CASE STUDY | 12 MINUTE READ

Conversions Increase by 30% for Prestigious European Bank

KBC Bank Ireland went live in just four months with their award-winning website hosted on Liferay PaaS.
30%
Increase in Customer Conversion
4
month Implementation
40
years of experience
Outline
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Key Takeaways

  • Reduce infrastructure costs and physical footprint by migrating to the cloud. 
    KBC Bank Ireland’s website is more secure and highly available on the cloud, allowing the IT team the time to focus on other projects.
  • Increase customer conversion rate with a great customer experience.
    KBC Bank Ireland’s website has converted 30% more customers after go-live, with users raving about their newfound ability to self-service without hassle.
  • Go to market more quickly with the agile method.
    KBC Bank Ireland used Liferay's agile-friendly technology to design and build the website with partners WONDR and Webtown. They developed and launched the first phase of their website in four months.

Background

Part of the larger KBC Group in Europe, KBC Bank Ireland has been providing reliable banking services to customers across Ireland for over 40 years. Their 1000+ employees work hard to enact a customer-first approach at every touchpoint, from easy-to-understand product and service information online to excellent support in-person or by phone to a consistent mobile experience through their app.
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Challenges

As KBC Bank Ireland’s old website platform approached end of life, the team assessed what they needed to update to improve the website and offer their customers a more digital experience. The website had the following issues: 
  1. Poor user experience.
    Through an intense feedback-gathering process, the team discovered that users were having trouble performing tasks like submitting applications, with the website using hard-to-understand language.
  2. Slow time-to-market.
    Because updates to the website took so long, the team couldn’t publish important rollouts like new products fast enough.
  3. Lack of tracking capabilities.
    Behind the scenes, the team wasn't able to monitor site visitors or conduct A/B and multivariate testing in order to understand users better.
Putting the customer experience at the heart of the plan was my main priority. Luckily we found the perfect partners to achieve our goals and build the perfect platform for KBC Bank Ireland.
Paul Flynn
Head of digital channels

Implementation

KBC Bank Ireland turned to design agency WONDR to find a quick and effective website solution. After a thorough research and vetting process, WONDR suggested Liferay as the right solution. Liferay’s extensive out-of-the-box functionality would solve the website’s design and experience problems and provide stability with their secure, hands-off cloud technology.

KBC Bank Ireland's ambition was to deliver a cloud platform as part of the project but needed support to help them evaluate the best way to do so. Liferay met and even improved upon those requirements. KBC Bank Ireland became the first European bank to host a solution on Liferay PaaS.

WONDR worked in collaboration with Webtown, a Liferay Multinational Platinum Partner, to deliver the solution. Once the implementation process started, the team was able to go live with Phase One of the new solution in just four months, using an agile approach supported by Liferay that enables quick development and strategically staged rollouts.
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Results

KBC Bank Ireland’s new website has already achieved tangible markers of success, like winning an award for Best Website - Banking. The sleek, modern site caters to eight different specific personas with tailored journeys, allowing users to:
  • Self-service by submitting an application for an account or loan, download and upload necessary documents, start the mortgage process, and more
  • Find readily digestible product and service details to help them make informed decisions
  • Switch over their banking services to KBC Bank Ireland easily
Post go-live, the website has also experienced these benefits:
  1. 30% increase in customer conversion. 
    As a result of the rigorous work KBC Bank Ireland and WONDR put into identifying and categorizing their users and improving the overall website experience, it’s easy and rewarding for users to go through the entire customer journey.
  2.  Stellar website performance. 
    With Liferay as the foundational technology, the website is faster, responsive for their mobile users, and adheres to accessibility standards, all out of the box.
  3. Bolstered security with Liferay PaaS.
    Migrating to the cloud has freed up the IT team for other crucial projects while giving them assurance that their solution is highly-available and conforms to their strictest security standards.
  4. Frequent content and development releases.
    Now that business users can publish quickly through Liferay’s friendly CMS and developers can use the agile method for their updates, time to market has decreased.
  5.  Robust tracking and monitoring.
    With new and better insights into user behavior on the website, the team can make targeted changes and refinements to the buyer's journey.
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Confident in the success of their new website, KBC Bank Ireland plans to keep phasing out releases so they can better support their customers and continue striving to understand their unique needs.