Bank of Baroda- Summer Internship Report

Summer Internship Report
(April-May 2018)
BANK OF BARODA|ANKIT KUMAR

ANKIT KUMAR | SUMMER INTERNSHIP REPORT 1
Enhancement of User Interface & User Experience of
Bank’s website
Validation & GAP analysis of the SEO audit done by the bank. Evaluating the best
practices in UI/UX of website by peer comparison. Recommendations for the website
based on the study and implementation plan.
BY: ANKIT KUMAR
M18-022/MBA 2017-19
Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Sri City
Under the guidance of
Mr. P. S. Rao, Asst. Gen. Manager (Marketing & SM)
Mr. Surendra Sharma, Chief Manager (Digital Marketing)

Acknowledgement
The internship opportunity I had with Bank of Baroda was a great chance for learning and
professional development. Therefore, I consider myself as a very lucky individual as I was
provided with an opportunity to be a part of it. I am also grateful for having a chance to
meet so many wonderful people and professionals who led me though this internship
period.
I am using this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and special thanks to Mr. P. S.
Rao, Asst. General Manager (Marketing & SM), for taking part in useful decision & giving
necessary advices and guidance. I choose this moment to acknowledge his contribution
gratefully. I also express my deepest thanks to Mr. Surendra Sharma, Chief Manager (Digital
Marketing), who in spite of being busy with his duties, took time out to hear, guide and
keep me on the correct path and allowing me to carry out my project at their esteemed
organization.
Finally a note of thanks to all those, too many to single out names, who have helped in no
small measure by cooperating during the internship and by providing constructive inputs.
I perceive this opportunity as a big milestone in my career development. I will strive to use
gained skills and knowledge in the best possible way, and I will continue to work on their
improvement, in order to attain desired career objectives. Hope to continue cooperation
with all of you in the future.

Preface
India is on the cusp of a sea change and the biggest challenge for most of the Banks is to
maintain a high degree of competitiveness and differentiation. Taking the legacy of
innovation forward, Bank of Baroda is embracing a massive transformation exercise,
entailing fundamental changes with a focus on customer and employee satisfaction plus a
complete overhaul of technological capabilities.
Bank of Baroda is at the forefront of innovation through digitization. The Bank seeks to
handhold and empower the customer by providing digital experience on a broad base
platform. In pursuit of that, Bank of Baroda has taken the initial step and has revamped its
website to improve user interface and user experience.
Website serves as a prima facie for many banks, so in order to connect with customers,
banks need to provide such a platform to its customers that would not only be interactive
but also customer centric. Banks also utilize concepts of behavioral science in order to
engage customers with their products and services and to retain them for future offerings.
With a flood of digital products and improvement in digital infrastructure, banks have
started to realize the benefits that they can reap out of it.
Banking industry has been an intense competitive ground for several banking players. So,
to tackle the competition and to stand out from different banks, Bank of Baroda has
integrated customer voice and opinion in order to redesign their online presence.
Acknowledging the voice of stakeholders have always helped businesses across domain
giving them a dynamic view of the demands and expectations of the customers. Bank of
Baroda, following on the best practices of change management, has been successful in
integrating change on its digital platform.

Executive Summary
With an influx of technological advancements, Bank of Baroda needed to upgrade their
services in order to remain competitive in the market and more importantly to capture the
customers’ attention. The Bank revamped its website, in 2017, to remain at par with
several other players in the banking industry. New age web design and technologies were
used in order to design a website to enhance the user interface and user experience.
Recently, SEO Audit was performed to verify the feasibility and relevance of the ongoing
work on the website.
The project started with a simple objective to improve the bank’s website UI/UX. I came
across several questions to which I needed answers to serve the objectives of the project.
As primary research, I conducted a website experience survey to get the feedback from
internal and external customers. Secondary research involved evaluating industry best
practices, peer comparison, and validation and GAP analysis of the SEO audit done by the
Bank.
Key Findings:
◊ Most of the customers felt that the new website is well designed and had a positive
impression when they first visited the website.
◊ Design and Clear explanation of products and services were among the things that
were liked by the customers.
◊ Most of the respondents were concerned about color composition, navigation issues,
product details, regular updation of the content on the website, and safety issues.
Key Recommendations:
◊ Use of predictive, pattern based suggestion mechanism in the content design in
order to recommend products or services and in turn engage customers.
◊ Use of white space, call to action buttons, and bullets; fixing broken links, use of AI
assistant for several banking practices.
◊ Use of some other color (suggested Sky blue or Lilac purple) with the current
vermilion color to remove the mundanity from the website.
◊ Designing the content with consistency, making several changes in the design of the
content to make it clutter-free.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement........................................................................................................................................2
Preface ..........................................................................................................................................................3
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................................4
Internship Project .........................................................................................................................................6
Introduction of the Bank...............................................................................................................................7
SWOT Analysis.............................................................................................................................................10
Strength ..................................................................................................................................................11
Weakness................................................................................................................................................11
Opportunity.............................................................................................................................................12
Threat......................................................................................................................................................13
Key Competitors..........................................................................................................................................13
Need to revamp the website ......................................................................................................................14
Research Study............................................................................................................................................16
Agenda ....................................................................................................................................................16
Research Objectives................................................................................................................................16
Research Design......................................................................................................................................16
Primary Research........................................................................................................................................17
Analysis of data collected on primary research..........................................................................................17
Secondary Research....................................................................................................................................26
Evaluating the Best Practices..................................................................................................................27
Peer Comparison.....................................................................................................................................29
Website Comparison on Creative and Branding.....................................................................................48
Validation and GAP Analysis of SEO Audit Report..................................................................................49
Analysis of data collected on secondary research......................................................................................56
Findings and Observations..........................................................................................................................59
Recommendations......................................................................................................................................61
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................67
References ..................................................................................................................................................68

Internship Project
Title: Enhancement of the User Interface & User Experience of Bank’s website.
Project Area: Validation & GAP analysis of the SEO Audit done by the Bank. Evaluating the
best practices in UI/UX of website by Peer comparison. Recommendation for the website
based on the study and implementation plan.
Short-term goals: To improve customer satisfaction over various digital platforms in
order to retain customers by improving the user interface and user experience.
Long-term goals: To be the one-stop bank for all the banking solutions.
Deliverables:
◊ To recommend changes in the design of the website.
◊ To suggest ways to engage customers on the website.
◊ To suggest improvement in the content and creative design on the website.

Introduction of the Bank
Bank of Baroda began as “The Bank of Baroda Limited”, in 1908 in Baroda. It was founded
by the great visionary, the late Maharaja of Baroda – Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad-III on 20 July
1908.
Mission: To be a top ranking National Bank of International Standards committed to
augmenting stakeholders' value through concern, care and competence.
Logo:
The logo is a unique representation of a universal symbol. It comprises dual ‘B’ letterforms
that hold the rays of the rising sun. The Bank calls this the ‘Baroda Sun’. The sun is an
excellent representation of what the Bank stands for. It is the single most powerful source of
light and energy. Its far-reaching rays dispel darkness to illuminate everything they touch.
The bank, along with 13 other major commercial banks of India, was nationalized on 19
July 1969, by the Government of India and has been designated as a profit-making public
sector undertaking (PSU).
Bank of Baroda started its overseas journey by opening its first branch way back in 1953 in
Mombasa, Kenya. Since then the Bank has come a long way in expanding its international
network to serve NRls/PIOs, Indian Corporates around the world and to meet the banking
requirements of the local population in the country of operation. With a presence in 25
countries and 5558 branches across the globe, the Bank has transformed into 'India's
International Bank.'

