"Revolutionising in-app support"
The brief: Reduce call volume by enhancing in-app support.
The problem: With no real in-app support and a poor chat service customers had little choice but to call the bank for help. The call centre was receiving 25,000 monthly calls but could only handle 18,000, leading to:
● A 50% call abandonment rate.
● Low Net Promoter Score (NPS) due to customer frustration.
● Increased colleague burnout from excessive call demand.
The solution: I enabled users to resolve key issues in-app without needing to call the bank by creating a dedicated help page, prioritising the “message us” feature and digitising the dispute transaction process.
Key tools: Figma, Askable, Teams, JIRA.
Key methods:
● Current state analysis (tree node diagram).
● Competitor and comparator analysis.
● Service Design Blueprint.
● User interviews.
● Analytics analysis.
● Sketching, wire-framing, UI Design and prototyping.
Delivered: My research, insights and design recommendations were implemented across multiple initiatives, improving in-app support with a dedicated help page, prioritised “Message Us” feature and a digitised dispute process.
Benchmarking industry standards
To ensure Bankwest’s in-app support met the highest standards, I conducted an extensive competitive and comparator analysis uncovering:
● Ways to enhance the chat feature, FAQs and IA.
● How leading apps best support customers in-app.
Identifying key gaps in the experience
Using a detailed tree node diagram, I analysed the existing in-app support structure to better understand the current user experience. This deep dive helped uncover several pain points and opportunities for improvement, including:
● Help location intuitiveness – were users able to easily find where to get help?
● Relevance and priority of topics – which topics were most important to users and relevant when looking for help?
● Chat experience clarity – did the chat feature meet user expectations?
Understanding the 'what' and 'why' behind user pain points and preferences
I conducted 10 target user interviews wth Bankwest app customers, focusing on 5 key tasks:
● Task 1 – A card sort to determine the relevance of different help topics to users.
● Task 2 – A card sort to identify which topics users find most/least helpful and why.
● Task 3 – An activity exploring where users expect to find and intuitively access support.
● Task 4 – Questions to understand preferences, behaviours, and experiences with calling.
● Task 5 – Activity to learn about expectations, preferences, and pain points with messaging.
Quantitative data re-enforced our qualitative findings
We gathered data from over 400 customers (margin of error: 4.7%) across several channels:
● Surveys and adobe analytics.
● Reviews and complaints.
● Call centre and branch interactions.
● Analytics analysis.
● Website searches and help pages.
● Digital conversations (messaging).
Data analysis revealed that 7/10 of the top call drivers were already addressed or planned by other squads. The remaining 3/10 focused on transaction disputes, paperwork, and overseas travel information.
Emerging themes
Using digital affinity mapping, I synthesised the feedback and data and from user interviews and research, uncovering key themes related to customer expectations and pain points. This process revealed how users engage with the bank’s in-app support and highlighted areas for improvement, providing the foundation for deeper insights into specific issues.
Key user insights
From the themes that emerged during affinity mapping, I identified specific pain points across critical areas such as UI and visual design, usability, accessibility and the overall intuitiveness of in-app support opportunities. By analysing this synthesised data, I was able to uncover actionable insights that pinpointed key issues and enabled me to drive targeted design solutions to directly enhance customer satisfaction and usability.
Understanding gaps in our processes to enhance efficiency
By creating a service design blueprint for the customer journey in problem resolution, we were able to visualise the internal processes and better understand the implications of potential changes. In the problem resolution phase, customers may need to visit a branch, use Bank@Post at a post office, or fill out physical forms—actions we want to minimise. Our goal is to enable customers to self-serve digitally as much as possible, positioning ourselves as a digital disruptor in the industry.
Leveraging others superpowers
I collaborated with the Self-Service First, Website, Digital Conversations, and Daisy squads, and worked closely with the Bank’s Customer Insights Manager. Together, we explored findings from a 442+ customer survey, which confirmed that in-app resolution of transaction disputes was a top priority for customers. This collaboration ensured our solutions were in line with user needs and the broader organisational strategy.
Empowering users with an in-app help hub
Uplifting the "message us" feature
A game-changing feature
I advocated strongly for the transaction dispute feature, seeing it as the key area where we could make the greatest impact on the customer experience. By digitizing the dispute resolution process, we would allow users to resolve issues directly in the app, supporting the brand’s goal of offering a “simple” and “easy” experience. I worked closely with the Daisy squad, collaborating with the product owners and taking on this initiative as an additional project, driven by my desire to improve this pain point. While the feature required further iterations to refine error handling, edge cases, and ensure privacy, compliance, and technical requirements, it marked an important step towards supporting our customers in app.
Further recommendations
● Marketing – Promote messaging service updates to encourage engagement and shift user behaviour through email campaigns (EDMs), in-app notifications, flash screens, call hold messages, and digital onboarding.
● Service design – Improve response times for chat and calls by securing additional resources and enhancing self-service and chat features.
● Optimise the visibility of the help hub by exploring design solutions and iconography for the “More,” “Login,” and “Home” screens, ensuring easy access to support.
Ensuring continuity of our work
Following a company restructure, the project evolved into three key initiatives: self-service transaction Dispute, chat feature enhancement, and help hub/search function. I joined the “self-service transaction dispute” squad to ensure the continuity of this high-impact feature, while successfully handing over my work for the other two initiatives. Though the project shifted, my contributions laid the groundwork for ongoing improvements to Bankwest’s in-app support experience.
