NETTING IT OUT

In this test-drive report, we apply the Product Select and Buy Customer Scenario pattern and its “I want to find the product or service that best addresses my requirements” Moment of Truth to financial services for a customer’s research, comparison, and selection activities for a credit card. More specifically, our customer persona, Miles Maxim, wants to use the self-service facilities of credit card providers to Select and Buy a travel rewards credit card. His Moment of Truth is to be able to select a card from any provider that meets his requirements for a rewards program, rates and fees, and customer services and he has four Metrics around this Moment of Truth for time, ease of use, self-service, and selection.

Miles visits the Web sites of:

* American Express
* Bank of America
* Capital One
* Citi
* Discover

He selects two credit cards: Capital One No Hassle Miles Signature Visa Card and Capital One No Hassle Miles Ultra MasterCard. The cards appear to offer identical programs, services, and features.

PRODUCT SELECT AND BUY CUSTOMER SCENARIO PATTERN

In the Product Select and Buy Customer Scenario pattern, customers want to acquire products or services that meet their requirements. Most typically, customers follow a sequence of activities that:

• Perform research for the product/service
• Compare similar products/services along criteria that are meaningful to their usage of the product or service
• Select the product or service that they feel best addresses their selection criteria

One of the key Moments of Truth in this Customer Scenario pattern is “I want to find the product or service that best addresses my requirements.” The Metrics for this Moment of Truth qualify or quantify the time to perform the research and comparison, the ease with which they can be performed, the channel on which they can be performed, and, ultimately, that a selection can be made.

Select and Buy a Rewards Credit Card

In this Moment of Truth test-drive report, we’ll role-play the customer persona who uses online, self-service facilities to perform the research, compare, and select activities for a personal “rewards” credit card on the Web sites of five credit card providers. We’ll name this customer persona Miles Maxim. Miles’ Moment of Truth is, “I can find a credit card that meets my selection criteria.” His Metrics for this Moment of Truth are 1) I can use self-service facilities to perform research, comparison, and selection activities; 2) I can perform these activities in 30 minutes or less; 3) I can perform these activities easily with no assistance; and 4) I can select a single credit card from a provider.

The five credit card providers that we’ve selected for this Test-drive are (alphabetically):

* American Express
* Bank of America
* Capital One
* Citi
* Discover

In Table A, we list and describe the relevant Customer Scenario components for the Moment of Truth Test-drive. In Table B, we list and describe Miles’ credit card selection criteria.

I Want to Acquire a Credit Card
(Please download the PDF to view the table.)
Table A. The components of Miles’ Customer Scenario that are relevant to his Moment of Truth and Metrics are listed and described in this table.

Credit Card Selection Criteria
(Please download the formatted PDF to view the table.)
Table B. Miles’ criteria for selecting his new credit card are listed in this table.

Test-Drive Approach

We will play the roles of Miles as he visits the sites of the six credit card providers. As Miles, we’ll take this approach to navigating the sites and using their facilities:

• Go to the credit card provider’s home page.
• Navigate to a landing page for personal credit cards.
• Use credit card selection tools if they’re available.
• Use credit card comparison tools if they’re available.
• Collect the information that satisfies Miles’ selection criteria, moving from the highest-level, features-oriented content to a card’s detailed terms and conditions and/or disclosures.
• Collect rewards information first, fees and interest rates information second, and customer service information last.

Miles is a structured guy. He’ll consider the credit card providers in alphabetical order...