As many as 10 banks have been merged with Bank of Baroda during its journey so far.
◊ Hind Bank Ltd (1958)
◊ New Citizen Bank of India Ltd (1961)
◊ Surat Banking Corporation (1963)
◊ Tamil Nadu Central Bank (1964)
◊ Umbergaon People Bank (1964)
◊ Traders Bank Limited (1988)
◊ Bareilly Corporation Bank Ltd (1998)
◊ Benares State Bank Ltd (2002)
◊ South Gujarat Local Area Bank Ltd (2004)
◊ Memon Cooperative Bank Limited (2011)
Headquartered in Vadodara (Baroda), India and Corporate office centered in Mumbai,
India, the Bank has total assets in excess of 3.58 trillion, making it India’s second largest
bank by assets.
Products and Services offered by the Bank
◊ Personal Banking
◊ Corporate Banking
◊ NRI Banking
◊ Rural & Agri Banking
◊ Loans- Home, Vehicle, Education, Personal
◊ Cards- Credit, Debit, Prepaid
◊ Wealth Management
◊ Supply Chain Finance
◊ Digital Services- Internet Banking, Mobile Banking and other services.
Rebranding in 2005
Even as the bank expanded its presence-both nationally and in the overseas markets, in
2005, it shed its original logo of a hand and a wheel of industry and agriculture within a
circle and adopted a new logo - the Baroda Sun. Then, on the threshold of adopting new

international standards, the Bank clearly intended to project itself as a modern and
technologically savvy bank. The new logo and the signing of Rahul Dravid as brand
ambassador was a clear indication that the bank was trying to address the needs of the
younger generation.
Old Logo of Bank of Baroda
Ever since the rebranding, the Bank has consistently promoted its major strengths with
large international presence, technological advancement and superior customer service.
With digitization all around, the Bank has been leveraging this opportunity to penetrate
into masses and build a stronger brand presence.
Financial Performance
Being the second largest bank in India, the Bank has been a constant performer. Operating
profit of INR 3,650 crore during quarter ended Dec’17 registered YoY growth of 40.66%,
driven by growth both in Interest and Fee Income. We have also witnessed loan growth
with domestic credit registered YoY growth of 16.38% driven by retail loans growth of
33.37% and within retail loans, home loan growth of 44.33%. Domestic CASA ratio has also
improved to 40.57% from 39.22% 1st quarter of 2017. Stressed assets / Impaired assets
has also shown a significant improvement with Net NPA ratio declining to 4.97% in Dec’ 17
from 5.05% in Sep’ 17. Current Capital Adequacy Ratio of the Bank at 11.55% continues to
be above regulatory norms.

SWOT Analysis
• Diversified Branch Network
• Complete Banking
• Government Accounts
• Strong Capital Position
• Second Largest Bank
• Strong Advertising and Branding
Strength
• High Growth in NPAs
• Low Overseas Presence
• Forex Scam
Weakness
• Transformation to Bankassurance Model
• Favourable Interest Rate Policies
• Increasing adoption of Technology
• Expansion in the rural areas to include the
Unbanked and Underbanked
• Bank Audits
Opportunity
• Intensifying Competition
• Low Global Interbank Lending
• Private Banks
• Online vulnerablitiesThreat

Strength
Diversified branch network: Bank of Baroda, being the second largest bank in India, has a
diversified branch network. With 5451 branches throughout the country, the Bank has
penetrated into the rural India with about 1823 branches.
Complete Banking: Bank of Baroda has the complete portfolio of Banking services and
financial products, ranging from personal banking- wealth management to corporate
banking-NRI banking.
Government accounts: There are multiple government accounts that support the
operation of Bank of Baroda. For example – Railways pensioners get their pension from
Bank of Baroda accounts. Similarly, different government profiles need to have a
government bank account to receive salary or pension in which case Bank of Baroda
benefits over private banks.
Strong Capital Position: Bank of Baroda has maintained at good capital adequacy ratio
(CAR) of 11.55% at the end of Q3 FY 2018.The bank’s net worth was at INR 40303.25 Cr.
The strong capital position helps the bank to sustain its solvency levels in the time of
adverse market conditions.
Second Largest Bank: Bank of Baroda is the second largest bank in India with its global
business at INR 238199 Cr as on Dec 2017.
Strong Advertising and Branding: The Bank has a good brand equity with its strong
advertising and branding presence in the market.
Weakness
High growth in NPAs: The growth in Bank of Baroda’s NPAs is outpacing the growth in its
advances. In FY2016, BOB’s NPA was 11.40% of gross advances and in FY2017, it was
11.31% of gross advances. From 0.9% in 2009, the bank’s NPA has grown to 5% in 2017.
Higher growth in NPAs is offsetting benefits of growth.

Low overseas presence: Bank of Baroda is in the top 25 banks in Asia, yet the Bank is over
dependent on its Indian market, i.e. 89.6%. BOB’s contribution of operations to revenue
and profits is very low when compared to the top 10 largest banks in Asia. The low
overseas presence increase business risks.
Forex Scam: Several employees over the years have been caught in Forex scam who were
operating out of Bank of Baroda. RBI penalized Bank of Baroda for the forex scam which
was close to INR 6000 crores. Similarly, there were other frauds involving bank employees
that impacts negatively on the bank’s identity.
Opportunity
Transformation to Bankassurance model: The Bank has the vision to transform itself
into a bankassurance driven financial institution. It has ventured into a Joint Venture with
Andhra Bank and a UK based company, Legal & General, to form a life insurance company
called IndiaFirst Life Insurance. This model may yield results in the long run for Bank of
Baroda.
Favourable interest rate policies: Improvement in business confidence in India has
driven RBI to exit from an expansionary monetary policy (low interest) to a more
calibrated monetary policy (high-interest rate). This will boost net interest margins for
Indian banks.
Increasing adoption of technology: Online cash transactions are gaining popularity,
especially after the move of demonetization and launch of platforms like BHIM app. The
increasing use of E-transactions allows BOB to improve the return on technology spend.
Bank Audits: Conducting bank audits can help the Bank in avoiding the scams happening
within branches. Even during demonetization, there were several scams which surfaced.
Bank audits will keep employees in check and will increase the overall reputation of the
brand.

