Customer experience Updated: 17 Jun 2019

BBVA awarded for the design of its digital acquisition solution for corporate customers

BBVA’s online digital acquisition for corporate customers is not only simple and convenient, but also presents an attractive design. This service was recognized at the 2018 Ibero-American Design Biennial with an award in the ‘Service Design’; category. The design team set out to emulate a real-life exchange with the customer through a digital interface, mimicking the tone and approach that an agent would typically use when tending to a potential customer.

Teresa Alameda (BBVA Creative)

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'Digital Client Acquisition' - BBVA's acquisition service for corporate customers - allows prospective businesses to open a new account easily and quickly through any of the bank’s digital channels. The project has been recognised amongst over 450 proposals at this year’s Ibero-American Design Biennial awards (BID 18), in the category of 'Services Design'.

Innovation

BBVA, the only major bank among the 100 digital pioneers in Europe

BBVA has been recognized by the Financial Times (FT), Google and a panel of leading European policy makers as one of the 100 digital pioneers in Europe. BBVA is the only major bank included in a special report from the Financial Times, ‘Europe’s Road to Growth,’ because of its innovative use of new technologies, as well as the cultural shift that the company has undertaken.

The team involved in the project explains that, by recreating an actual exchange with the customer, they can present him/her with products that actually meet the needs of their company. “Under the design principles of transparency, traceability and proactiveness, we’ve refocused the conversation with the customer to talk about their needs, instead of offering product information: tell us who you are and what you need, and based on that we will build a solution,” explains David de Prado, Global Head of Service Design at BBVA.

As a result of this work in Service Design, the multidisciplinary team has developed an integral view of the experience, “which does not only focuses on what takes place on the screens", says De Prado. And this is “essential” to succeed at building, within a large corporation, “a service focused on people’s needs that seeks to have a significant impact,” he adds.

Agile methodologies

The project was carried out following the 'agile' and 'design thinking' fundamentals - "to anticipate customers' needs" – and following a process of "incremental improvement," by means of continual iterations, which has had a profound impact. This approach has allowed to take into account the inputs from all the members of the different teams involved in the project. "We involved all teams in the definition of the hypotheses, as well as the ideation and development of prototypes. Then we built a system that steers the conversation to gather relevant information based on what users tell us, do and feel, and that uses these insights to come up with the adequate decision," added Alicia García Jiménez, Design Lead at BBVA.

From left to right: Sara de Nova, Laura González and Alicia García Jiménez, members of BBVA's design team.

In addition, the work has been carried out following our 'triangle' model, which requires the business, design/data and technology teams to cooperate. All of them with the same weight, forming an equilateral triangle.

"We are very proud of this recognition, which is testament to the value that 'agile' working methodologies bring to the creation of global products. More importantly, the success of this programme has been about BBVA putting the client where they should be - at the heart of the decision making process - so that all the products, services and solutions they are offered are as a direct result of what the customer has told us about their specific needs," said Rob Brown, Global Head of Design, Marketing and Responsible Business at BBVA.

"The award also shows that the strength and breadth we have in this business to build these kind of solutions is truly class leading," Brown added.

The award

The Ibero-American Design Biennial (BID) is the most important event in Ibero-American contemporary design. The event is organized by the Madrid Design Foundation every two years at the Central de Diseño, at the Matadero complex in Madrid. The BID hands out seven awards in each category and eleven special mentions. Awardees are chosen by an international jury made up of some of the leading voices in the trade.

As part of its award, BBVA’s project will be displayed during BID18’s exhibition at the Central de Diseño in Madrid (from 26th to 30th November) and is included in this year’s BID catalogue.

The candidates in this category were assessed based on the following aspects:

The work and research process prior to the design: including the prognosis, target setting and a level of involvement of other players, as well as the choice of the appropriate tools.
Design experience and ideation: ability to provide meaningful experiences at the points of contact.
The implementation and assessment system or project findings: in other words, the project’s ability to generate relevant value and harness this value with the project.