Banks and financial institutions in general are late starters when it comes to utilizing the internet as a means to generate new revenue and sales. The major role that most bank websites play is a supportive means to their existing clients.

Let’s look at Chase’s website for example:

As you can see here, Chase’s site focuses more on supporting its existing clients than trying to gain new ones. On the top left of the homepage you can log into your account or create a user ID for your already existing account. But as a customer, I may be interested in opening an account online. So I clicked on “checking” under “Personal Banking” and am led to this page:

Great, the options they have for a opening a free checking account look good, let’s see if I can really open it online. I click on the “open a Chase Free” on the right and am navigated to this page:

This makes sense, so I enter my zip code and land on a page that asks for personal information to open the account. After spending about 15 minutes entering all of my information and submit the request, I’m disappointed once more after I get a message that notifies me that my “best option is to visit a local banking center.” Why is it an option if it is not possible? And how difficult is it to make opening a free checking account a possibility?

When checking information on an already existing account however, Chase provides all of the services that you can imagine online and without the inconvenience of going to a physical location.

Another bank I explored was Citibank. They, on other hand, have minimized physical locations and are looking for ways of maximize opportunities of gaining new clients online. For instance, the first navigation option on their home page is to open a new account:

There are many navigational options for existing and new users.

Citibank also immediately lists the requirements of being able to open an online account so that you don’t waste your time if you don’t meet the requirements (qualifying leads):

They also do an excellent job at ensuring that you are entering information in a secure server and ease any anxieties that you may have while opening an account online.

Financial institutions still have a long way to go in terms of increasing their online conversion rates. The first step would be to shift the roles of their websites from a merely supportive one to one that is geared towards reaching out and gaining new customers and clients.. As Citibank has proven, it is possible and the benefits can be extremely fruitful.

Tags: Conversion Optimization, online banking, usability
Posted in Miscellaneous