Threat
Intensifying Competition: RBI has allowed foreign banks to invest up to 74% in Indian
banks. This allows competition to raise funds from the foreign banks and give competitions
to existing large public and private sector banks in India. In addition, several Fintech
companies are coming up the surface and disrupting the current banking industry by filling
the gaps with their products and services using technology.
Low global interbank lending: Post the subprime crisis, the global market for interbank
lending has been lifeless. The subprime crisis has exposed various banking institutes of US,
UK and many European countries. This has made raising money in foreign currencies all
the more difficult for the existing banks
Private Banks: Private Banks are a major competitor to government banks due to facilities
provided and because of the high functionality of private banks over government ones.
Online vulnerabilities: Digital India initiative has pushed every product and services
online. With a majority of the customers’ presence being online and low security levels,
online facilities remain vulnerable to data leaks and loss of confidential information.
Key Competitors
With the flexible entry norms for private and foreign banks in India, the competitive
conditions has changed in the banking industry. The importance of competition was also
recognized by the Reserve Bank of India, when it observed that:
Competition is sought to be fostered by permitting new private sector banks, and more liberal
entry of branches of foreign banks….Competition is sought to be fostered in rural and semi-
urban areas also by encouraging Local Area Banks. Some diversification of ownership in
select public sector banks has helped the process of autonomy and thus some response to
competitive pressures. (Reddy, 2000)

India has 21 public sector banks, 42 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 13 old private
sector banks, 7 new private sector banks and three local area banks, several small finance
banks, newly established payments banks, and state and urban cooperative banks. Among
these banks, key competitors of the Bank are:
◊ HSBC Bank
◊ CITI Bank
◊ HDFC Bank
◊ Axis Bank
◊ State Bank of India
◊ Union Bank of India
◊ Allahabad Bank
◊ Andhra Bank
◊ ICICI Bank
There is also a tough competition from the emerging Fintech companies, which are solving
several gaps present in the current banking system. Some of the Fintech companies are
Paytm, Mobikwik, BankBazaar, Lendingkart, PolicyBazaar.
Need to revamp the website
It is said that one human year equals at least four Internet years. That is how fast
technology is progressing and so to keep up with the changing pace businesses need to
upgrade their existing services to capture the choice and demand of the people. It is
important that the website remains up-to-date with these changes and that the business is
getting the most out of the new online opportunities that are available.
Bank of Baroda being in the banking industry, it was their duty to incorporate the best of
the technologies and security measures for their online presence. With an influx of
technological advancements, the Bank needed to upgrade their services in order to remain
competitive in the market and more importantly to capture the customers’ attention. There

are a few reasons that made the Bank to revamp their website and to be in the league of
businesses providing great user experience.
◊ Website Technology was Out of Date.
◊ Website Design Looked Old and Outdated.
◊ Website was Not Mobile-Friendly.
◊ Website security features were not relevant in this age.
In addition, banks were not only the competitors of Bank of Baroda, several Fintech
Companies, with the technological advantage, had emerged and were trying to disrupt the
banking industry. Thus, competition forced the officials at Bank of Baroda to take proactive
action in order to address the need to change.
With the integration of CMS, several security features, design changes and other new age
features in order to achieve customer convenience, easy navigation and easier
understandability with a logical and intuitive flow, the new and updated website of the
Bank went live on 20th of July 2017. This move was also justified by the fact that the
majority of customers are spending most of the times online and to capture them Bank
needed to go full throttle. Online banking options are being offered by the Bank to make
banking process easy for their customers. The Bank has also integrated several Security &
Compliances in order to protect customers’ online financial activity and resources. Some of
them are listed below:
◊ Captcha based validation
◊ MD5+SALT based strong encryption
◊ SSL support
◊ W3C and WCAG 2.0 compliance
◊ Cert-in Certified
◊ Authentication Management
◊ Session Management
With a strong security framework, clean and minimalistic design focusing on improving
User Interface and User Experience, the website of Bank of Baroda comes in the league of
best-managed website in the banking industry.

Research Study
Agenda
To know the status of customer satisfaction while using the Bank’s new website and to
implement changes thereafter in order to improve the satisfaction level. In addition, to do
an indirect assessment of customer satisfaction which draws light on management’s ability
to differentiate between the quality of the provided services as perceived by themselves
and as they think it is perceived by their customers.
Research Objectives
◊ To identify the needs and expectations of the Bank’s customers and measure the
extent to which they are met.
◊ To assess the current satisfaction level among the customers with regards to the
Bank vis-à-vis competition.
◊ To establish a baseline for future monitoring.
◊ To provide strategic direction for improvement in critical areas and identify
leverageable opportunities.
◊ To do a quantitative study on the result obtained.
Research Design
◊ Population: Internal Customers (employees) and External Customers (all)
◊ Primary research
o Internal survey
 Includes internal stakeholders (employees, business associates, etc.)
o External survey
 Includes external stakeholders (customers)
◊ Secondary research
o Evaluating Industry best practices
o Peer comparison (6 other bank’s websites)
o Website Comparison on Creative and Branding
o Validation and GAP analysis of SEO audit

Primary Research
Primary research was initiated with designing a survey form. The form was formulated to
know about how customers are feeling when they visit the new website of Bank of Baroda.
The survey helped me to capture the voice of bank’s customers, both internal as well as
external customers. It also helped me to compare our website with other bank’s websites.
The survey complimented the secondary research and added several inputs to the ongoing
analysis and evaluation. The analysis done on the data collected on it, also helped in
drawing several recommendations and conclusions. The questionnaire of Internal Survey
and External Survey is given at the end of this report.
Analysis of data collected on primary research
Analysis on Internal Customer data
The survey was conducted on the internal customers, that is, employees of Bank of Baroda.
Although the survey could collect only 138 responses at the time of writing this document,
it was enough to show what the employees are feeling about the new website.
Out of the 138 responses, 111 felt that the new website is better than the previous website
and 18 felt that the new website is as good as the old website.

Majority of employees have a positive impression when they first visited the website, when
asked to rate the website on a scale of 1-5.
Design, easier navigation, and clear explanation of products and services are among the
things that most of the employees liked about the website.

Majority of employees felt that the customers are satisfied with the new website. Few said
that the customers are not satisfied with the new website.
The employees who felt that the customers are not satisfied with the new website have
their own reasons for saying it. Few of the reasons are listed below.
◊ Mobile change option is not there on the website like other banks’ website.
◊ It is difficult to find particular information.
◊ Product details provided on the website are not sufficient.
◊ Forms to download in the Download section are out dated and not all forms are
available.
◊ The website lags very much and takes too much time to load.
◊ Data/Content for some products are not updated regularly.
◊ The layout is cluttered and difficult to navigate.
◊ Active links are distracting.

Most of the employees chose SBI and HDFC Bank for ease of navigation on their website.
This helped me to do secondary research on the website of SBI and HDFC Bank.
Majority chose SBI, HDFC and Axis Bank for the better-designed website.

SBI was chosen by most of the respondents for better safety and security on their website.
While doing secondary research I was able to get the answer behind this choice of the most
of the employees.

Respondents felt that the website is designed around one color and said that Orange color
is overpowering over other colors. Navigation issues, that is, it took more than three clicks
to access any content was also something that the respondents did not like. Not enough
content, website too much cluttered were among other reasons.
Respondents gave several suggestions at the end of the survey to improve the website
experience.
◊ Apply now button should be placed with every product or service
◊ Other color combination should be tried out with the current vermilion color
◊ Provision for online account opening should be done
◊ GPS tagging of ATMs and branches
◊ Video explaining product features
◊ Charges/Rates to be clearly mentioned in product wise layout
◊ Lesser clicks/ Improve navigation
◊ Content should be regularly updated
◊ Market updates should be integrated.
◊ Website should use predictive analysis and AI tools.
The analysis done on the internal customers helped me to get several focus points for the
initiation of secondary research.

