ALIGNMENT OF WEB SITES TO CUSTOMER PROCESSES
A Study in the Banking Industry
Nicole Kahmer
Fidelity Investment Services GmbH, Kastanienhöhe 1, 61476 Kronberg i.Ts, Germany
Juergen Moormann
HfB – Business School of Finance and Management, 60003 Frankfurt/M., Germany
Keywords: Banking industry, Customer processes, Internet banking, Web site ranking
Abstract: Banks continually claim to supply customer-orientated services. However, banking services are still focused
on purely delivering financial products. Customers will usually receive financial products but often no
specific solution to their true problem. In that way, customers’ perception of banking services is often far
from satisfaction. In addition, important targets of marketing strategy (e.g., customer loyalty, cross- and up-
selling) do not get achieved. Therefore, the consistent alignment of financial services to customer processes
becomes increasingly important and will significantly enhance the competitiveness of banks. This paper
investigates the extent of customer support provided by banks with respect to the customers’ problem
solving process. The study focuses on the Internet as one of several customer interfaces within a multi-
channel approach. The paper delivers the theoretical framework of customer processes and provides an
empirical identification of customer processes. The main part of the study is represented by the evaluation
of 100 Web sites of banks. As a result, the paper reveals that most of the analyzed Web sites fail to assist
customers within their processes. However, the idea of supporting customer processes is spreading. It will
become a major challenge to transform the banks’ traditional product-driven view into a consequent
customer-driven approach.
1 INTRODUCTION
With only a few exceptions, almost all banks operate
in the field of “sales and distribution”. Within this
part of the value chain the majority of banks focus
on private customers as one of their most relevant
clientèle. Today, the competition on these clients is
getting more and more intense and, at the same time,
the behavior of private customers is constantly
changing: They are increasingly better informed,
they claim an appropriate price-performance ratio,
and their loyalty towards traditional banks is
diminishing. Search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo!,
Altavista) as well as intermediaries (e.g.,
financescout24, mortgageforless) support the
comparison of various offerings and consequently
the willingness to pick cherries.
In order to differentiate themselves from their
co
mpetitors, many banks try to create the
customer/bank relationship actively. A popular
attempt is to put the customer ‘into the center of all
banking activities’. Up to now, these efforts run out
by offering efficient and obliging customer services
while disregarding an important aspect of customer
orientation: During a banking transaction, a client
finds himself amidst a certain customer process and
in need of a variety of products and services.
Unfortunately, the customer usually has to compose
the respective elements by himself. There is no
doubt that the degree of customer orientation will
become a major success factor in the future.
Hammer (2002, p. 15) describes this trend as the
emerging “customer economy”. A promising
approach to improve customer orientation is the
consequent alignment of all banking services to the
processes running at the customers, regardless which
distribution channel the customers use (Schmid, R.,
Bach, V., and Oesterle, H., 2000, p. 3).
This paper shows whether and to what extent
b
anks actually support their customers’ processes.
Basically, all access points (branch, Web, call center
etc.) to the customers are relevant. However, it can
32
Kahmer N. and Moormann J. (2005).
ALIGNMENT OF WEB SITES TO CUSTOMER PROCESSES - A Study in the Banking Industry.
In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, pages 32-39
DOI: 10.5220/0002545300320039
Copyright
c
SciTePress
be assumed that the Internet – as the latest and most
innovative distribution channel – is the most likely
channel to really support customer processes today.
For this reason, our study focuses on the reflection
of customer processes in the banks´ Web sites
.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definition of customer processes
A customer process can be characterized as the
entire procedure customers pass through to meet a
desire or to solve a problem. Such a process
comprises every single step until a specific wish has
been fulfilled or the solution for a problem has been
found. During this process, the customer needs a
multitude of information, services, and financial
products which usually will be acquired from
different suppliers. Typically, customers have to get
in touch with all different suppliers instead of
dealing with just one partner leading the customer
through the process (Buehler, W., 2004; Moormann,
J. and Wilkerling, C., 2003; Schmid, R., Bach, V.,
and Oesterle, H., 2000).
The following example illustrates the actual
procedure: A customer approaches a bank to apply
for a loan for her housebuilding project. This
demand has been derived from the original desire
“Housing” which can be seen as a customer process
(Niemeyer, V., 2003, p. 144; Winter, R., 2002, p.
