Online credit card application channel for Banesco Panama
In 2019, the banking sector in Panama underwent significant changes in the way in which the services offered by banks are accessed. Seeking to facilitate the processes of requests for banking products and services, it was decided to start by creating an online platform for the Banesco credit card, one of the bank's most sold and requested products.
Landing page
Significant time challenges and process reduction
Currently, the credit card application process requires that the interested person visit a branch or call the telephone center and wait to be contacted by a sales agent, which can take weeks for the potential client to actually become our customer.
With the creation of the platform, we were presented with these objectives:
Reduce the number of documents requested by the bank to apply for a credit card
Reduce credit card delivery time from two weeks to five days
Reduce the credit card application process to just three steps
That the channel is accessible and understandable for all types of audience
Online credit card application landing page
My role
To conduct user needs research, storyboard construction, prototyping and testing with potential pre- and post-launch users, working collaboratively with front-end developers to obtain the desired results, with the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and with the areas of marketing, processes, technology and business. My participation started from the second phase of the project.
The minimum viable product of the online platform was released to production on January 6, 2019.
Collecting data…
For the first months of the project, we did not have a clear vision of what would be the best experience for our users and what they expected from an online platform. For this reason, together with my UX colleagues, we carried out tests of the prototype on five people in one of the bank's branches. Our goal was to be able to understand what our clients or potential clients expected to see and what services needed to be provided when applying for a credit card through an online platform.
Collected insights
It was observed that users were looking for a simple application process that did not involve more than three steps and that required only the strictly necessary documentation. Therefore, negotiations had to be carried out with the bank's risk and compliance departments in order to make this process possible.
This implied:
• Fewer fields to fill and thus minimize the dropout rate
• Present an introduction beforehand with the documents that users must have on hand and thus ensure that when they enter the site they do not have to leave in order to continue.
Also, it led us to focus more on the responsive of the site since in user surveys and data obtained from different analytics, the device with which they most interact with the bank is the mobile phone.
The prototype design had to contain all the insights and needs of the users and at the same time a simple style, maintaining the banking style, generating security for users when entering the site and requesting a credit card.
The flow consists of two phases, a prequalification where users in three steps request the credit card and an operator on the bank side verifies that the documentation and information are valid, and then goes on to the process of requesting and delivering the card. At the end of the process, the tracking of each step in which the request is found is shown until the card is delivered to the customer.
Prototype design
Launch and monitoring
After the launch of the online channel, constant monitoring of how users interact with the site is maintained, detecting improvements, conducting satisfaction surveys, and observing heat maps.