A Service Design Case Study: Improving the onboarding and servicing of clients at a top South African financial institution.

Project overview and capability cluster

Create a fast, efficient, seamless, and holistic onboarding and servicing experience for clients serviced and facilitated by the retail and business bankers (client-facing and non–client-facing).

The client need

The client required investigation into, and a solution for the delayed and prolonged turn-around time with regards to onboarding new clients and maintaining existing clients.

The business units involved

Being an enterprise-wide operational platform the following business units were involved:
- Juristic and individual banking operations
- Legal Department
- Credit Department
- Branch managers
- Client-facing and non-client-facing bankers

An infographic displaying all business units involved in the ideation sessions.

Our approach

As is the case with taking on any new project, we had to start with research and investigation into what the problem is, who experiences these problems, where are these problems experienced, when are these problems experienced and finally, why these problems occur.

From the initial and primary investigation and research it became clear that, because of the number of business units involved in providing the end product and service to clients, we needed a holistic design thinking approach, a Service Design approach, rather than just UX and UI design focus. We had to broaden our scope, to involve all business units and include their inputs, in order for us to successfully frame the end-to-end product and service journey, comprised of all touchpoints of all involved parties, at any given stage in the client service journey.

We had to focus on solving the cause of the problem, not the symptom!

Core activities utilized:

- Research: Data collection and visualization
- Ideation: Generating ideas (divergent thinking), reducing options (convergent thinking)
- Prototyping: Service processes and experiences (from current state to future state ecosystems)
- Implementation: Service design, UX design, UI design, and development.

The double diamond model(image borrowed) was used for our problem-framing and solutioning purposes.

The problem

We were able, through our investigation and research, to ascertain not only what the origin of the cause of the problem was, but also highlight the disconnect between internal relationships and processes, initially put in place as a solution, which now ultimately contributed to the problem statement.

The biggest and most pertinent problem was not the front-end systems and platforms used by the bankers, but the disconnect between internal business units, processes, and delivery teams, all of which operate and communicate in a siloed fashion. Adding to the problem statement though, indeed were the aforementioned outdated legacy systems and front-end banker platforms being used across the client service journey.

The solution

It was clear that we needed to start discussions with the department heads of the business units within the bank. It was vital to get them on board, accepting of, and aligned to design thinking methodologies; focus on what the client needs and not on what the business wants. It took a lot of perseverance, time, and hard work but we were able to not only gain their acceptance of design thinking methodologies but also earn their respect and involvement through including them in every step of the service design journey.

With having the heads of the involved business units onboard, we started off by using the current state ecosystem map and architecture as a starting point to pinpoint where, why, how, and when improvements should be made from an internal process perspective. Having all involved back-end business units and processes aligned and “talking the same language” we could start focusing on what is most important, the client’s need for a banker to provide them with a holistic, streamlined, and efficient service in resolving their queries.

The cross-functional team, consisting of designers (UX and UI), business analysts, architects, developers, and even the project owners conducted branch visits, observed bankers servicing clients, and conducted interviews with both bankers and clients. This fulfilled our need for qualitative research as we needed to understand the client and user frustrations to start generating personas, user journeys, and detailed eco-system maps. What followed were ideation sessions (divergent and convergent thinking) and the adoption of a reiterative lean UX approach.

Concluding this very successful project outcome and return on investment, was the newly designed, very effective, and user-friendly banker dashboard, which enabled the bankers to service their clients in a much more efficient way. Backing up this success is the now streamlined back-end processes and platforms including business units now “talking the same language”, and not operating as siloed as they have before.

Our ideation sessions and some of the resulting journeys and blueprints.

Value and benefits

I was very fortunate, and it was an immense privilege to have been a part of this “game-changing” team. As a team we were able to not only empower and enable our bankers to service new and existing clients effectively and efficiently but also embed a lasting, cultivating impression and relationship with design thinking methodologies and the importance thereof. Our approach and solutions aided the financial institution in achieving an international award for the “Most Innovative Bank” in both 2020 and 2021.

Key learnings from this project

First, build trust; empathize, and cultivate a relationship.

Get to know your clients and allow them to get to know you both personally and professionally.
- Building trust and cultivating a relationship with the involved stakeholders ensures their acceptance of your proposition and intent. You’ll get nowhere trying to force your ideas and ideologies onto them.

Although design should be client-centered, never forget that the tangible and measurable success (ROI) of your designed product or service solution is based on the fine balance between what the business needs and what the client wants.
- The client (in this case) still has the upper hand with regard to business intelligence and experience, their target market, and what it is they need from you. Your mission should be to take this into account and accordingly propose your solution taking your expertise into account, providing the perfect balanced solution with the client in mind.

Persevere!
“It’s not about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward!”
- I just had to quote Rocky here. Perseverance paid off on this project. We endured A LOT of defiance and backlash with regards to the client-centered design approach and getting everyone on board, but it paid off!
Don’t allow anyone, especially yourself, to question your own methods and processes. You are capable, you will succeed! Just keep pushing!

Embrace chaos, be open to change, and be flexible in your approach.
- Be accepting of challenges and new norms. Be flexible in your approach to a problem and embrace criticism. This is the only way to build new relationships, learn, adapt, and provide alternative and successful solutions to reiterative and emerging challenges.

Service design is greatly underappreciated and the potential of it is not yet fully recognized.
- UX, CX, UI, and product design only function to cover the client's journey with the involved touchpoints with the client's product or service. This leaves open the probability that one is solving the symptom and not the problem.- Service design fulfills the need for a holistic overview and design of the relationships between all involved touchpoints and back and front-end processes on a client’s journey with an intended product or service.