These usability and accessibility barriers are not only frustrating for online customers; they are very expensive for banks. In addition to the high drop out rate in online applications, Forrester Research found that these usability problems cause users to lose confidence in both the process and the bank. As more people consider banking online in this highly competitive marketplace, the online customer experience has become a crucial differentiator.

DA’s virtual agent or ‘Avatar’ technology offers banks a new take on on-line customer service. By pre-empting online interactions with relevant information, avatars can augment online completion rates, boost customer loyalty and provide the customer with a personal, engaging, memorable and even fun online experience. Avatars provide all of the attention typically offered by costly face-to-face servicing yet take full advantage of automation. They are ideal for any customer-facing application that requires customers to interact with technology.

The test of a great technology however is not what it does by itself, but what it empowers the user to do. ABN AMRO, a global banking group with its headquarters in Amsterdam, retained DA Group to develop and deploy a branded online virtual customer account manager to address online application abandonment rates and related usability issues. The virtual account manager, Amber, welcomes the online customer, makes sales offers and guides the customer through a number of online product applications. The success of business turnaround in the first six months of pilot deployment is evidenced below.

Credit card Loans: 67% growth of online sales

Personal Loans: 360% growth of online sales

It is widely recognised that online banking provides more revenue per customer and costs less per transaction than any other channel, including phone banking. Banks aiming to profit the most from the increase in online banking volumes should consider the usability of all aspects of their site to welcome them. Customer service and usability are becoming competitive battlegrounds - areas where you can distinguish yourself from you competitors and profit from customer loyalty and recommendations.

“the commercial success of Amber is best pictured by the occasion we got a panic phone call from our fulfillment colleagues asking us whether we launched a campaign without informing them about it: they received so many applications that they had to work overtime”. ABN AMRO