Client Ask

Allow customers to self serve and add banking products to their portfolio within the mobile app

Current State

When customers using the mobile app wanted to add a banking product to their portfolio (such as an additional chequing account, credit card, or loan) they were required to exit the app, navigate to the bank’s site, find and choose their desired product, re-authenticate themselves, and complete and submit an application.

While many of the application’s form fields might already be completed based on information about the customer the bank already had on file (depending on the selected product), having to switch applications and re-authenticate themselves in addition to finding the right product made the process seem very long and difficult.

Ideation + Execution

The use case for this work was to allow customers to add basic banking accounts to their existing portfolio (i.e. chequing and savings accounts), however we were aware that in the future the client might want to allow customers to have the same functionality for other products as well. With that in mind we designed a flow that could be built in a templated manner and adjusted according to the product the customer was searching for.

The flow is able to accommodate a customer who knows exactly which product they want to add to their portfolio or a customer who needs some help choosing a product. We also designed the ability to ask the customer for additional input needed to complete the process, such as where to send a physical banking card.

Flow Variation 1:
The customer knows exactly which product they want to add

After selecting the “Add a chequing account” link on the Accounts page the customer is taken to a list of all possible chequing accounts they could add. A quick overview of the account’s key details is shown in the list, including the account name, number of monthly transactions, and the monthly fee.

When the customer selects the account they would like to proceed with they are able to see more details about the account and start the process of opening it.

Assuming that all of the information needed to open the account is already in the bank’s database, the customer is asked to confirm the details which are most likely to have changed and agree to the terms and conditions for their chosen account.

The flow ends with a confirmation page with a summary of the information for the new account. On the Accounts page, the newly added account is denoted with a “New” tag next to the account number.

** Due to time and budget constraints for the implementation of these designs, an assumption was made that the list of bank accounts would only show one type at a time, depending on what was most relevant for the customer (if a customer already has a savings account, the link to add an account would be for chequing accounts and vice versa). In the original proposed design, the list of accounts included the ability to filter by type of account (i.e. chequing, savings, U.S. Dollar, Student, etc.).

Flow Variation 2:
The customer needs help choosing a specific product

In the more likely event that a customer knows what type of account they would like to add (chequing or savings) but does not know which specific account they would like to open we provided them with the ability to ask for help in narrowing down the options to the one that is most suited to them.

Choosing this option takes the customer through a short series of questions that leads to one account that is best suited to the preferences stated by the customer. After answering the questions the customer is shown a summary page of the account that best matches their needs, from which they can launch the opening process or choose to return to the full list of products.

Flow Variation 3:
Additional input is needed from the customer to complete the opening process

An additional scenario that the client wanted to be able to account for was when physical items had to be mailed to the customer (such as when they did not already have a banking/debit card or had added a new credit card).

After confirming their contact details the customer is asked to specify where they would like their banking card to be sent, either to the address they have on file or a new address. If the customer chooses to send the card to a new address the required fields are then displayed for the customer to be filled out.

In this scenario, the “What happens next?” section of the summary page reflects that the banking card is on its way to the customer and reiterates the address it’s being sent to, in addition to displaying information about the new product.

Solution

Though the initial request from the client was only to provide a way for customers to add banking accounts within the mobile app, by recognizing that this functionality could also be used by other products offered by the bank, and designing the flow and screens in a way that could be easily reused, we demonstrated our expertise, ability to care for the big picture as well as the details, and desire to help the client succeed.

In addition to adding the functionality to the mobile app, we were also able to streamline the account opening process by leveraging the fact that we could simply pull the necessary information from the customer’s file instead of asking them to re-input it all. This further reduced the amount of time and effort needed from the customer to open an account via the mobile app and helped to create a personalized experience.

Disclaimer: The content shown in the images is not real and has been subbed in to protect proprietary information.