Customer Experience in Go-to-Market Strategy

Business Need

Popular Bank launched its new online banking solution for small business owners. A year had passed, and existing customers were still using the personal banking platform instead of the business. The bank was unable to meet its enrollment goals.

I joined as an independent consultant to help the VP of Corporate Treasury Product Management implement the changes and improve the customer experience and conversion to the new product offerings.

Challenges

  • Potential customers were not aware of the new B2B solutions. Existing customers were hesitant to switch from a personal account to a business account. Those who demonstrated interest faced roadblocks with the application, registration and authentication process. This represented a lost opportunity of $8K per month. 

  • Internally, bank representatives did not have the tools to adequately support the customers in the sales funnel. The misalignment among various corporate departments was also causing a high rate of rejected applications due to the lack of awareness about the new process and required documentation.

Approach

I held discussions to better understand the customer journey and pain points with Customer Service, Branch Managers, Product Managers, Operations, Information Technology, and Creative Services. 

Process diagram for small business owner interaction with bank. Two stages: Local Branch and Registration & Authentication. Includes various touchpoints, pain points, and gain points like product introduction, application, approval, and access enrollment. Key roles involved are Relationship Manager, Cash Management Officer, Processing Unit A, and Operations Unit B.

I mapped the internal workflows with customer touch points to give visibility to the application approval processes. I created a visual matrix for internal staff with the required documents by solution package. These efforts were intended to be used by branch managers, customer relationship managers and cash management officers as a tool to facilitate a more efficient cross-functional flow.

Flowchart depicting internal cross-functional workflows with start and end points, decision boxes labeled Task A and Task B, and options for approval and rejection.

Partnered with Creative Services and Product Managers to create marketing communication materials as educational resources for 800 representatives and customers. Security communications from Operations and IT were reformatted to make the customer feel comfortable as they moved to the next steps.

Icon of a brochure under the text 'Educational & Marketing Resources'
Informational brochure on direct deposit payroll benefits

We designed an online training for customers and representatives with a walk-through for the new platform navigation.

I assessed the quality of existing customer feedback surveys. I also identified and corrected 20 discrepancies between the original English version and the Spanish version.

Customer satisfaction survey icon with clipboard and pencil on teal background.

Results

Customers were able to seamlessly continue to the end of the sales funnel, and enrollments to the business platform increased by 150% across its 5 markets, with revenues of $600K per year.

Staff from local branches and various departments benefited from a smoother flow of documentation and approvals.

Testimonial

Man smiling in white shirt, gray background.


"Brenda joined us at a critical time. From the very first day, she was able to take the lead leveraging her operations background to help us with customer experience and product management efforts, from marketing to process improvements. Overall, she was a solid contributor and exceeded my expectations, constantly helping us reach our goals and deliver on our tactical plans within the desired timeframes.”  

Javier M. Reyes

VP, Corporate Treasury Product Management

Popular, Inc.

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