42). There are several ways to fulfill this desire. One
might be the acquisition of a new home (Fey, B. et
al., 2000, p. 261). In most cases, banks offer only a
few interfaces to the client along this exemplary
customer process. The main – and often the only –
interface within this process is financing of the new
home. But the customer depends on a number of
further services from other providers, e.g. architect,
building contractor, insurance company et cetera.
Thus, banks do not support the whole customer
process. They are rather the supplier of a singular
separate service within a comprehensive and
complex problem solving process (Niemeyer, V. and
Thymian, M., 2002, p. 14).
Customer processes which aim to buy a product
or to sign a contract correspond to multi-step
approaches like the Customer Buying Cycle (CBC).
This basic concept comprises four phases, i.e.
stimulation, evaluation, purchase, and after-sales
phase (see the overview in Reichmayr, C., 2003).
First of all, the customer collects and assesses all
necessary information (stimulation phase and
evaluation phase). Later the customer gets to her
purchase decision and conducts the transaction
(purchase phase). At the end of the product´s life
cycle the contract expires, the product has to be
disposed of or the customer needs further services
associated with the initial purchase (after-sales
phase). The steps largely depend on the respective
customer process and the specific needs of the
customer (Muther, A., 2002, p. 14; Winter, R., 2002,
p. 42). Piller and Moeslein (2002, p. 10) describe
this approach as “integrating the customer into value
creation”
.
2.2 Current situation in the banking
industry
As an impact of modern information and
communication technologies, customers raised their
demands to the banks’ services and products
considerably. It is not decisive to cover the whole
value chain, but for the majority of banks it is rather
a question of having the most intense customer
contact and thus having the chance to make full use
of the information on customer needs and desires
(Oesterle, H., 2000, p. 23). Due to the rising
percentage of electronic transactions, it becomes
possible for banks to gather and evaluate large
quantities of customer data and, as a consequence, to
develop individual product offerings and to actively
design customer relationships.
Since the emergence of digital distribution
channels, the dependence of banks on physical
presence is decreasing. According to this fact, access
barriers to the banking sector are falling and new
financial services providers with more favorable cost
structures and superior price-performance ratios
penetrate the market. Near banks like insurance
companies (e.g., Allianz, Prudential) as well as non
banks (e.g., DaimlerChrysler, Tesco, Volkswagen,
Woolworths) more and more intrude into traditional
banking reservations.
The banks´ situation gets even more difficult
because customers tend towards holding accounts at
several banks at the same time. They compose
favorable products and services from different
institutions integrating them into a comprehensive
problem solving portfolio. Thus, a customer is quasi
isolated in her customer process and tries to manage
the integration of different partners
.
2.3 The Internet as a touch point to
the customer
To evaluate which financial products will succeed in
the age of Internet, it is essential to consider the
different specifications of a transaction from a
customer’s point of view. Important parameters in
this context are complexity, frequency, and the
ALIGNMENT OF WEB SITES TO CUSTOMER PROCESSES - Study in the Banking Industry
33
perceived importance of a transaction. For instance,
the majority of customers would prefer signing a
mortgage contract with some sort of support by their
bank adviser rather than doing the same by
themselves via the Web.
Within the context of multi-channel banking, the
distribution of products and services via the Web
does not constitute a stand-alone solution because
many trans-actions touch several distribution
channels successively. E.g., a customer can obtain
information from her bank adviser, via the call
center or the company’s Web site. The closing of a
contract and further service demands can also be
conducted via different channels. Therefore, the
Internet presents (just) one of several “customer
touch points” (Schwanitz, J., Rathsmann, T., and
Levermann, V., 2002, p. 331).
The distribution of banking products via the
Internet will only be successful if the provided
information offers the customer an added value
compared to traditional distribution channels. The
added value can be derived from the interactivity,
the geographical and temporal independence as well
as the Web’s potential for graphical representation
(Lange, A. and Waeschle, A., 1998, p. 98). Value
added services support conducting customer
processes and increase customer loyalty
(Moormann, J. and Wilkerling, C., 2003). Hence,
appropriate criteria had to be integrated in our
evaluation of Web sites
.
3 IDENTIFICATION OF
CUSTOMER PROCESSES
Although current literature shows a number of
definitions and examples of customer processes
(e.g., Oesterle, H., Fleisch, E., and Alt, R., 2001;
Hagel, J. and Singer, M., 2000, p. 86), it is hard to
find an explicit and consistent list of customer
processes or to find even an appropriate
classification. This section (chap 3) provides an
empirical identification and categorization of
customer processes. This investigation will be the
basis for the second part of our study, the evaluation
of the banks´ Web sites (chap 4)
.