Analysis on External Customer data
The external survey was also a mean to advertise about the bank. The survey would
prompt several respondents to get associated with the bank. The survey was able to collect
responses from 92 respondents. Out of 92 respondents, 15 were associated with Bank of
Baroda. Although with such less response, it was very hard to analyze what external
customers think and to come on a conclusion based on the data collected, it helped me to
find few focus points for the secondary research.
Out of the 15 respondents, only six responded as using the website on a frequent basis.

Out of six respondents, four felt that the bank websites’ safety and security is better than
the other banks. The pain point was the easier navigation. This was also seen in the internal
customer survey. This was one of the focus points for my secondary research.
Digital Responsiveness and Customer reason for which customers associate with us.
About 50% of the respondents associated the banks’ website with Maruti-Suzuki Alto car.

The color used on the website of the bank was one of the many things that respondents did
not like. Site map, too much info in one page, website too much cluttered were among other
things.
Out of 92 responses, 77 responded when asked what do you associate the bank with the
listed. Most of the respondents associated the bank as customer friendly and trustworthy.

With the external survey, I was able to get few suggestions to improve the website
experience.
◊ Safety and Security explanations should be included into the website
◊ Navigation issues should be resolved; one should not take more than three clicks to
access any information
The Primary research helped me to find several pain points on the banks’ website that
needed to be looked and corrected in order to improve the website experience. Although
the response was weak for the survey (primary research), I was in a better position to start
the secondary research with the focus points I received.
Secondary Research
The project started with a simple objective to improve the bank’s website UI/UX. However,
in due course I realized that this was not as simple as it looked in the beginning. I came
across several questions to which I needed answers to serve the objectives of the project.
◊ Why one bank’s website is better than others?
◊ What is the benchmark for banks websites?
◊ What customer looks for when one visits a bank website?
◊ What actually is User Experience?
◊ How can we improve User Experience by improving User Interface of the website?
The above are few of the questions that I encountered. Answers to these questions were
not easy to find. I went on to look for answers everywhere- bank documents, online
journals and articles, banks websites; and followed a structured approach for this.
Secondary research involved evaluating and studying the existing data that was available
with the bank or on the web. Peer comparison was done on several fronts to define a
benchmark and suggest changes to achieve the desired goal. Further, GAP analysis was
performed on the SEO audit report.

Evaluating the Best Practices
While studying the best practices across platforms and across different banks website, I
figured six guidelines that banks should implement when designing their online
experiences in order to deliver optimal customer experiences.
◊ Optimize the Site to Improve Speed
Banks should avoid asking for extra input data and instead focus on just information that is
vital for the processes. Additionally, UI’s and user journeys should only include necessary
elements in order to create faster and to-the-point payment processes. Customers should
be able to complete their transactions in as few clicks as possible.
◊ Design to Increase Security
Although the banks must be having top notch security features on the website and thus that
should be conveyed to the customers. Recent privacy breach of personal details (Aadhar
hacking) has led customers to be very concerned when it comes to the security and safety
of their personal details. Therefore, it must be our duty to assure our customers to feel safe
about banking with us. There must be a campaign on this. This would lead us to acquire
new customers. Deep levels of security should be integrated and same should be conveyed
to the customers.
◊ Personalize Your Customer’s Experience
Almost every business is realizing the importance of personalizing the customer
experience. Personalization is especially important for banks, whose customers need to
trust the brand and not feel like just another account number. Banks can achieve this by
creating unique experiences for customers based on past user data. This involves collecting
data about customers, such as their behaviors and preferences, in order to create and
present content in a way that best works for them. If your data suggests that a customer
has just started a family, you could send them information to help with financial planning
for the future. By providing personalized digital advice, banks will be integrated into the
center of their customers’ financial lives.

◊ Design to Build Trust
Transparency: People appreciate when sites are transparent with information that relates
to the customer experience. This is especially important for banks where customers have
higher security demands. You should always clearly include details like contact information
or any additional fees or charges accompanying a service. The trick is not to hide this
information behind layers of information but rather make it available to the user at the
point of the user journey that they will need it.
Accurate and Detailed Information: Make sure to add detailed and accurate information
related to the website. This shows that the organization is well informed, up-to-date and
committed to helping its customers.
◊ Strive for Ease of Use
Simple navigation leads to ease of use throughout the experience, as well as increased
efficiency and confidence for the end user.
◊ Create a seamless, cross-functional customer experience across all channels
There is a lot of room for improvement in the creation of experiences that are better
integrated across channels. Many customers who use both branch and digital say the
channels are not well integrated at most banks. In addition, a growing number of
consumers are banking from smartphones and tablets, yet online banking remains
foundational to the digital banking experience. An ideal online banking experience will
resonate across digital channels with consistent information and design elements.

Peer Comparison
HSBC
HSBC is one of the main competitors of Bank of Baroda in the banking industry. With over
15 years of presence in India, the bank has made a positive impact on the minds of people
with their products and offerings. The bank has focused on the convenience banking and
has always strived for it. With the legacy of over 100 years, security and safety is the bank’s
main strength.
Observations:
1. HSBC website greeted the customers with a full screen ad that highlighted their
ongoing campaign.
2. It has a quick access section across the pages of the website. The content in the
quick access section is changed depending on which webpage a customer is
browsing.

3. Link to some other services (following services) in most of the pages. Example: On
the net banking page, an ad of mobile banking was given, which can prompt the user
to look for it and can avail those services as well.

4. Looking at the insurance webpage, the bank has clearly explained the product and
has offered several help options even when it is not their forte. For example: The
motor insurance webpage included other insurance plans on the left hand side of
the page and on the right hand side of the page it included Help section and other
offerings for the motor insurance policy. It also contained the hotline numbers for it
as well, in case customer want to talk to the concerned representative.

5. The bank has clearly figured that the customers do not want to search or spend
more time for any service or information when they come to the website. They want
everything in front of their eyes and thus they have included a bulletin board that
contains every information a customer would need or should know. Additionally, in
every webpage on the left hand side the bank has clearly included links to other
services and products.

6. The difference between the creative of HSBC and BOB is that BOB talks specifically
about the products, leaving the fact that we have to connect our products to the
customers, whereas HSBC connects the products with the customer’s feelings.
Additionally, the creative write up and the creative picture complements each other
but it is not in case of the BOB.

7. In personal banking services page, they have a section called ‘What’s new’, which
generally contains the recent changes made by the bank in interest rates area or
introduction of any new services or any government declaration.

CITI
Citi bank has over 200 years of banking experience and has been in India for more than 100
years. The customer base of CITI bank is different from Bank of Baroda but it still serve as
one of the main competitors of Bank of Baroda.
Observations:
1. Click on the menu bar drops down the content of the menu. They have separated the
drop down into several sections as shown below. Useful links under this menu could
be very useful to the customers that prevents customers to go to the actual webpage
to find the desired service. Additionally, it can be a place to advertise our other
services. It is great for the customer experience as customers are getting the desired
service in fewer clicks.
2. As other banks, CITI bank has also advertised other services on the different
webpages on their website, so that the customers could be redirected to the other
services if in case one requires the service advertised.
3. CITI Knowledge Center webpage has been designed very beautifully and is being
promoted on the home page of the bank.

