Handelsbanken

Handelsbanken is already regarded as a frontrunner in customer-centred design in the financial world. They have a unique ‘Handelsbanken Way’ developed over many years, and they are already very familiar with user-centred approaches. Customer-centred design was at the heart of our concept, but we had to tailor that to fit into the Handelsbanken Way and the world of relationship banking. To achieve this, we worked closely with Handelsbanken’s internal teams to create a detailed working process and roadmap, with the local branch’s relationship to the customer always at the core.

We worked with service designers within the Handelsbanken team; their insider’s knowledge of the bank and its processes was essential to the project. Together, we formed 3 service design squads to map user journeys. Each squad had access to in-house business analysts who could provide details of processes, instructions used by workers in branches, and other valuable resources and information which would inform our work.

Understanding customers’ needs, experiences and goals is central to Consumer Duty. We needed a systematic, robust evidence-led approach, gathering real depth of insight to direct coordinated and meaningful change. This would involve carrying out multiple forms of research to gain a comprehensive picture of the whole service.

We conducted qualitative interviews with Handelsbanken customers, including branch interviews, customer interviews and parallel interviews. It was essential to gather a diverse range of insights, and full consideration of vulnerable customers was a core element of this research every step of the way.

To map the many different customer journeys while understanding pain points, we approached it from both a branch and customer perspective, so we could understand the relationship between the two. Standard blueprints or journey maps would not effectively capture the unique Handelsbanken approach, so we created hybrid customised templates. From communications to mapping and tracking, all work was done within the Handelsbanken infrastructure.

Each of the bank’s products has a nominated Product Owner. We helped the bank identify the most suitable owner for each product, ensuring the appropriate resource was assigned to every step of the customer journey. In some instances, this involved changes to job descriptions, roles and responsibilities, to ensure all product owners are motivated and empowered to improve customer experience.

Next, we prioritised pain points in order of urgency. We developed the concept of a review panel with senior stakeholders from across the business, to tackle what needed to be done and create a prioritisation roadmap. This process of prioritisation was accepted by everyone involved in the project, right up the highest levels in the bank.

We facilitated these review panels and took the outcomes into ideation. This enabled us to identify solutions to be actioned before the Duty deadline of end July 2023, as well as improvements to be made beyond the deadline. Defining and setting into motion the new governance for service design, incorporating changes to digital systems and staff development and training.

We delivered service design mapping, research, prioritisation, and ideation. These findings and deliverables have been handed over to Handelsbanken so they can embed the changes within their organisation and communicate them to individual branches, customers and other departments. We’ve taken each of the bank’s services and products and mapped them into a framework that will build and deepen the relationship with customers, from the day they come on board with the bank, right through to ending the relationship.

Deliverables were created collaboratively with the involvement of many people from across the bank, as well as from customer research input, thus affecting organisational change.