TSB may have blown their biggest brand opportunity yet

I suspect that part of the reason for this is the target market for TSB. It's not and has never been an aspirational brand. It's firmly aimed at older and lower income people, who I would suggest are those who are most in favour of branch use and least interested in mobile and web banking. The message that the fancy new tech bit is easier to use and based on customer feedback is probably precisely what those sorts of customers want to hear, if they even feel they want to use the website at all.

It is possible that some of the perhaps unusual behaviour that you quite rightly point out has its roots in the slightly odd and contrived manner in which TSB plc was conceived and then finally born.

In its whopping 332 pages, the public prospectus ( http://goo.gl/oJDS7x ) provides some revealing insights into the business model that perhaps start to explain the focus on web branch locators and maybe inhibitors to technology innovation.

The bank was born into an apparently bright new world where it could become a real challenger. But in TSB's case a world that also required it to hold, dare I say, 'old style' fixed distribution channel, comprising 631 branches, and a requirement to buy IT and Payments Related Services from Lloyds until the age of about 10 years old (no wonder they say online banking isn't changing).

Growth and innovation is pretty hard at the best of times but must be significantly harder when a major distribution channel is fixed (and worse, regarded by many as yesterday's channel) and technology differentiation is to a large extent based on and sub-contracted long term from a competitor.

The opportunity remains to properly engage with customers (and prospects) but the ability to do this digitally appears dependent to some greater or lesser extent on just how digital Lloyds wants to be. And you have to maintain that branch network of course... 

Chris puts his finger on it. TSB has all these branches that it has to keep so what choice does it have but to make a virtue of them?

The other thing that TSB has is customers, millions of them. It's not in the same boat as the upstart examples Brett cites. It's less concerned with attracting new customers than with keeping existing ones happy and it's taken a conservative approach to this, reassuring people who didn't ask to leave the old Lloyds TSB that things aren't changing.

That's why the video focuses on branches and keeping the same login process (which is terrible – they definitely should change it).

That's not to say that I think Brett is wrong – I agree that it would be better if TSB was bolder and actually tried to sell itself to new customers. to try to stand out by being different to the other big high street banks. But I can see why they've gone with safety first. 

I agree there is some pressure on TSB to focus on their traditional demographic and that they are lumped with 600+ branches. It also quite possible that the website is actually not as badly designed as the video leads us to believe. 

At the end of the day, however, if the key metric is indeed drive to branch my view is that this is functionality built for existing customers who actually already know where their branch is, or at best case might use this functionality once or twice, but it won't get me regularly using the website. In which case means that TSB has spent a bucket load of money ostensibly to improve CX, but undoubtedly seeking ROI, neither of which would be achieved by this design 

Right now I would just like more branches, I know where they are and they are all a pain to get to! Also I would like a website that isn't the old Lloyds TSB site painted blue.

Hi Brett

As an agency, I'd say the 'tell' here is that the bank very much wants to announce that they have a new website. It implies that launching the site is the main objective they are focused upon. It also implies they aren't adopting a constantly iterative approach to site refinements. If they did the notion of a launch fades away.

On positive note, when clients talk about achieving levels of utility, refining shopper journeys and measuring end outcomes delivered, these are all 'tells' that the client gets it and great work might be done.

Steve,

So you feel the "tells" are that this is a one time iteration and they don't see the channel as inherently strategic?

BK 

Brett

For me the 'tell' is they feel the need to announce that a new web site coming, not simply soft launch it as and when.

I'm sure TSB are more than competent enough to have a roadmap and functional backlog they will be working through. And I'm sure someone in the bank will regard online as strategic. How close they are to actually delivering the site I don't know.

Its more the mindset that this announcement 'tell' betrays. If clients think their site is worth announcing to the planet with a pre-launch video, etc, they are possibly looking at it more from their own perspective, than their customer's viewpoint.