4. In most of the creatives which they have used for the promotion of their products
and services, they have focused on the family and the relationship.

HDFC
HDFC bank is India’s largest private sector lender by assets. It is also the largest bank in
India by market capitalization as of February 2016.
Observations:
1. The write-up used in different creatives by HDFC relates the products and services
giving a personal touch. This way of advertising is always helpful in getting
customers attention to our products.
2. HDFC bank has also included a section/tile to include every calculators used for
different services on the website.

3. HDFC Idea Bank is a great initiative by the bank that lets customers to submit their
opinions, suggestions and ideas to help the bank to better their services for their
end customers. It will also make the bank to know what customers are thinking
about their products and services and which product/service is good or bad or how
it is performing among the customer.
4. HDFC has also followed the practice of advertising other services on different
webpages on their website, so that the customers could be redirected to the other
services if in case one requires the service advertised.

Suggestions like this is very effective, as this lets customer explore every services
offered by the bank
5. The menu is clearly segregated and has been further broken down into sub menu
when any customer hovers the mouse on it. The bank has also put up ads/creatives
in here to connect to the customers visually.

6. The bank has very thoughtfully included a ‘Why HDFC?’ section to highlight their
strength to the customers.
7. The ‘APPLY ONLINE’ button follows the customer when the customer goes down the
webpage.

AXIS Bank
Axis Bank is one of the largest private sector banks in India offering a comprehensive suite
of financial products. With aggressive campaigns and pan-India presence, Axis Bank is one
of the competitors of Bank of Baroda.
Observations:
1. The Axis Bank’s website is one of the cleanest bank’s website in the banking
industry. Clearly labelled menus, appropriate font size and style, and highlighting
every sub menu make their website to stand out from others.

2. The bank gives a compare feature to the customers using which the customer could
compare different products the bank has to offer.
3. Bottom of the page of Axis Bank is nicely designed which gives out every detail,
services/products offered by the bank.

4. The bank has a separate webpage for Fees and Charges/Interest rates based on the
product chosen.
5. The Apply Now menu enables customers to directly go to the desired page and
complete the process in a short time with fewer clicks.

SBI
SBI is an Indian multinational, public sector banking and financial services company. With
the recent merger, the bank became one of the 50 largest banks in the world. Due to this
merger, SBI’s market share was projected to increase to 22% from 17%. The State Bank of
India has 20% market share in deposits and loans among Indian commercial bank.
Observations:
1. SBI has properly designed their webpages that clearly shows all the menus and sub
menus under a category. This way any customer can easily find any product
information.

2. The bank uses a Drop-down design format to cut down the length of any webpage.
Categorizing each part into different section helps the customers find the content
easily.

Union Bank of India
Union Bank of India is one of the largest government-owned banks of India. It is listed on
the Forbes 2000. Recent changes in Union Bank has led the bank to aggressively market
their products and thus has been a serious competitor to several banks in India.
Observations:
1. The main webpage of the bank is designed in such a way that the customers are
forced to scroll down. One way of doing it is making the banner a bit smaller to
accommodate a bit of other services on the screen that could make customers to
scroll down for it and staying a bit more on the bank’s website.

2. The design of the website of Union Bank is quite minimalistic as it uses less pictures
on their site and focused more on the content and simple design where in customers
are able to find the products and services in a very crisp and detailed manner.
3. They have taken every service they provide and given them a personal touch to it.
Even if they do not provide insurance (they have partner firms for that), they have
explained there services in a very detailed manner. Moreover, they have explained
their every service in a very crisp manner.

Website Comparison on Creative and Branding
Areas // Banks Bank of Baroda SBI Axis Bank HSBC
Logo
Positioning
Bold and Clearly
visible. Although
in some
ads/creatives,
the logo was not
used to show the
relation between
the partner
companies.
Bold and Clearly
visible. Uses
short form (SBI)
in most of the
creatives.
Bold and
Clearly visible.
Bold and
Clearly visible.
Human
Element
Plays more with
human element
delivering the
message through
great visuals.
Less use of
human element
across its
creatives.
Emphasize more
with numbers.
Human element
used serves as
an add on to the
write up.
Good use of
human
elements that
deliver the
message
through great
visuals. Also
integrates a
short write up
to connect with
the customers.
Convey of the
message
The visuals used
clearly delivers
the message.
Although the
write up is short
which hinders
the creatives to
make a strong
impact on the
customers.
Text delivers the
message more
than the visuals
used
Visuals and text
are equally
responsible in
conveying the
message.
The visuals
connect with
the customers.
Their write up
Look and feel
Appealing and
Warm
Verbose Appealing
White
background
hinders the
customers to
put more time
on the
creatives.

Targeting and
Positioning
Apt. Different
creatives are
used to deliver
the message
across different
sections of the
society.
Although they
use different
creatives for the
customers, their
excessive use of
text based
creatives make it
common across
all sections of
the society.
Apt, but relate
more to the
upper section of
the society.
Creatives used
clearly
identifies the
target
customers.
Language used
Simple and
understandable.
Simple but more
on the technical
side.
Simple and
understandable.
Simple and
understandabl
e.
Consistency
across the ad
Window format
with orange
texts on pictures.
More of a text
based in blue.
Text on the
picture.
Diamond
format.
Color Used Orange Blue Purple
Red letters on
white
background
Validation and GAP Analysis of SEO Audit Report
What is SEO and why is it required?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website so that it performs
well in organic search. Ranking highly for search terms, which are known as keywords,
increases the visibility of a website and leads to a higher number of visitors to the actual
website. It is a great way to increase the quality of their web sites by making them user-
friendly, faster and easier to navigate. According to a survey done, the majority of search
engines users are more likely to click on one of the top 5 suggestions in the results pages
(SERPS). So to take advantage of this and gain visitors to the web site or customers to your
online store businesses need to be in the top positions, and that is where SEO comes into
play.