3.1 Methodological approach
Banks should only support those customer processes
which are assumed as relevant and important to
them. Furthermore, there should be a certain desire
of customers to be supported by their bank.
Accordingly, there is no need for banks to support
entire processes for which customers do not feel the
need for assistance.
We have conducted a comprehensive
questionnaire to identify and classify relevant
customer processes. 373 students of HfB – Business
School of Finance & Management, Germany, have
been asked to participate in this study. The
respondents major in business adminis-tration and
work in the banking industry. Owing to their
compulsory employment contract, it is guaranteed
that all respondents maintain at least a checking
account. By virtue of this background, it can be
assumed that the respondents show a basic
understanding for the topic of the questionnaire.
However, it must be taken into account that the
students could be biased regarding their expectations
of the support of customer processes – compared to
private clients who do not have an employ-ment
relationship with a bank.
The main focus of the survey is an assortment of
30 activities or events with tangible and intangible
character which we suggested as possible customer
processes. These activities have been analyzed by
means of different questions concerning the
classification as a customer process, as relevant for
banks and as important to be supported by banks.
We received 264 completed questionnaires which
corresponds to a return rate of 70.8 per cent
.
3.2 Survey results
A central issue was how important certain customer
needs are within the scope of a financial decision. It
came out that all needs have been regarded as at
least “neutral”, “important”, or “very important” for
the respondents. The results indicate that to some
extent customer needs during the stimulation and
after-sales phase seem to be more important than
customer needs during the purchase phase. This
highlights the necessity for banks to support their
customers during all phases of the CBC and not to
focus on contract closures only
.
ICEIS 2005 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING
34
Table 1: Classification of identified customer processes
Class A Class B Class C
retirement
(90,5%)
desire for support
97,4%
buying or selling
a car (54,9%)
desire for support
= 53,0%
buying and
administrating of
IT (58,7%)
no desire for
support = 75,8%
buying or selling
a house (79,9%)
desire for support
= 53,0%
Buying and
protection of
household goods
(59,5%)
desire for support
= 68,9%
travel planning
(55,3%)
no desire for
support = 78,0%
pension coverage
(80,3%)
desire for support
= 96,2%
private adminis-
tration (58,3%)
desire for support
= 84,5%
further
(professional)
education
(46,2%)
no desire for
support = 52,3%
covering risks
(81,4%)
desire for support
= 97,4%
renting and
furbishing an
apartment
(55,3%)
desire for support
= 51,1%
renovation/
home improve-
ment (44,7%)
no desire for
support = 58,3%
processing event
of death and
inheritance
(51,5%)
desire for support
= 85,3%
asset
building/financial
planning (96,4%)
desire for support
= 96,2%
Those activities or events which have been
identified as a “total or predominant” customer
process are shown in Table 1. Furthermore, we
linked them with the respective wish of the
respondents to be supported by banks. The processes
have been classified into three classes, depen-ding
on their banking affinity. The numbers in brackets
show the degree of the proximity of each customer
process to the respective class. The desire for
assistance by banks is also given in percentages.
Processes attached to Class A represent issues of
the traditional core business of banks. All processes
but “Processing event of death and inheritance” are
assumed as banking affine with at least 80 per cent.
Class A is also characterized by the respondents’
strong desire for support by banks and their co-
operating partners.
Customer processes of Class B just get limited or
even no support by banks. Here, opportunities arise
to help customers much more within their processes.
This is based on the confidence customers put into
banks and on the knowledge banks have gathered on
their customers. For all processes of Class B the
interviewees show the demand for assistance. This
indicates that the offering of products and services
which exceed the traditional core competences of
banks could gain hugh importance in the future.
The processes allocated in Class C feature a truly
intangible character. Banks and their co-operating
partners just have little knowledge on these
activities. Therefore, it seems rather difficult for
banks to offer sufficient support here. This is
confirmed by the fact that the majority of
respondents does not want any assistance within
these processes anyway.
