Calvin Seaman is the director of communications at ATB Financial in Calgary. In 2015, he led a project to communicate the launch of ATB’s Online Shopping Experience.
Can you tell us about the project and its objective?
All banks have online banking. However, what most banks don’t have is the ability for customers to buy certain products, like a chequing account. To do things like this, customers had to call or visit an ATB branch. We wanted banking to work for our customers. Essentially, we opened a branch in every computer through a new online shopping experience. Customers can now complete more complex banking transactions (such as opening accounts and applying for loans). This platform is called ATB’s Online Shopping Experience. It was launched November 7, 2015.
The communications objective was to support the successful internal launch of the platform. This included buy-in from team leaders and sales staff. We understood this platform could have been viewed as detracting from sales targets. We wanted to ensure ATB team leaders and sales associates were aware of the platforms and we addressed their concerns.
What was a key challenge you faced?
Due to how the platform was developed, team leaders and sales associates could not view it prior to launch. This was problematic as they needed to understand the platform, and the experience, to promote it to customers. To get around this, images and video snacks (short clips which demonstrated how the platform worked) were provided on ATB’s intranet which allowed staff members to learn about the platform prior to launch. Intranet resources were released on September 28, 2015.
What was the result?
Due to the internal communication we used, we had an enthusiastic response to the Online Shopping Experience. Some of the results which indicate this included the following (the first two were done through quizzes):
- 92 per cent pf employees understood how the product was used prior to the launch date
- 91 per cent of company leaders were excited about the product
- There were 6,954 unique page views to the intranet site; the average time on each page was five minutes and 57 seconds
What are you most proud of about this project?
I’m proud of the awareness and excitement we created about the platform with ATB employees. Identifying concerns employees could have had a project ahead of time also enhanced our communication. Our team members were excited about its capabilities and how it would serve customers.
