SouthShore Bank Case Study

As part of Extractable’s participation in The Financial Brand Forum in Las Vegas, our team conducted and presented a website makeover for South Shore Bank. Headquartered 18 miles south of Boston, South Shore is a full service commercial bank with a strong presence in the local communities. We used the opportunity to showcase our design thinking model and make improvements that extend the bank’s efforts of putting customers first, as well as our analytics expertise to identify the most promising conversion opportunities.

We analyzed geographic and income data to determine potential customers for South Shore and found 500k households within 15 miles, and over 4.5 million throughout their footprint. Next, we looked at current site traffic and saw that most site visitors were visiting organizational pages (home, contact, locations) over more critical product pages. We recommended a navigation structure, nomenclature and upgraded search engine to better promote products and educate prospects on South Shore’s offering.

On the UX and design front, we sought to create a seamless experience across devices, and better showcase South Shore’s brand story. Working with their current brand assets as a starting point, we developed a cleaner, more modern brand and identity system, and a layout that engages customers warmly and directly. We also championed how to use data to drive personalization, what emerging features (e.g. voice banking) to develop, and how to increase traffic and conversion rates effectively. Our analytics suggested that South Shore could see a 25% lift in application starts with all of our changes implemented.

Given the time frame of this makeover challenge, we followed a “lean” version of our typical process. With a collaborative team effort including daily scrums, rapid design iteration and prototyping, we were able to create sound solutions that were well received by the client, as well as The Financial Brand Forum audience. At Extractable, we thrive on these collaborative challenges, and love the opportunities to share our knowledge with the financial services community.