Why SEO audit is required?
Things change very quickly in the SEO industry and what is working today may not work in
6 months from now. It is necessary to perform regular SEO audits to ensure that your
website is up-to-date with the latest developments in search marketing and on top of the
competition. An SEO audit is a process for evaluating the search engine friendliness of a
website in a number of areas. An SEO Audit is a health check for your website. It looks at
the technical infrastructure of your website, the on-page elements and off-page essentials
to optimize Search Engine visibility, usability and conversion.
Business impact of SEO
As explained earlier, SEO helps business to be on top of search engine results page, design
webpages revolving around user experience and user friendliness of the website that helps
them to attract customers to their businesses and in turn improve their business
performance. SEO combines with BIG DATA to understand the user needs and aspirations
and caters to this by curating individual user suggestions based on the analysis done. This
enables to create a bond between the customer and business as the former realizes that
businesses are taking customers’ needs in priority and wants to fulfill them. Thus creating
repeat business.
Bank of Baroda-- Business requirements and current capabilities
Banking industry has seen an influx of competition after the liberalization process in 90’s.
Since then the banking industry has seen several changes be it because of technological
advancements, changes in government rules and regulations, or competition from foreign
banks. When we look back and see, we visualize that it happened for good and the
customers benefitted a lot from those changes that happened in due course in the banking
industry. Currently, banks priority has shifted from just being a bank where customers
could deposit there money to becoming a wealth management service company catering all
the wealth related needs of the customers. In pursuit of becoming one such company, Bank

of Baroda is redefining its business processes and accepting the change the society has
offered.
Being in the banking industry, the business requirements of the Bank revolve around
catering to the financial needs of the customers. Thus to meet the demands of their
customers, the bank has several avenues through which it can deliver the services and
products to the customers. Bank’s website is one such avenue. It has all the functionalities
to cater and deliver to the financial needs of the customers. However, due to severe
competition and rapid technical innovations, these functionalities sometimes lags behind in
reading the customers’ requirements. In today’s age, banks need to be upfront when it
comes to technology as several Fintech companies are trying to fill the gaps in the banking
industry.
After the revamp in 2017, bank’s website is one of the aesthetically designed website in the
banking industry. However, there are several areas where bank’s digital team need to look
for further improvements. To capitalize on the digital platform and improve its presence,
the bank recently went for SEO Audit to look into grey areas and improve on those fronts. It
has recommended several changes in order to establish their authority in the banking
sector.
Validation and Gap Analysis
SEO Audit Report has included a detailed analysis on how the website is performing in
search, social media, number of internal/external links and other information related to
website’s existing state, and a list of actions with explanations for every item in the
recommendations list. Their recommendations are in true nature when it comes to capture
user engagement on the website. Renaming of URLs, Use of CSS instead of Inline styles,
W3C validation, Image optimization are some of the many criterias on which page rank is
decided by search engines. Their recommendations are feasible and relevant to current
context. However, they have not included report describing a complete internet marketing
strategy for taking advantage of all available sources of traffic and opportunities on the
internet.

There were few things that, I felt, would be included in the report in order to justify the
presence of the banks’ website that boasts in one of the better-designed websites.
Parallax Scroll Design- Design of the website also serves as an important factor in the
better SEO designed website. This new age design format for the websites could get
brownie points in the SEO ranking of the website.
White space- Presence of white space makes the content more legible while also enabling
the user to focus on the elements surrounding the text. In contrast, if it is available too
much on the webpage, it directs negative points to the ranking of the webpage. SEO audit
report does not cover this aspect.
Hyperlink- The links present on the website, their authenticity, their relevance should be
covered up in the SEO audit report.
Content- They have not recommended any changes in the content of the website. Content
also comes under one of the criterias on which SEO strength of a website is decided.
Broken Links- Broken links, if present in any website drops down the rank of the website
significantly. The report does not talk about it anywhere.
Animation, Gifs- This feature, when added on any website, could enhance their SEO
strength but too much of it could do harm than any good. Audit report should have covered
this as well.
Although the work on the website is still going on, in my own capacity, I tried of doing SEO
Audit online and came out with below problems or areas where the website need to work
on. Although these recommendations have already been given by the audit agency, but the
work on it has not really progressed.

Results from www. smallseotools.com
Results from seoptimer.com

Results from Zadroweb.com

Analysis of data collected on secondary research
While doing secondary research- evaluating industry best practices, comparing competitor
banks, and validating SEO Audit Report, I found few commonalities and differences among
the website of the banks in the Indian Banking Industry. This also helped me in answering
the questions that had intrigued me in the beginning of this project. While few banks
leveraged on their clean UI, others banked more open their services and products offerings.
Although there is a certain guideline by RBI to all the banks on website content, every bank
differed in terms of UI and UX. I figured what should be the content of a good bank website,
and how they could leverage new emerging technologies in providing services to the
customers. Customers’ expectations are on the rise and to meet their expectations
businesses have leveraged analytics to not only meet the demands but also predict the
needs and aspirations of the customers. The whole journey taught me how banks or for
that matter any business attracts their customers. Online presence has helped them to
interact with their customer even after the working hours and thus by doing in-depth
analysis they capture customers’ needs. The concept of fulfilling or suggesting individual
customer needs even before the need is there comes from here. Few of the banks is expert
in doing it and accept it as their forte, but gradually it will be adopted by every bank.
Secondary research had few focus points:
◊ Brand Visibility/Marketing
◊ Content and Creatives
◊ Product innovation/Website structuring (Minimalistic design, UI, UX, color
composition)
◊ New technology integration (Big Data Analytics, Pattern follow)
◊ Customer prioritization (going to customers for providing services, shift in the
business model)
◊ Ease of language

To design a website having all the elements in order to please every customer is a tough
task to do. However, businesses try their expertise or collaborate with other businesses
who have the expertise to design the website. The key element in this process is to
integrate voice of the people/customers.
1. Brand Visibility/Marketing
In the entire secondary research process, I figured that banks have been constantly figuring
ways to integrate their brand with products or services across the market in order to
increase their brand visibility. Be it collaborating with several businesses or prompting
customers to use their products/services through several social initiatives, banks have
been trying their best to attract the customers. Brand presence all over the market has
helped the banks to have the high recall value.
2. Content and Creatives
Creatives have been a tool for businesses to connect their products to the customers. They
try to tell a story around their products and try to connect to the feelings of the customers.
Inclusion of human element and inserting emotional content to the write up helps to
connect with the customers’ emotions. Different creatives for different geographies is
practiced to capture the soul of the area. Customers are prompted, motivated, pushed to
attach themselves to several products and services offered by the banks. Inclusion of brand
logo in the creatives is an important thing businesses keep doing it in order to associate
feelings or emotions with the brand logo.
3. Product Innovation/Website structuring
When it comes to the website, banks have been using their brand logo colors in designing
their website and associating certain colors to their brand. In doing so they want customers
to remember their brand when they see a certain color. They also have taken care of each
element on their website and making amendments, placements of action buttons as per the
likelihood of the clicks. In today’s world, websites serve a face to businesses and thus
designing a website that has a good user interface relates to a positive feeling or approach

for the products and services provided by the business. Businesses always aspire to
provide a good user experience to their customers and it starts with the website. With good
customer user experience, businesses get repeat customers.
4. New Technology integration
With every passing year, banks have moved more towards technology. Competition from
new emerging players have forced them to adapt to this new age method of banking.
Customers’ preference has also inclined towards this new type of banking. They have been
gradually discarding the old way of banking. Nobody wants to stand in queue to
withdraw/or deposit the money into their accounts. New technological way of banking
have helped them to do banking from the palm of their hands. Big data analytics, cloud
computing have helped banks to do an individual research on every customer needs and
aspirations. Products and services are then custom designed or marketed based on that.
5. Customer prioritization
The business method of banks have been shifted from product/service centric to customer
centric over the years. The customers do not want to be treated as just another customer
for the banks, they want to be treated as a valuable person and thus their demands are too
in such a way. Keeping this in mind banks have been changing the way they do business.
From being just a bank, the banks are now providing wealth management services to the
customers with dedicated relationship manager.
6. Ease of language
Language plays an important role in communication. Keeping the language of the content
simple helps the customers to understand the product and spend more time on the
website. Every page of the website is designed in such a way where customers could find
the related content easily. Businesses also keep in mind that the language on their website
does not become too complicated for the customers to comprehend it.

