In e-banking, a bank’s website acts as a bank branch or front end. The main difference is that when customers login they do most of the work themselves without
any assistance. Therefore creating a positive customer experience is more critical
in the e-banking environment. There are many different types of website and a
general classification is presented in Table 4.1.
E-banking websites and other related systems, without the benefit of human
guidance, are expected to communicate effectively and enhance knowledge and
understanding of the sometimes voluminous, and often technical, information
involved in financial transactions (Tan & Teo, 2000). To create a positive experience, a great deal of planning, resources and expertise needs to be invested in the
development and ongoing maintenance of websites.
To start with, a website must manage all the aspects that customers would
expect from the buying process in a non-web environment. This requires a shift from website usability alone to interactivity and the ability to positively engage a
customer (Coughlan et al, 2006). The focus should be on how the communication
with customers can be improved by using the rich variety of available media. Giving
more attention to the customer in the buying process could help in understanding the
communication between customers and the bank, and subsequently lead to design
and evaluation of websites that can stimulate the real-life buying experience more
closely (Coughlan et al, 2006).