What the German finance market can learn from the order process of Consorsbank
Consorsbank.de was rated the best website for ‘Order Process’ in the latest WUA! Digital Sales Scan ‘Savings Account’ (Link to winners publication) which was conducted in July 2016. The overall winner of this study was Sparkasse.de. This article contains a lot of useful insights WUA has extracted from the study, while we focus on the order process.
The importance of a smooth order process
On e-commerce domains as well as on banking websites a nice and smooth order process plays an important role. It is important that potential customers are kept well informed during the process and that they have confidence in the proper handling of their request or purchase. However, we have to keep in mind that customers have already made their decision for a certain supplier, brand or company when they start the order process.
At this point they know where and what product to buy or where they want to open a bank account. They just want to get this last step done and this is why they’ll try to determine how long the order process is. Does it include numerous steps and requires you to fill out form fields that are not necessary in their opinion? Or is it short and will they be guided through the process very easily in a a nice and smooth flow?
Why did Consorsbank score best in the order process?
Consorsbank provides a very easy process for opening a bank account. The potential customer is clearly guided through this process and the website makes it as easy as possible to complete the process quickly. A progress indicator on the left shows 3 steps which keeps the potential customer well informed throughout the process. However, we’ll see that it is actually just one step that needs user interaction, namely filling in his or her personal information in step 2.
1 Introductory page with 3 relevant questions
After clicking on the button ‘Open Account’ on the product page the potential customer is lead to the introductory page of the order process. Here, 3 relevant Yes/No-questions are asked in order to adjust the following form to the customer. The answers are already prefilled with ‘No’ which is the most frequently used answer. Thus the user usually just needs to click on the ‘Proceed’ button which makes the process feel very smooth and user-friendly!
2 Single page order form for all relevant personal information
The next step is the actual order form: a single page for entering all personal information. The fact that all necessary form fields are shown on one page makes it easy to see at just one glance how much and what kind of information the bank requires from consumers. Furthermore, for some fields ‘i’-icons provide very helpful information, for example explaining why Consorsbank needs the phone number. Thus, uncertainties or fears are eliminated directly and the potential customer feels supported in the process.
3 Last step for overview and confirmation
In the last step all entered information is summarized and can be checked or adjusted. The final button completes the process of opening a bank account. Overall, a very easy and straightforward process that supports the user wherever possible, and a good example of a smooth order process where other banks and financial service providers can learn from.
The role of the order process in the WUA! Digital Sales Scan Score
The order process is not part of the Digital Sales Scan Score in the WUA! research model. That’s because the respondents have already made their choice after evaluating the other topics like Look & Feel, Product Offer, and Brand. Still, the order process is crucial in the customer journey: it determines how easily people get to the actual opening of a bank account. If we express this ‘ease’ in figures, we address the conversion, which is key for the performance of websites. That is why the assessment of the order process is in fact included in all WUA! studies.
