Project Overview
Bankwest’s new online home, bankwest.com.au, offers a unique and differentiated website experience for personal, business and corporate customers. Through its website, Bankwest serves more than one million unique retail and business visitors a month, and attracts new customers with a range of tools that help them select, compare and apply for products online.
Inspired by online shopping sites, the website encompasses a number of e-tools not seen elsewhere in the financial services industry: shopping basket-type functionality, filtering capabilities, user-generated comparison charts and ways to save products and share selections via social media.
Deloitte and Bankwest were tasked with bringing the Bankwest ‘Happy Banking’ brand to life in the online experience and provide engaging, relevant and targeted content for users. The proposition, messaging and creative treatment of this website represent Bankwest’s brand promise and it offers a satisfying online experience.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Jane Muirsmith – Head of eCommerce, Retail – Project Sponsor
Shaun Griffin – Head of eCommerce, Business – Project Sponsor
Sam McCready – Customer Delivery Manager – IT & Change Management Sponsor
Jason Hutchinson – Designer – Deloitte Online
Project Brief
The website project incorporated deployment of a new Content Management System, the definition and build of new website tools, new content development, new Information Architecture and a new website design and online style guide for Bankwest.
The project team delivered a world-class website that has been recently awarded by the Interactive Media Awards™ (IMA) as Outstanding Achievement Award for the ‘Banking’ category. In judging the award, it was noted that the website ‘had excelled in all areas of the judging criteria and represented a very high standard of planning, execution and overall professionalism’.
As the project team conceived it, the website needed to be different to other banks’ sites and deliver an innovative and user-friendly experience to Bankwest’s customers, consistent with its brand promise. This new online experience drew inspiration from Bankwest’s bright and welcoming stores.
Navigation and content had to respond to people’s needs in a simple and engaging way, with information and tools to help customers find the products and services they want from a leading bank.
The content management system and website platform should be easy to use, be managed in efficient and streamlined ways, have flexibility to integrate with other systems and tools, have strong content-targeting abilities, and allow for high performance and speed and agility in responding to the demands of customers.
Project Innovation / Need
The site offers a unique online experience using a number of advanced technical features that hadn’t been used in the Australian banking sector before:
• Personalisation, including previous page and geo-targeting
• Organic search tool
• Concierge search with suggested matches, linked to pages within the website
• User-generated content filters
• Dynamic user-generated product comparison charts
• Shopping cart functionality to enable users to save products
• Assistance popup with details tailored by page
• Online calculators.
Bankwest’s search engine suggests popular search terms, but unlike other banks’ search engines, it takes people to alternative pages rather than simply suggesting search terms or keywords. It also allows people to save searches and share their preferences through social media channels.
Information Architecture and tools have been designed to take customers to where they need to go regardless of their entry point to the website and stage within the buying and service cycle.
The concierge search tool is front and centre of the homepages. It represents the experience customers would receive when greeted by a concierge when they enter a Bankwest store. Traditional navigation also exists, as well as quick links, banners and online banking log on.
This innovative way of approaching internet banking has given good results to Bankwest’s online presence and customer experience. Since launching the website in March, they have seen total unique visitors on average increase by up to 25 per cent.
Design Challenge
Bankwest had a public website that was built on a web content management system (CMS) that could no longer support the functionality needed by the business and its customers, and so was at the end of its useful life.
Bankwest’s brand promise is to make banking a more positive experience for everyone. For instance, they serve good coffee in their branches and sometimes they give away ice creams on a hot day. They want their customers to see banking as an easy and happy experience.
Our challenge was to replicate this concept in their online channel, so we chose not to use traditional banking website designs as our inspiration, but rather to make their site friendlier for clients. By using ‘happy’ imagery and customer-centric tools, such as shopping basket and product comparison functions, the user experience brought Bankwest’s ‘happy banking’ initiative to life in the online channel.
The site uses advanced search technology to answer the question ‘how can we help?’, while still providing conventional navigation options to find content and prominent links to popular content, such as Internet banking.
Sustainability
Both Deloitte Online and Bankwest work within strict sustainability policies and are committed to environmental conservation.
At Deloitte, we take our green agenda very seriously. This is reflected by actively encouraging an environmentally conscious approach to all procurement and consumption decisions made within the firm, every day of the week.
We recently launched our new GreenTracker carbon management system that captures all emissions data and calculates our carbon footprint. In that way, we encourage our people to be environmental leaders, taking personal ownership of their impact at work and at home.
Digital Experience - Website
This award recongises innovation and unique user experience in the combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content for games. Consideration given to clarity of communication and the matching information style to audience.
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