Ibercaja · Banking & Fintech
Redesigning the banking relationship so engagement became a consequence of value, not sales.
A new relationship model balancing perceived value, engagement and sustainability when the traditional banking model was no longer enough.
- Role
- Head of Design Strategy
- Capabilities
- Strategic Research · Business Design · Value Proposition · Customer Strategy
01CONTEXT
When the economic model no longer sustains the relationship.
Falling interest rates had reduced the profitability of traditional banking. Ibercaja needed to deepen customer engagement or introduce fees for services that had been perceived as free for years.
The risk was clear: customers could interpret the change simply as paying more for the same thing.
The question was not only how much to charge, but what needed to change in the relationship for the exchange to remain fair to both sides.
- 01LOW INTEREST RATES
- 02LOWER PROFITABILITY
- 03GREATER ENGAGEMENT OR FEES
- 04RISK: PAYING MORE FOR THE SAME THING
02REFRAMING
It was not a fee problem. It was a value problem.
We soon understood that a new commercial policy would not solve the challenge.
A banking relationship often lasts for years and spans some of the most important financial moments in our lives. The bank could be more than a product provider: it could be a financial tool helping people build their future.
WE MOVED FROM ASKING
How do we charge?
TO ASKING
What would this relationship need to provide for both customer and bank to see the exchange of value as fair?
03RESEARCH
Understand what makes a financial relationship worthwhile.
01
Customers
Interviews and focus groups with customers and non-customers to understand what created value, trust and a sense of fairness in their relationship with banks.
02
Market
Mystery shopping, safaris, benchmarking and trend analysis to study how other institutions were evolving their engagement models, services and fees.
03
Organisation
Interviews with Ibercaja professionals and executives to understand business objectives, capabilities, constraints and different internal perspectives.
04
Quantifying value
We complemented qualitative research with a quantitative conjoint analysis to understand which services created the most value, which combinations were attractive and how willing customers were to pay for them.
- SERVICES
- COMBINATIONS
- PERCEIVED VALUE / WILLINGNESS TO PAY
TURN RESEARCH INTO DECISIONS
04INSIGHTS
Before asking more from the relationship, we first had to create more value.
The research produced three particularly relevant learnings.
01
Low perceived value
Resistance to fees was very high. Without a clear increase in the value received, any new charge would be interpreted as paying more for the same thing.
02
A fee and a service did not mean the same thing
Customers were far more reluctant to accept a fee than to pay for services they could understand, choose, contract and cancel.
03
More products did not mean a better relationship
Engagement was built mainly through proactive product sales. But customers do not think in financial products: they think about what they want those products to help them achieve.
THE BANK TALKS ABOUT PRODUCTS · CUSTOMERS THINK ABOUT GOALS
05SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE
Nobody wants a PIAS. They want to be able to travel when they retire.
The bank organises its offer around products. Customers organise their lives around goals.
Mortgages, investments, savings and finance are tools for buying a home, changing a car, protecting a family or preparing for retirement.
The opportunity was to move from a relationship based on proactive selling to one that was more pre-emptive: understand what customers want to achieve, anticipate what they will need and help them prepare before that need arises.
Engagement could stop being the objective of the relationship and become a consequence of the value created.
PRODUCT → GOAL
PIAS
ENJOY RETIREMENT
MORTGAGE
BUY A HOME
FINANCE
CHANGE CAR
PROACTIVE SELLING
Which product can I sell you?
PRE-EMPTIVE RELATIONSHIP
What do you want to achieve and how can we help you prepare?
06RELATIONSHIP MODEL
Greater engagement had to mean greater value, not simply more products.
We designed a model in which different levels of relationship with the bank provided access to different forms of service and support.
An initial relationship could rely on more autonomous, digital experiences. From there, an adviser and a support tool could identify needs and goals, build a tailored plan and propose the financial solutions needed to move towards them.
As the relationship created value, engagement could grow and open access to more services and better conditions.
The more value the relationship creates for both sides, the deeper it can become.
- 01UNDERSTAND GOALS
- 02CREATE A PLAN
- 03PROVIDE SOLUTIONS
- 04CREATE VALUE
- 05GREATER ENGAGEMENT
- 06MORE SERVICE
07MAKING IT TANGIBLE
Making a new way of relating to the bank tangible.
The model was prototyped and packaged until it became a proposition ready to move towards implementation.
Co-creation sessions with Ibercaja teams helped test the proposition against organisational reality and translate research findings into a concrete solution.
Journeys, archetypes and other artefacts showed how the relationship could evolve over time and respond to different needs.
08ALIGNMENT
Evidence does not remove internal tensions, but it helps turn them into decisions.
A change of this depth affected different ways of understanding the customer relationship within the bank.
Throughout the process, we had to balance research evidence, internal expectations and organisational viability. Exploring alternatives and continually returning to the data helped us converge on a simpler proposition that could be defended before senior leadership.
Research and co-creation moved the conversation away from individual opinions and towards a discussion grounded in real needs and perceived value.
EVIDENCE
INTERNAL EXPECTATIONS
ORGANISATIONAL VIABILITY
CONVERGENCE
A SIMPLER, MORE DEFENSIBLE PROPOSITION
09OUTCOME
A strategy ready for implementation in a context that changed.
01
DEFINED
02
PROTOTYPED
03
PACKAGED
04
PRESENTED
The model reached enough definition to be prototyped, packaged and presented to senior leadership as a possible evolution of Ibercaja’s relationship model.
Implementing it would have involved significant organisational transformation and required a far-reaching strategic decision.
While that decision matured, rising interest rates changed the bank’s economic priorities and reduced the urgency of the profitability problem that had initiated the project. Implementation ceased to be a priority.
The strategy had not stopped making sense: the context for which it was designed had changed.
10MY ROLE
Head of Design Strategy
I led the project from the methodological framing with which we won the RFP through to the conceptualisation and presentation of the new relationship model to senior leadership.
I defined the research strategy, managed the research team and led the extraction and synthesis of conclusions.
I also facilitated co-creation sessions with Ibercaja’s internal teams and directed the transformation of findings into a new relationship proposition and its presentation to senior leadership.
Key responsibilities
Strategic framing
Research strategy
Research leadership
Sensemaking
Facilitation
Business & relationship design
Conceptualisation
Executive storytelling
Team
2 UX Researchers · Project Manager · UI Specialist
11REFLECTION
Price matters. But it does not explain by itself why someone decides to stay.
In long-term relationships, working only on price, fees or conditions may resolve a single decision, but it is unlikely to build a differentiated relationship.
Building engagement requires understanding the value the relationship really provides and making it tangible to the customer.
Engagement is not achieved by selling more. It is built by making the relationship worthwhile.