Comments on: Luxury bank struggles to make website just as luxurious

By: Southampton bookkeeper and accountant

Southampton bookkeeper and accountant — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:22:32 +0000

Interesting read,
Many thanks

By: Bank

Bank — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:07:40 +0000

You’ve just earned yourself a new reader. Just subscribed to your RSS and looking forward to more posts.

By: Paul Carter

Paul Carter — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:36:33 +0000

Hello. Great job. This is a great post. Thanks!

By: Polprav

Polprav — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:07:39 +0000

Hello from Russia

By: Leigh

Leigh — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:15:13 +0000

That login page form the 90’s really makes me worry about the level of security on the site as well.

By: Jep Castelein

Jep Castelein — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:26:13 +0000

Hi Jeffry, thanks for your comment. I definitely see your point too. I know wealthy people who would appreciate this type of personal service, and they are “phone people” who call the bank rather than login online. I also know wealthy people who always want the best deal and use services that provide the best value for money, often online-only services. Goldwater is better suited for the first group.

On this blog we look into online usability and customer engagement, so I did a quick review of the Goldwater website. According to a Pew report, people making $100k+ are more than twice as likely to use online banking as people making $25-40k a year (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/237/report_display.asp). So I do believe that online services targeting wealthy people can be successful, but this will probably be totally different from Goldwater’s concept. For example, I’m thinking of http://www.firstagain.com

By: Jeffry Pilcher

Jeffry Pilcher — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:24:34 +0000

I’d say I’m more enthusiastic about the overall brand. It’s tightly integrated around a singular audience.

Goldwater’s brand is focused, which is rare in financial services. The best most banks can do is drill down to “people ages 25-55, skewing slightly towards women.” Ummm, you mean people in general, right? It’s what I call LCD disease - always trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I agree that the landing page for online banking belies the rest of the Goldwater experience. There were a few readers of my site however who took the online banking demo Goldwater offers and they thought it was pretty slick.

Overall, I’d say the website is on-brand for Goldwater. Usability may be a different issue, but my guess is this: Goldwater customers probably aren’t trolling the website all that often. Maybe once or twice. They probably have a direct number (or two) for Goldwater bankers in their cell phones.

New Goldwater customers are almost certainly WOM referrals, so I’m not too concerned about the impact the site will have on the acquisition process. The rich dude pops in, snoops around a little, says, “Yep, this looks like me,” then calls to make an appointment.

By: Dan Waldron

Dan Waldron — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:16:05 +0000

Great Blog post. I am going to bookmark and read more often. I love the Blog template