Building TBC Bank’s internet banking around the tasks customers come to do

Customer background

TBC Bank had big ambitions for multi-channel banking. Its services had already won awards, including being named Best Bank in Georgia by Global Finance, and it set itself the target of becoming the number one universal banking group in the country.

Box UK had worked closely with TBC for a number of years, including redesigning its mobile banking apps. That relationship had made one thing clear: digital channels played a vital role in setting TBC apart from its competitors, growing its market share and increasing sales.

The internet banking portal was central to that.

The challenge

To reach its goal, TBC Bank needed a comprehensive redesign of its retail internet banking portal. The portal had to make everyday banking easy for customers, and at the same time help the bank engage them and grow sales.

That meant every design decision had to start with what customers actually needed.

Our approach

Box UK ran stakeholder workshops to uncover the project’s specific requirements and goals. Alongside them, the team studied TBC Bank’s analytics for objective evidence of how customers used the existing portal, including its most popular pages and user journeys.

That evidence shaped the new information architecture. Instead of organising the portal around individual banking products, Box UK centred it on the tasks customers most commonly came to do, so it would be as useful and usable as possible.

The research also looked further afield, at digital trends inside and outside the finance industry that could help TBC win customers and grow sales. One opportunity stood out straight away: integrating TBC’s CRM system with its web platform.

What we built

The focus on users carried through from the information architecture to the interface. The design followed three principles: keep it simple, consistent and relevant. If an element couldn’t be justified as serving or being used by customers, it was stripped out.

Box UK drew on its earlier work on TBC’s mobile banking apps to give the portal a clean, high-impact look and feel. Visual dashboards displayed important information at a glance, with easy access to content and services from across the portal.

Joining the portal to TBC’s CRM system meant the bank could identify the products and services each customer was likely to be interested in, based on their existing products, preferences and past interactions. Sales messages could then be tailored to each customer and delivered at the right moment.

The outcome

The new portal made everyday banking easier for TBC’s customers, with navigation built around the tasks they came to do. For the bank, it brought increased engagement and more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell, through offers tailored to each customer.

The portal was part of TBC Bank’s wider multi-channel strategy, during which online banking grew from 20% to 80% of the bank’s operations and TBC became the leading universal banking group in Georgia. Vazha Beriashvili, TBC Bank’s Deputy Retail Director, said Box UK’s work had contributed to a rapid rise in remote banking clients:

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