In summary, it may be said that the respondents
wish further assistance from their banks, but only
regarding customer processes for which they expect
the banks´ competence. Obviously, the interviewees
were not aware of or did not consider the possibility
that banks could also possess knowledge on non-
traditional respective non-financial issues. Thus,
banks should not focus on the support of these
customer processes but rather concentrate on more
classical banking topics and care for a support of the
entire processes. It will be a real challenge to align
all business processes to the customers’ needs and to
deliver all relevant interfaces concerning customer
processes of Class A. After achieving this goal
banks may have further potential to support
additional customer processes
.
4 EVALUATION OF WEB SITES
The aim of the following research was to analyze to
what degree the Web sites of banks support
processes of their customers. For this purpose, we
selected three relevant customer processes based on
the survey shown in chapter 3. We evaluated the
alignment to customer processes by means of a
catalogue of specific criteria.
Our investigation comprises a total of 100 Web
sites from banks in Austria, Germany, Switzerland,
UK, and USA. Due to the accent on banks in
Germany, the criteria focus primarily on German
customers’ needs. However, the criteria catalogue
also includes country specific needs of customers in
Austria, Switzerland, UK, and USA. The empirical
data collection follows strictly the customer’s
perspective and uses information and content from
publicly accessible banking Web sites only. The data
have been collected from Q4 2002 to Q2 2003
.
ALIGNMENT OF WEB SITES TO CUSTOMER PROCESSES - Study in the Banking Industry
35
4.1 Definition of the sample
The objects of our investigation are the following six
national banking groups: Germany (58 banks),
Austria (6 banks), Switzerland (6 banks), UK (5
banks), and USA (25 banks). In the case of Germany
we selected the 50 largest banks (measured by total
assets) with an explicit focus on private customers.
In addition, the investigation includes 8 online banks
because it can be assumed that they are privileged to
support customer processes online due to their
specialization on the Internet. The banks of the other
groups, i.e. Austria, Switzerland, UK, and USA,
have also been selected by the criterion of total
assets and a minimum degree of private clients
focus
.
4.2 Evaluation categories
The Web site evaluation has been divided into two
categories: content and structure. Our emphasis lay
on the category “Content” and referred to the
offering of information by the included banks during
all phases of the CBC. In our investigation we
analyzed three customer processes (all out of Class
A). The customer desire buying or selling a house is
specified as the customer process “Housing”. The
issues retirement care, pension coverage, and
covering risks have been included in the process
“Caring for one’s old age” which covers all three
customer needs. “Asset building/financial planning”
is the third customer process we selected for our
evaluation. These three customer processes have
been assessed from our respondents as highly affine
to banking. Additionally, the participants expressed
a strong desire to get support on these processes
from banks and there partners.
The category “Structure” is the second group of
evaluation criteria. The Internet provides access to
almost all necessary information. Thus, in the future,
it will be highly relevant for banks to assist
customers within the information overload.
According to this, the category “Structure” comes up
to the customer’s desire for transparency to simplify
their processes
.
4.3 List of criteria
The resulting list of criteria comprised a total of 64
aspects (the list of criteria can be obtained from the
authors). The criteria of the category “Structure”
(11) serve to investigate the logical concept of the
banks´ Web sites. However, most of our criteria (53)
deal with “Content” concerning the three selected
customer processes:
The customer process “Housing” represents the
desire for acquiring a home ownership which can
mean building, buying, or renting a house
respectively purchasing or renting an apartment.
Many aspects have to be taken into consideration
to support this process appropriately.
Since the pension level will further decline in the
future and life expectation is rising, the customer
process “Caring for one’s old age” is of
enormous importance for private customers.
The customer process “Asset building/financial
planning” comprises all activities to invest
money in a structured manner concerning one’s
individual financial experience, willingness to
take risk, and the respective financial and family
situation. The term asset comprises monetary
values like checking account balances, savings,
fixed-interest securities, and claims on
endowment insurance contracts as well as stocks,
real estate, property funds, and other values.
We refrained from constructing different
catalogues for each national banking group because
most of the criteria correspond to the customer needs
of private clients in general. Hence, in some cases
we modified the criteria into country specific ones to
ensure a fair comparison of the Web sites. In some
cases criteria have been excluded from our
investigation
.
4.4 Data collection
The Web sites of all banks in our sample have been
evaluated regarding every single criterion. We
especially investigated the appropriate order of
supportive activities to the respective phase of the
CBC. For example, aspects of the stimulation phase
should be reflected on the Web site at the beginning
of the customer process.
