Basics out of the box
What do you do if you are a much smaller bank that needs to punch above its weight and create not just a better home buying experience, but a memorable experience that is as joyful as moving into your new home? You understand the deep emotional drivers of your customers and support them at every stage of their journey.
The Client
Challenging the status quo is never an easy task, but the financial sector is filled with stories of those who have taken on the establishment and won. The difficulty is normally overcoming a disparity in resources, which means spending smart, not spending large.
CUA , recently rebranded as Great Southern Bank , is Australia’s largest credit union, and they have been serving the needs of its members for 75 years.
In 2022, they had around 20,000 members and $7 billion in assets. But despite their size, they were still considered a minor player in the home loan market.
The major banks controlled over 80% of the market, and CUA knew that they needed to do something different if they wanted to compete. They came to Proto for help.
The Challenge
What makes a customer choose one home loan provider over another? That was the question CUA needed to be answered if they were going to increase their market share.
The home loan market is a competitive one, and the major banks have a lot of resources at their disposal. They can offer lower interest rates, longer terms, and bigger loans.
CUA didn’t have the same kind of financial resources, but it did have something else – a strong commitment to its members. They wanted to create a home loan product that would be tailored to the needs of their members, and Proto was tasked with helping them do just that.
We design customer experiences where everybody wins
Buying a house, for most people, is a singularly stressful event. It’s also a huge financial decision – one that can have long-lasting ramifications. Proto was brought in to help CUA create a home loan experience that would be as stress-free and straightforward as possible.
The reality is that CUA, and other banks, already offer a functional and practical home loan to their customers. However, there were certain key areas of opportunity that we identified that could make the process much simpler, more streamlined and less stressful for customers.
If your customer is lost as to how you add value, you've lost your customer
The first opportunity was in the area of customer research. We spoke to a number of CUA’s members, to get a sense of what they were looking for in a home loan. We then looked at the entire process, from start to finish, and identified areas where we could streamline and simplify things.
The end result was a set of customer journeys and detailed design specifications that CUA used to create an improved home loan experience for its members.
Study, simplify, support
While designing the perfect customer journey would ensure a stress-free loan process for customers, there was still the matter of attracting and keeping their attention.
The home loan market experiences a high rate of churn, which means customers are frequently switching providers in search of a better deal. Our research showed that this was because customers did not perceive any particular value in loyalty to one provider.
This was a key insight that informed our strategy for CUA. We needed to find a way to make the brand stand out in a highly commoditised market and create value that would make customers want to stay.
The solution we arrived at was to focus on three key areas: simplifying the loan process, providing expert support, and making it easy for customers to compare products.
Removing the barriers between what is and what is possible
In order to stand out from the crowd, we needed to show people that CUA could help them realise their home ownership dreams and help them overcome their worries.
Our task was to show people that these worries were normal and that CUA could help them overcome them.
However, a one size fits all approach is never the best way, so we worked with CUA to implement customer segmentation, which would help us to create content that was more relatable and useful for each different type of customer.
By splitting customers into Set and Forget, Support Seeker, and Future Minded segments, we were able to create targeted content that helped address each group's specific concerns.
This level of personalised support provided CUA with a significant competitive advantage, and ultimately helped them to connect with their customers on a much deeper level.
Every day we work with you, we find new ways to innovate
Changing the status quo is never easy, but the good news is that there are thousands of potential and existing customers out there who are only too happy to tell you how they want to be treated.
Personalisation is the key to success in the modern business world, and we can help you to achieve it. Get in touch today to find out more about our services and how Proto can help your business to prosper.
Delivering phenomenal outcomes
“Working with Proto was a leap of faith, but they have become a major strategic partner in our CX evolution. The work they've developed and the way we've been able to embed it in the organisation has been absolutely phenomenal, and we're getting the outcomes we want.”
Felicity ClarkCustomer Experience ManagerEvery week 5k+ business leaders get three pragmatic and actionable tips to help understand their customers and employees to accelerate business growth.
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