In my experience customers are fairly unforgiving in taking up a 'so what' attitude. Unless a new site materially improves something for them.

One of the clients we learned a lot from in terms of their approach is a very large online retailer. While we built mobile apps for them, as a result we also got visibility of the sheer volume of site testing and refinements they were constantly making (continuously, daily, hourly) to refine customer journeys in pursuit of fractional improvements in the end outcomes that drove revenue. Their relentless mono focus and rigour were amazing. And no-one ever knew. No announcements were ever made.

The point is, they understood that their development or UX skills weren't the story; the customer's online experience was the only story that mattered. And the thing that mattered most was how many visitors moved through the desired steps to increase performance (revenue in their case).

I've seen this mindset among retailers and tech firms, not so much among banks. Can't speak for the new wave of startups / challengers.

I’m Lorraine Donington and I’m the Head of Digital User Experience at TSB.  I’ve read your blog with interest and am really interested in your thoughts.

If I may, I wanted to give you my view on some of what you’ve said and explain a bit about the wider picture. Hopefully it will help you and your readers understand some context and explain why we chose to create the video about the new TSB website.

Communicating with our customers is really important to us.  The reason we produced a trailer for the website is because we didn’t want customers to be concerned when they came to the new site, only to discover a different site that they weren’t expecting.  For example, customers might be concerned it’s a phishing site.  So, considering we are launching a whole new website, we feel this is a sensible part of raising awareness and responsibly informing our customers of the change.  While we could have launched a ‘beta’ version and given customers the choice, we were keen to give everyone the new site at the same time.

You’re correct that we only launched in September 2013.  We’ve had a lot of feedback from customers since then and I’ve been very honest about that (see Finextra’s main story at https://www.finextra.com/news/announcement.aspx?pressreleaseid=56020&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter).  That’s why we’re looking to re-launch now with an improved website that takes account of the feedback received.

While generating business online is important to any company with a multi-channel approach, it’s only right that we address feedback about the website from existing customers.  We want to give customers choice in how they bank with us (hence the new branch locator tool, which is the first to go live) and, naturally, the branch network continues to be a very important channel for them.  The new website will be aimed at giving new and existing customers the information they need to make informed choices about how they manage their money – we’re trying to strike a balance.

Launching the new site is just the first step. As you know, a website never stands still and we’re launching not just a new site but a whole new platform, which will allow us to make improvements once it goes live.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing about your (and others’) feedback once the new website is fully launched.  If you want to be kept updated about the new website, please contact my colleagues in the media team – their details can be found here http://www.abouttsb.co.uk/press_and_media/ or you can contact them on Twitter @TSB_News.  They can put you in touch with me too if you have any other feedback.

Lorrainne,

Thanks for your response. I don't have any doubt that the video you guys produced was focused on comms. In fact, my issue isn't as much with the site (as I haven't yet actually seen the end product), but with the focus on the video being very much about reinforcing old behaviors. In that sense I hope the video isn't representative of what the site delivers.

I would have been much more keen to see how this new TSB website makes my life better as a TSB customer - how it helps me everyday. Instead, it reinforced that the site is all about TSB - your branches, your products - how and what I get from TSB.

I would have really loved to know how TSB is going to help me everyday, and how the website is part of that solution. If the only way TSB can help me is through the branch, that's just not enough.

Which is why when the video also told me that "we're not doing anything to change Internet Banking" I think what I actually heard as a customer is that TSB is not actually going to help you with your money better than TSB already is, TSB is just going to try to sell you more stuff.

I know that feedback is important to the process, and I have a long history with your agency Foolproof who I have learned helped you with the site - so I'm actually pretty confident the site will be great. I think the video didn't demonstrate that potential at all, however. 

That was the nuanced view of the video

Thanks for taking the time to respond! Good luck with the launch...

BK 

Brett,

Thanks for your feedback and good luck wishes. It really is much appreciated and taken on board.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts when the site launches!

Lorraine