The above focus points helped me in analyzing the business process of the bank and its
website. Although there are several focus points to analyze and conduct a thorough study, I
have tried to be as exhaustive as possible.
Findings and Observations
With all the analysis done on the secondary research data, I came across several findings
and observations in due course with respect to the website. In addition, having done
comparisons with peer banks, I was in a position to understand the banking industry and
their websites’ benchmarks. The launch of new website in 2017 came up to illuminate
various roadblocks in providing a logical and intuitive flow and a better web experience to
the customers. It did achieve some goals while it is in pursuit of others.
◊ The website is aesthetically good and comes at par with several banks’ websites
such as SBI, Axis Bank. The design of the website has taken care most of the things in
terms of customers’ convenience, designing of creatives, action button placements,
etc. It follows a clean layout wherein there is a clear distinction between several
sections. Although the website tried to cover almost all the points of the industry’s
best practices in website designing, it leaves out several things in order to trade off
certain things over others. Consequently, it has developed design issues that hinders
a smooth website experience to the customers.
◊ The pain points are in terms of color composition used for the website, navigation
issues, content, customer support integration, products or services follow up, to
name a few.
◊ The creative designs have been given a new life with the window format. It has been
adopted across various advertising channels of the bank. It looks fresh and try to put
words in front of the customers in a very crisp manner covering all the major points.
Inclusion of human element in the creatives has also enabled a greater customer
interaction to our creatives and consequently to our products and services.
◊ The creatives when compared with the competitors lag behind in terms of the
creative write up. Other banks use creative write up to connect human emotions to
the products, whereas at Bank of Baroda, we boast more of our products. This has

been point out already in earlier section. In addition, the picture used in the
creatives are not in accord with the write up at most of the occasions.
◊ The content on the website was also given a retouch but while doing so, it was
overdone and the content for most of the products or services on the website looks
verbose. Verbose items do not look appealing for the customers even if customers
have time to read or go through it.
◊ Use of analytics is at minimal at this current stage of time on the website. Even if
customers’ pattern is being tracked down (as mentioned by several concerned
authorities at Bank), the same has not been reflected upon in the advertisements or
placing of products or services on the website.
◊ Smart positioning of products and services is not done at several places on the
website. If done, the customers will be prompted to look or engage with the
advertised products or services.
◊ Sometimes, when looking for certain service or product, there is break to the logical
flow. For example, when clicked on the two-wheeler loan under the loan section, the
customers are redirected to a page that is not synchronized with the current design
of the website. In addition, it does not serve the logical flow to the service or product
customer was looking for.
◊ At several places on the website, I saw links that were not related to the content of
the page.
◊ The error page of the website looks very blank. It does not redirect or provide useful
links to the customers on the error page. Customers, after coming here, should be
given a clear explanation to why they ended up being here.
◊ Some of the products or services have not been promoted properly on the website.
For example, BOB Newsletter Fintalk Blogs, which could serve as a great way to
connect to customers, have not been promoted across our digital platforms.
◊ After the primary research was done, I found that most of the internal customers are
aware of the issues with the website and has recommended several progressive
changes to be done with the website.

◊ Most of the internal customers think that the new website design is better than the
previous one, and customers are satisfied with it. They see SBI and HDFC as their
prime competitor in terms of ease of navigation, design and safety features.
◊ In addition, most of the internal customers felt that the website is too much
cluttered which hinders browsing the website.
Recommendations
After the revamp of the website in 2017, the main aim of the bank was to improve the user
interface and user experience of the customers coming to the Bank of Baroda’s website.
The banking industry requires a secure website wherein important financial details of the
customers are transacted. Thus, the website is constantly updated with new security
features as and then they come in the technological world. In addition, to attract customers
to the website to offer different products and services, banks need to design a user-friendly
website to engage customers with different offerings. Bank of Baroda’s website is one of
the websites that is designed around customer convenience and security. The website is
safe and customer friendly in several aspects, although there are several areas that need to
be looked in order to provide a seamless web experience to the customers.
Some of the questions that need to be answered are: How customers would react when
they come to our website? How much time would one be spending on our website? How
much time is it taking to find a certain service/ product on the website? Are they able to
find what they are looking for it?
White space is essential to good design. White space makes the content more legible while
also enabling the user to focus on the elements surrounding the text. According to Crazy
Egg, a website expert in webpage designing, white space around text and titles increases
user attention by 20%. White space can also make the website feel open, fresh and modern.
Increasing the white space on our website could enhance customers’ web experience.
Calls to actions that are clearly marked with an action word enable your user to more easily
navigate the site and get to where they want. In a study done by Maxymiser, a cloud based

marketing software provider, researchers are shocked to find that they achieved an
increase of 11% in clicks by testing color variations and action messaging. Different colors
evoke different messages. The words should include a verb or an action word that excite
the user to do something. Choosing the right words or psychological triggers is highly
determined by the level of emotional identification that word prompts. No emotional
connection means no action. Therefore, we should focus on words that are bold, time
sensitive and action-oriented.
Hyperlink- Regular web user sees blue-and-underlined text as links and knows to click on
them. Exploiting user expectations and what they already know about using the web is
equal to success. Moreover, the longer the link titles the more easy to identify they are. On
our website, there are several places where we see links in vermilion color. This could
hinder users to click on the link and would deter from the purpose for what it is intended.
Use of bullets- Online users do not want to spend much time reading paragraphs on the
computer screen. They want important things to be said in bullet points and in numbers. As
pointed out by several customers in the survey, the website content is too long to read; we
could add bullet points to our existing content and then see the response from the
customers.
Images- Choice of pictures should be take care of. The picture chosen should tell a story to
the customers. Moreover, Images should be universal for all types of customers. It should
not cater to only one type of customer segment when advertised universally. For Example:
In the savings account main page, most of the pictures have people in formals with tie, this
image sometimes create a negative impression in the minds of the customer as they might
think that the bank only caters to the high profile individuals. We have to do segmentation
and brand positioning accordingly. Customer profiling is to be done before rolling out our
ads in the public. It should not cater to only one segment of the society.
Consistency- The design should be consistent across every section of the website. Our
website currently have several sections wherein we could find inconsistencies with the

website design and format. This could trigger an adverse effect in the web experience of
our users.
Fix broken links- The error page of the website looks very blank. It does not redirect or
provide useful links to the customers on the error page. Customers, after coming here,
should be given a clear explanation to why they ended up being here. In addition, proper
link should be given at a proper location so that it gets easier for customers to access what
they want.
Use of AI assistant- Ask ADI should be clearly visible and should prompt customers to
interact with it. Currently, it behaves as a shy guy sitting quietly in the corner.
Campaigns- To differentiate ourselves from other banks we could create campaigns like
Being with BOB, Benefit with BOB, Things you can do with BOB, The BOB Experience. This
is a healthy way of promoting our products and services to the public.
Color- The Bank should use a new color that complements the website visual feel and gives
a soothing effect to the eyes which the current color (vermilion) does not provide.. We need
to incorporate a new color for the website to enhance the UX of the website. Quick survey
of the suitable color that goes well with Orange resulted in getting four colors: Black,
Purple (lilac), Light Green, Light Blue. Going further down, I concluded that Lilac Purple
would look good with orange as it is a soother and goes well to the eyes.
Security- Bank do ensure the safety and security of the transactions made by the
customers. Users should be conveyed a message through some bold message on the
website. It should be consistent throughout the website and be visible to the users. It is
helpful in binding the users’ confidence while using the website.
Use of Predictive, Pattern based suggestion mechanism- This helps in following the click
pattern of the user and suggesting the customers with the probable products or services
they might be interested in. If customers come to the mutual fund page they should be
suggested with ads or link for Baroda m-Invest app or Baroda e-trade. If a customer is
looking for Education loan, he/she should be given options/offers for Prepaid card as well.

