Modernising the Credit Card application process
Westpac is one of Australia's oldest financial institutions, services 9 million customers across the country. Despite its long-standing reputation, the organisation faced challenges with outdated legacy infrastructure, particularly in its lending practices. The credit card application process was notably slow and inefficient, burdened by numerous manual tasks and laborious data entry. This not only prolonged the application process, taking up to 5 days to complete and process, but also led to an overall unsatisfactory customer experience. To address these issues, Westpac approached Deloitte for assistance in modernising and streamlining the credit card application process, with the objective of reducing the application time from 5 days to just 5 minutes.
The Approach
Our design team was embedded within Westpac's Consumer Finance CX squad, working collaboratively to transform the credit card application experience. This approach was divided into several key phases following the double diamond framework: discovery, define, develop, and deliver.
In the discovery phase, we facilitated workshops and knowledge transfer sessions to gather crucial insights. This included conducting current state journey mapping, competitor analysis, and collating various artefacts to inform our design strategy. These activities allowed us to comprehensively understand user needs, business requirements, and customer pain points.
Moving into the design and ideation phase, we held a series of brainstorming workshops to map out high-level flows and develop low-fidelity designs. This iterative process ensured that our concepts were closely aligned with user needs and business goals. By continuously refining our designs, we aimed to create a seamless and intuitive application experience.
The testing and validation phase was crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of our designs. We conducted multiple rounds of user testing, including heuristic analysis and detailed reviews of the delivered work. This rigorous process helped us validate our designs, gather valuable feedback, and make necessary adjustments. Insights and recommendations from these tests were continuously shared with the team to maintain alignment with best practices.
Finally, in the development and implementation phase, our team delivered detailed, build-ready UI designs across three major releases. We facilitated multiple walkthrough sessions with business stakeholders to ensure clarity and alignment. Additionally, we established test cases for quantitative testing to validate the final product before its release. This comprehensive approach ensured a smooth transition from design to development, resulting in a significantly improved credit card application process.
The Outcome
The collaboration between Deloitte and Westpac resulted in significant improvements. We were able to delivered detailed, build-ready UI designs across three major releases trains and facilitated five rounds of user testing, sharing insights and recommendations. Our team conducted heuristic analysis and reviews to ensure alignment with best practices and designed future state concept designs. As a result, the new credit card application process was considerably reduced, enhancing the customer experience and improving satisfaction levels. This project successfully transformed the credit card application process for Westpac, demonstrating the power of collaborative design, thorough user testing, and proactive risk management in delivering a superior user experience.
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