PTG Global helps drive NetBank to 20% increase in customer satisfaction
Category: press-releases | Date: 15/06/2005
PTG Global is one of the driving forces behind the recent launch of the Commonwealth Bank’s (“the Bank”) next-generation internet banking system, NetBank2. The application is being rolled out following a successful trial with 14,000 NetBank customers, which resulted in a 20% increase in customer satisfaction.
With 1.9 million users, Commonwealth Bank’s Netbank is the most visited financial services application in Australia, accounting for 25% of all traffic*. Hundreds of thousands of Netbank’s customers are being migrated to the new service which offers an improved customer experience and a host of new features. All of the Bank’s customers will be migrated to the new application by the end of June.
“With 1 in 20 Australians using NetBank, its redevelopment was a big responsibility. With more and more Australians turning to internet banking, it was essential that we got it right — first time.,” said Drew Unsworth, Executive Manager, NetBank.
PTG Global’s role was to detail exactly how every part of the redeveloped application interface should behave. PTG Global was able to make these clear, powerful, recommendations because of its rigorous approach to ‘requirements capture’ (the assessment of business technology needs) and its profound understanding of user behaviour, which is grounded in psychology. PTG Global employs a wide range of consultants but the majority are industrial psychologists.
“As far as the user is concerned, the user interface is the application,” said Craig Errey, Managing Director, PTG Global. “At the end of the day, the technology is rarely critical, all people touch is the user interface, and it’s the first thing they judge you on. Before the first line of code is written, our clients work with us to create a blueprint for the user interface that is aligned with both the needs of the business and the proven behaviour of users. In turn, the software developers have clear instructions that allow them to focus on programming and integration, not negotiation and interpretation.”
“Before developing a design, it is essential that there is a clear understanding about the requirements of the application — its purpose,” said Errey. “From our experience of working with many of Australia’s leading financial institutions, we were able to provide insights into what customers require from their financial services applications; we then made clear recommendations to the Bank regarding the behaviour that should be delivered by the enhanced NetBank.”
PTG Global reviewed existing research that had been conducted by the Bank and provided feedback on the customer experience across the Bank’s other main customer interaction channels — its call centres, ATMs and branches. PTG Global then evaluated the existing NetBank application with customers to assess its effectiveness and efficiency in real-world conditions. This enabled PTG Global to understand how customers use the technology to achieve their goal — whether it is to check an account balance or pay a bill.
Workshops were organised with the Bank, IBM BCS and PTG Global to check the functionality of the application. With the Bank focused on the business objectives of the application and IBM BCS providing the technical expertise, PTG Global was the translator and guide — ensuring that the redeveloped application provided an enhanced customer experience.
“Essentially, PTG Global built the chassis and drive train of the customer interface and 360, our communications agency, designed and developed all of the customer resources around the NetBank Application, such as the 'help' pages, the 'test drives' and the NetBank Centre Web Site", said Unsworth.
“We worked closely with the Bank, taking into account the millions of users and constraints of a large institution, to develop a world class, sophisticated and usable design that delivers greatly improved online services to customers,” said Errey.
“Commonwealth Bank customers can now benefit from a more streamlined customer experience which includes fewer clicks to get them to where they want to go, better navigation, and simpler processes and steps — which ensures customers know where to go, what to do when they get there,” said Errey.
“The improvements to NetBank are part of the Bank’s ongoing commitment to enhance customer service and provide a range of ways for our customers to do their banking.Vendors like PTG Global have helped to ensure that NetBank continues to offer customers a very satisfying online experience,” concluded Unsworth.
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About PTG Global
PTG Global works with organisations and their vendors to deliver technology that works. In particular, PTG Global is the first organisation worldwide to formalise the link between business and customer requirements and the rigorous and systematic design of user interfaces. This insight is one of the foundations of PTG Global's ground-breaking design methodology, XPDesign™.
Using XPDesig, PTG Global has designed high-performance user interfaces for almost every Australian bank and telecommunications company, as well as for clients ranging from the NSW Department of Commerce, Telstra, Qantas and Federal Government Department of Industry Tourism and Resources. These user interfaces have ranged from application software to websites to speech recognition to mobile devices and interactive voice response systems.
At the end of 2004, PTG Global was the recognised by BRW in its 'Fast 100' report on Australia's most rapidly growing enterprises. PTG Global is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with offices in Boston, US, and in Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, Australia. For more information about PTG Global, please visit .
*Statistics from Hitwise Australia, April 2005
