The request
HSBC came to us to design a simple financial product that would enable their agents to provide more effective recommendations based on the needs of the actual premier clients. Acquiring knowledge of the customer's financial particulars and offerings was crucial for delivering optimal advice. But there was a problem: Clients often were not willing to provide such information.
Additionally to that, the current process took more than an hour. After that time, clients were not very interested in being offered any recommendation, which they felt did not fit with their needs.
Goals: creating trust and adding value to clients
During our research, we found clients are hesitant to share financial information, have limited time, and feel pressure from sales executives.
We found the process created a notorious lack of trust. This became the cornerstone of our project. At the same time, as crucial insight, we found that although these clients were considered premium, they rarely had good financial health.
We set two different hypotheses.
Creating a more human conversation could generate trust to facilitate better information while reducing the time to attend them.
Making part of this conversation around creating a report of their financial health could make them feel they got value in return for their time.
Before designing screens, we designed a conversation
How can we generate trust? We conducted a study on the methods used by doctors, psychotherapists, and detectives to establish trust with their clients and gather the required information for diagnosis. We developed a conversational approach based on their direct and personal approach, and we tested it several times with real customers.
Results have been evident since the first test. Clients felt more comfortable trusting the agents to whom they provided all the requested information while we shortened the process. We iterated several times, after testing with more than 40 real clients.
We also found maintaining good financial health was essential to many top-tier clients. Even if their overall health score is high, they were willing to ask for how they could improve even more.
