Comments on: Personae-Driven Experience Design in Retail Financial Services

By: Greg Davidson

Greg Davidson — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:50:03 +0000

You sound like a smart guy with LOTS of experience.

By: Frank Capek

Frank Capek — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:16:04 +0000

Steve, thanks for your comment.

Your point about Mass Affluent is well taken. It seems like every bank and insurance company says they’re targeting mass affluent. “Targeting mass affluent” is an oxymoron. The group is so highly heterogeneous you can’t target it; the only common characteristic is income or investible assets.

Defining different customer personae that capture differences in customer “mental models” about making money, spending money, saving money, investing money, etc… provides a way to design experiences that fit well with the way specific customers think and act.

By: Steve Chaissan

Steve Chaissan — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:50:07 +0000

Many companies in the financial services & insurance sectors are trying to crack the code to attract and retain mass affluent customers. Many study just what they mean by that and they try to categorize by income or assets or age e.g., the baby boomers. The reality it turns out to be such a large focus that it leads to no focus. The connection can be made much clearer by looking at persona and developing an offering, promise, an intended customer experience to best match one’s mental model. It is also interesting as you begin to look at the mental model of the customer in the financial services and insurance sectors just what you find. For example – is the “customer” of a life insurance policy the insured or the beneficiaries? The answer is it depends and a little bit of both but too many companies tend to just look at the insured – particularly if they fall into the mass affluent category. But in many cases, regardless of wealth, there is a much different rationale for selecting an agent, an insurance product, or a company. It is the below the water line emotional needs and this is what is missed by many companies who hang their hat on segmentation for making a customer connection. Segmentation does have its merit, as years of marketing have proven, but the persona lens is key to a remarkable customer experience in the financial services & insurance sectors.

By: Wesabe: A Collaborative, Next Gen Financial Experience « Customer Innovations - Driving Profitable Growth

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:13:25 +0000

[...] the business in terms of the traditional industry boundaries. In a recent post, I talked about a customer-personae driven experience design approach that starts by considering the broader set of needs that different kinds of customers have… [...]