RaboDirect

RaboDirect Persona Development

About the client

RaboDirect is New Zealand’s leading online savings and investment bank. They are well known as the ‘significant other’ bank, providing a focussed set of products to the NZ public. RaboDirect is a division of RaboBank, and shares its ethos of being local, nearby and involved. They operate NZ wide, and invest solely in NZ agri-business.

The scenario

Being an online bank with no physical branches, RaboDirect needed a way to bring their customers closer and make them ‘real’ to their staff. Market research went part of the way, but they felt that there was something missing. What drives our customers? How can we jump into the minds of our customers in a meaningful way?

“In an industry where we don’t get to meet our customers face to face, Optimal’s focus on the customer was paramount and guided us to complete the process in a timely way, as well as with fantastic results. A flexible team of professional, real people.”

Jill Rudings, Customer Service Manager, RaboDirect New Zealand.

Our approach

We took RaboDirect on a journey to uncover what really makes their customers tick. To do this, we went beyond market research and demographics and undertook a series of activities:

• Gained an understanding of business objectives and desires through interviewing key staff, analysing documentation and reviewing analytics;
• Facilitated a series of workshops with RaboDirect staff to tease out their perspectives of customers, and what’s important to them;
• Went out and met the people. There’s no better way to find out about the customer experience than talking to customers! We interviewed a diverse range customers from around NZ, and some non-customers too;
• Facilitated a series of analysis workshops in which we iteratively determined the different goals, motivations and behaviours that made one type of customer different from another;
• Wrote the story of each key customer type

Outcomes

Optimal Usability helped RaboDirect to:

• Bring their customers to life by putting a face, name and story to five key types of customer
• Better understand their customers and potential customers, and what motivates, delights and annoys them
• Prioritise customer groups and begin to assess how best to design for each group’s needs and wants
• Give customers a voice at meetings and in decision-making processes, ensuring their needs are considered