The 64 criteria have not been weighted because
they should reflect the support of customer processes
entirely. For this reason, all criteria are assumed to
be of equal relevance. Additionally, potential
customers have different needs and desires and
therefore the criteria can be of different importance
for individual clients.
We evaluated the existence of each criterion and
recorded the results with “0” for “criterion
available” or “1” for “criterion not available”. This
nominal scaling is suitable for investigations with a
high number of objects or criteria (Chung, W. and
Paynter, J., 2002). The study comprised a total of
6,400 observations
.
ICEIS 2005 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING
36
4.5 Results
The Web site ranking shown in the following section
has been calculated by the achieved performance in
per cent. The assessment of the data has been
conducted on the basis of four performance classes
(Table 2)
.
Table 2: Performance classes for Web site ranking
80 per cent A fulfillment of at least 80 per cent of
the evaluated criteria reflects an excellent
orientation on customer processes
50 to 79,9
per cent
An accomplishment from 50 to 79,9 per
cent indicates a good orientation on
customer processes. However, further
potential exists for improvement.
30 to 49.9
per cent
Criteria are fulfilled at a degree of 30 to
49,9 per cent which reflects at most a
satisfying orientation on customer
processes. Partly, clear deficits exist.
< 30 per cent A performance of less than 30 per cent is
characteristic for an insufficient orienta-
tion on customer processes.
Figure 1 delivers a first overview on the support
of customer processes based on the analyzed
banking Web sites. It can be noted that none of the
100 banks features an explicit orientation on
customer processes (i.e., performance of at least 80
per cent). The graphic shows that the majority of
banks offer just a rudimentary orientation on
customer processes with a result of only 30 to 49.9
per cent which reflects the existence of clear deficits.
The banks which are ranked best show results in
a range between 50 to 79.9 per cent. It is astonishing
that the banks of Austria and Switzerland are not
represented within this performance class (with the
exception of Erste Bank, Austria). Apart from the
UK banks, banks of all nationalities are represented
within the lowest performance class (less than 30 per
cent)
.
4.6 Web site ranking
Table 3 presents the ranking of the Top 15 banks.
Banks with the same overall result are placed at the
same position within the ranking.
Nassauische Sparkasse (Naspa) which is one of the
major savings banks in Germany
attained the best
overall result of 73.4 per cent. It heads the ranking
by a distance of almost 10 per cent. Naspa’s Web
site shows a close orientation on customer
processes including a customer-driven offering
structure. Potential customers of Naspa find a clearly
arranged access to the three customer processes via
the sections “Home and living”, “Caring for the
future”, and “Financial investments” as well as
“Securities and stock exchange”. In the category
“Content” Naspa achieved 69.8 per cent of all
criteria. Particularly during the stimulation phase,
customers obtain all necessary information for their
fields of interest. Within the category “Structure”,
Naspa’s Web site serves all criteria except the call-
back button.
It is noticeable that German banks occupy the
first positions – acknowledging that this group has
been the biggest group in our sample. Interestingly,
10 German savings banks can be found among the
25 best positioned financial institutions. Only two of
Germany’s large banks – HypoVereinsbank (HVB)
and Deutsche Bank – are among the Top Ten
.
Table 3: Web site ranking (Top 15)
Position Bank Natio-
nality
Total degree
of perfor-
mance in %
1 Nassauische Sparkasse G 73,4
2 HypoVereinsbank G 64,1
Sparkasse Nürnberg G 64,1
4 Stadtsparkasse München G 62,5
5 Deutsche Postbank G 60,9
Hamburger Sparkasse G 60,9
Stadtsparkasse Hannover G 60,9
8 Barclays UK 60,0
9 Deutsche Bank G 59,4
10 Erste Bank AU 59,0
11 Stadt+Kreissparkasse
Pforzheim
G 57,8
12 JP Morgan Chase US 55,2
13 Stadtsparkasse Köln G 54,7
NetBank G 54,7
15 Citicorp US 53,4
Wachovia US 53,4
AU = Austria, G = Germany, UK = United Kingdom, US =
United States
5 DISCUSSION
The results show that online banks do not always
perform better than banks whose Web sites just
represent an additional distribution channel in a
multi-channel approach. Only three of the eight
evaluated online banks are positioned among the top
25 banks, and NetBank, the superior bank of this
group, holds just position 13. This result underlines
that traditional banks are absolutely able to compete
with their online offerings with pure Internet banks
.
