Case Study: Vanquis Gateway Project
Digital Onboarding Journey Redesign for Financial Services
Key Services Delivered
- Service Design Strategy – End-to-end customer journey mapping and optimization
- User Experience Research – Competitive analysis and user behavior studies
- Digital Transformation Consulting – Strategic guidance for major business digital shifts
- User Journey Optimisation – Credit card application process redesign
- Regulatory Compliance Design – Consumer Duty regulation alignment and content review
- Stakeholder Collaboration – Cross-functional team coordination
- Prototype Development – High-fidelity interactive prototypes
- User Testing & Validation – Observational studies and user preference analysis
- Conversion Rate Optimisation – Data-driven design decisions to improve customer acquisition
Project Overview
Challenge
Vanquis Bank faced a critical business challenge with their digital customer acquisition process. The existing credit card application journey had a devastating 77% drop-off rate, with only 23 out of every 100 potential customers completing the full process from eligibility check to card activation.
Objective
Redesign the complete digital onboarding journey for Vanquis’s credit card application process as part of their major ‘Gateway Project’ digital transformation. The goal was to create a streamlined, trustworthy, and efficient customer experience that would dramatically improve conversion rates.
Research & Design Process
Our approach began with comprehensive market research to understand industry best practices:
Competitor Analysis
Systematic evaluation of competitor onboarding flows and feature categorization.
User Behavior Analysis
Observational studies of existing customer interactions and contact center insights.
Journey Architecture
Built comprehensive decision trees mapping every customer path through the application process.
Stakeholder Integration
Collaboration with compliance, legal, credit risk, and commercial teams.
Key Results
Projected Conversion Improvement
Current Performance
77% drop-off from website arrival to card activation
Target Achievement
117% improvement, doubling conversion rate and significantly increasing customer acquisition
Additional Outcomes
- Customer Trust Enhancement: Manual entry approach directly addresses privacy concerns while maintaining process efficiency
- Process Optimisation: Data-driven design decisions improved team efficiency and reduced iteration cycles
- Regulatory Compliance: Complete content review ensuring Consumer Duty compliance
- Future-Proofing: Established framework for ongoing regulatory adherence
Methodology
Our success stemmed from a comprehensive service design methodology that balanced user needs with business constraints:
User-Centered Research
Extensive competitive analysis and user behavior studies
Collaborative Design
Cross-functional team approach ensuring stakeholder alignment
Data-Driven Decisions
Analytics-informed design choices addressing conversion challenges
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