain to the child how to use their bank account and present them with their card.
Parents were supported with financial literacy content and an overview of the process and how to prepare for it, creating a stronger relationship between parents and Westpac.
THE PROCESS
DISCOVERY
Quantitative & qualitative customer research
Empathy mapping
Customer journey mapping
DEFINE
Persona development
Problem definition
CX vision creation
DEVELOP
Customer Value Proposition development
CX strategy
Service blueprint design
Stakeholder review
DELIVER
Prototyping, iterating and refining CVP and Customer Experience
Creative territory development
Key messaging hierarchy development
Delivery roadmap
THE OUTCOME
Whilst the project has yet to go to market, it demonstrated the immense value in bringing the voice of the customer into a large organisation, overcoming assumptions of customer needs and building empathy between staff and customers.
Through the testing and iteration of customer value propositions, we were able to find the most compelling ways to present the bank as the parents partner in helping set their children up for financial wellbeing and delivering on their brand promise.
Creating a high-value experience that is unique to the bank is hoped to not only to successfully cross-sell to existing customers who are parents, but also acquire customers who are new to the bank too creating an added benefit to the scheme.