ALIGNMENT OF WEB SITES TO CUSTOMER PROCESSES - Study in the Banking Industry
37
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
> 80 % 50 % to 79.9 % 30 % to 49.9 % < 30 %
performance classes
proportion of banks in per cent
total (100 banks)
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
online banks
UK
USA
Figure 1: Overall results on the basis of four performance classes
The Web sites of Anglo-Saxon banks are,
concerning their orientation towards customer
processes, very similar to the Web sites of the
included German banks. The highest ranked UK
bank is Barclays on position 8 whereas the best
ranked US bank, JP Morgan Chase, finds itself on
position 12. Compared to other national banking
groups Austrian and Swiss banks came off
disappointing. Besides Erste Bank, which ranks
tenth, there is no Austrian or Swiss bank with a
higher performance than 46 per cent (Credit Suisse).
Based on our research it must be stated that most
of the analyzed Web sites fail to assist customers
within their processes. It is striking that the majority
of Web sites still show a clear (traditional) product-
driven structure. Even banks with a more customer-
need oriented approach provide products on the next
level of their Web site. Also, only a few banks
support customers according to the time line of the
respective process. In rare cases customers obtain an
overview on the chronology of all necessary steps
within their process.
These observations are confirmed by the fact that
many of the evaluated banks distinct the customer
process “Asset building/financial planning” into two
separate topics: Saving and investing and Securities
and stock exchange. Often both topics are treated
isolated and banks do not point out that both parts
should be seen as complementary investment
opportunities. This observation reflects the
traditional “stovepipe thinking” in the banking
industry. We observed this fact primarily at the
investigated Anglo-Saxon banks. Similarly, some
banks differentiate between offerings on Mortgage
financing and Real estate services in the customer
process “Housing”, although both topics perfectly
complement each other and thus, support the whole
process. As a result, this stovepipe thinking
approach in presenting financial services leads to the
disruption of customer processes.
Apparently, banks often design their Web sites
based on the assumption that customers are already
equipped with a profound knowledge on various
topics. In this case, banks do not provide any
necessary information during the stimulation phase,
but they directly confront their customers with a
portfolio of products. Only seldom the customers get
accompanied by their bank during the entire process.
Also, the fulfillment of customer needs within the
respective life cycle is hardly reflected in the Web.
The results of our study show that only a third of
the evaluated banks enrich their offers by services of
co-operation partners. Mostly, the much praised
open product architecture can be observed in the
field of investment funds only (offering of third-
party funds). Some of the analyzed banks co-operate
ICEIS 2005 - SOFTWARE AGENTS AND INTERNET COMPUTING
38
with insurance companies or real estate agencies
(often subsidiaries of the same bank). One could
criticize again the basically product-oriented focus
of these co-operations, the unsatisfying process
focus, and missing real partnerships with co-
operating companies apart from the own group
.
6 CONCLUSION
The reflection of customer processes in the Web
sites of banks has been investigated at the example
of three processes which have been selected on the
basis of a comprehensive questionnaire survey. The
results confirm a general trend to deliver customer
process support by banks. Since the three exemplary
processes correspond very much to the core
competences of banks (these customer processes
belong to Class A) they should be supported in an
optimal way. Customer processes exceeding the
traditional banking business have not been taken into
consideration in this study. It can be assumed that
customer processes of Classes B and C almost do
not achieve any support by banks. Accordingly, it is
necessary in the first step that banks consequently
concentrate on those customer processes which
correspond with their core competences.
In the future the alignment of financial products
and services to customer processes will become one
of the key drivers of success in the banking business.
Thus, the customers´ needs should become the
benchmark of a bank´s offering to differentiate itself
from its competitors. This will also be a major
challenge for those responsible for the bank´s
customer data bases and the front end application
systems including the Web. The medium Internet as
one of several customer touch points offers great
potential to implement the idea of supporting
customers within their processes and to shape much
closer customer relationships.
The results of our study attest that the majority of
the evaluated banks pursue a product-oriented
offering strategy instead of a customer-driven
offering strategy. Furthermore, most of them fail to
assist customers adequately. In fact, many banks
offer extensive supporting tools, services, and
information but almost none of them is able to
support all phases of the CBC. The results
demonstrate the need for a stronger focus on the
customer-driven approach in the banking industry
and the existence of huge potential in Web site
design. The bank of the future will have to ensure
that IT managers fully understand the logic of
customer processes. It will be their task to
implement this business-driven approach into the
front end applications of banks
.
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