This enables making the customers go down the funnel and engulf with the bank’s
offerings.
Content and its design- Content plays an important role in engaging customer to the
website and in the success of any business. It the content is too much, the customers feel
bored and it affects inversely. When it is too short, customers feel that there is not much
information provided.
Banking online is a personal affair, and it should be a personal experience, so we have to
design products and services where the customers could feel a personal attention given by
the bank and content makes it even easier to achieve that.
◊ The website should introduce a ‘Get Support’ feature in the menu section which can
be directly used for catering all enquiries.
◊ ‘Grievance Redressal’ and ‘Make a Complaint’ or ‘Track your complaint status’
should be made in quick links as well as on the home page.
◊ We can also add ‘What’s New’ section wherein we can boast our services and
additional features the bank is introducing to the customers.
◊ Customer’s testimonials convey credibility. If we could not use testimonials, we
could use data points to show how many people have benefitted with our bank.
◊ Last visited bar at the bottom is just makes the website more clumsy and serves as a
distraction to customers. We should remove it, as it is not widely used and not a
good web design practice.
◊ The banner ads should have a pause button. The continuous flow of the ads distracts
the customer. In addition, if any customer wants to go through a particular ad
he/she can do so by using a pause button.
◊ Customers love numbers, we all know it, so instead of putting out English we can
give some numbers (as any discount percentage, if any).
◊ Sub saving accounts should come under while we hover over saving account tab on
the page

◊ We should promote our rich technical content to the public. Fintalk Newsletter blog
is there, but the UI is not that appealing. The sequential style should be revoked with
a tile design.
◊ Clear explanations of products and services would be done with infographics so that
customers take interest in reading. Just writing a paragraph won’t suffice the
required goal.
◊ Also instead of making the customers download the file, a separate webpage should
be allocated to access anything.
◊ Drop down format should be used in our website to cut down the length of any
webpage. Categorizing each part into different sections would help the customers
find contents easily.
◊ There are several webpages where in customers either have to scroll down the
webpages for the required answer (FAQs) or download files to go through it. We
have to make sure that customers do not get frustrated while browsing our website,
therefore we have to make our content crisp and to the point and every information
should be in organized manner. We can use a drop down list for the FAQs questions
and dedicate a separate webpage instead of making the customer download the file.
◊ In the interest rates and charges page, the data provided is too long for the
customers. If a customer wants to know certain charges of certain products/services
that is present at the bottom of the page, then he/she has to scroll down till the
bottom of the page. This could give a bad website experience to the customer.
Instead of that we can introduce a drop down look to that page from where user can
drop down the section he/she wants to see.
◊ The insurance page of the website is verbose and does not satisfy what it is built for.
The partner companies’ links has been simply given. If a customer has come to our
site to get the insurance, we should suggest them the best insurance based on their
needs. The features and products of each partner companies should be explained on
that page itself or in the landing page so that every user gets the information before
leaving our website.

◊ We can also engage the customers and explain various needs based on the life stage
a customer belongs to in this way. The customer can also feel that the bank thinks of
me and has different services and products based on my life cycle.
◊ If the customer enters into any section, he/she has not any choice but to go back and
choose other product. My recommendation is to include a tree (suitably with + - )
sign which would help customers to choose products in the page itself without going
back. For example:
 Deposits
o Fixed deposit
 Short term deposit
 Short deposits
 Baroda holiday saving recurring deposits
 Long term deposit
 Monthly income plan
 Baroda Advantage fixed deposits
 ……
 ……
 Capital gain account scheme
o Recurring Deposit
 Recurring deposit
 Baroda samriddhi quarterly recurring deposit
 ……….
The above format should be included in the website for easy navigation for customers.

Survey- Finally, regular survey or customer feedback should be done in order to sense
what customers feel about our services and products and how is the overall website
experience. This enables customer to feel that their voice is important.
Consumers are clearly calling for a new service proposition—they want banks to help make
their financial lives easier and to enable them to manage their money more proactively. By
truly focusing on customer needs and integrating data, analytics and insight with product
development and delivery, Bank would transform not only the service proposition it offers to
its customers but also the perceptions of the brand. That, in turn, would help drive overall
loyalty.
Conclusion
After going through the project, it was concluded that the Bank of Baroda’s website is
aesthetically well designed. It does engage customers with its new age web design.
Although there were several issues with the current website, it stands with its own identity
in the Indian banking industry. After evaluating the website with industry best practices
and validating the SEO audit report, several findings was noted down and
recommendations was given.
The project on enhancing the user interface and user experience of the Bank’s website
went through several stages. Evaluation of industry best practices made me aware of
several current happenings in the banking industry and in the website designing arena.
Peer comparisons helped me to analyze on what and how competitors are using several
digital marketing techniques. The website experience survey led me to analyze and
conclude on several findings and recommendations.
Learnings during the project:
◊ Digital Marketing: Search engine optimization, Google Analytics
◊ Email Marketing- Using MailChimp
◊ Survey Design- Using Google Forms and Survey Monkey

References
https://www.bankofbaroda.co.in/
https://www.hsbc.co.in/
https://www.online.citibank.co.in/
https://www.hdfcbank.com/
https://www.axisbank.com/
https://sbi.co.in/
https://www.unionbankofindia.co.in/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Baroda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC_Bank_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citibank_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDFC_Bank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_Bank
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Bank_of_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Bank_of_India
http://uxbert.com/6-ux-best-practices-for-bank-digital-services/#.WvLOvohubIV
https://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/important-site-redesign-tips.shtml
https://blog.asmallorange.com/2016/09/6-trends-changing-website-design-forever/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-mills/5-important-reasons-to-website-
design_b_5510439.html
http://www.bankers-adda.com/list-of-public-sector-and-private-sector-banks-in-india/
https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-bank-baroda/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_in_India
https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/banking-and-financial-services/629-bank-of-
baroda.html
http://bankupdates.in/states-branchname-BANK+OF+BARODA.htm
Email Marketing done through: https://mailchimp.com/
Survey form created on Google Forms https://docs.google.com/forms/
SEO Audit Report validation: https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-audit/

External Survey

Internal Survey

Bank of Baroda- Summer Internship Report

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