Giraffe Forum

Really interesting, unbelievable about Halifax! Though I should believe it as Lloyds TSB online banking is utterly utterly rubbish. An example of struggling through something when it should be easy is when you are asked for your security word (as opposed to ID and pin - it’s quite common I think), you have to choose letters from drop downs. So, for example, it wants the 3rd, 6th, and 11th letters of your security word then you have to think about what the 3rd, 6th and 11th letters are and choose them from a drop down. Ok, so it doesn’t sound that hard, but it’s really annoying. I’m also with Kiwibank and they have a really outstanding online banking system. The way they deal with the same security step is incredibly easy. It’s basically blanks (like in Hangman), and you click the letters in the A-Z line. The whole Kiwibank experience is such a pleasure compared to Lloyds (and they have better services too, like saving international payees).
Sounds like banks must try harder. What a surprise.

Sometimes I think I should print some of Gerry’s phrases out in huge letters and stick them on the wall for all to see. But there’s too much choice, to be honest.

“You build a brand on the Web one click at a time. You destroy your brand by wasting your customers’ time.”
“Where customers spend their time is where you build your brand.”
“You are your website.”

The problem is not that Gerry speaks many words of wisdom (though he does), it’s that a lot of people with responsibility for this stuff can’t grasp ideas that are sometimes really basic. Yes, you ARE your website. It’s not an extra thing, added onto the side of the business. For the vast majority of businesses it’s the way that the vast majority of customers (and potential customers, and potential business partners) interact with them.

And while a good website won’t necessarily attract customers, a bad one will certainly send them away.

Hey Gerry, I like the point of your post and how you tie branding to experience both online and offline. I agree that companies need to focus on where their customers spend their time. I also think that many organizations have a tough time understanding how the web fits with the organization. How the web is creating an impression of their organization online.

I think many people approach the web as one item in isolation. What I mean here is that they look at the web by itself. How many webmasters or IT folks talk about branding with the marketing folks when it comes time to build the website functionality? And it goes the other way around…how many marketing folks understand best to use technology?

I would like to see an integrated approach, but somehow the current infrastructure of the business is not quite there yet. I am hopeful that it is changing and your posts point out these problems. I hope that others “stumble” across these ideas as well. Thanks for sharing.

One way we have found quite effective (to convince Senior Managers that they should care about their website) is to send them a link to a video of a customer (or even better) a prospective customer trying to complete a task on their site and getting frustrated and leaving.

We sometimes send these cold just to get people to start using our service and it usually gets a reaction! Even from people “high up”.

Lee

Gerry, have been reading you silently for years and couldn’t agree more about banking websites. First Direct is a model of its kind as to be expected. Halifax I got so angry with I fired them from my and my daughter’s savings accounts. I was never able to log in becuase I didnt have the right password/username combination and then to receive my password I had to know my username - which Id forgotten. Then when I rang up to speak to customer services they ALSO couldnt do anything about it because I couldnt pass their security questions, the most crucial of which were questions about my recent withdrawals, amounts etc on my online bank account to which I’d been barred access.

Rant over, you put it so much more pithily. Thank you!
Sophie