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online financial services - introduction
Isn't life strange sometimes! I spend months analysing and measuring sites that
sell toasters and TVs and then get asked about sites that sell mortgages and
credit cards. So, do I take a deep breath and start again? Well, yes and no.
Let's start with the 'No'. A very distinct type of customer experience is
needed if people are to be persuaded to commit to any sort of decision within
an online environment. A lot of what is known about the sales of goods online
also applies to the sales of services online (and vice versa). The sectors can,
therefore, learn a lot from each other's best practices and examples of this
will be explored here at cx-i over the coming months.
Okay, now for that deep breath! Although the principles of online sales may be
common to both goods and service sectors, the actual sales process is often
very different. Customers need to be informed, persuaded and reassured about
different things, and in some cases, in different ways. The only way to get to
grip with these differences is to get stuck in and analyse some leading
financial services sites. So, in partnership with
Anthony Thomson of the Financial Services Forum this is exactly what
we'll be doing over the next few months. The preliminary results will be
published at the end of May but more specific analyses will continue after
that. If you have suggestions about particular aspects of customer experience
that you think I should be including, please get in touch.