How Google used Behavioral Recruitment to understand modern banking customers

Google wanted to develop the way they support retail banks with their technology. Research was necessary to explore the emotional context of retail banking and how digital innovation can add value to customer relationships.

Google wanted to learn from a range of banking customers: from the mainstream, to the technologically progressive (for example those using expenditure tracking apps, and a range of mobile payment services). It was also vital to include some people who were about to switch, or had recently switched banks, so that the experience was fresh in their minds. Given how rarely people change banks, this represented a recruitment challenge.

Behavioural Recruitment allowed us to hypertarget the right audience based on their daily online activities. We were able to find early adopters of technology, people interested in new challenger banks, and those who were interested in new products (e.g. Monzo) and used new systems (e.g. Apple Pay, Amazon Payments).

We used over 20 ad campaigns to reach the right audience, continuously testing the copy and creative that historical project data suggested would resonate with the desired audience. We’ve refined the participant engagement process over the last four years, as we’ve recruited a wide range of participants from over 70 countries. In doing so, we’ve also built up a huge bank of 5* reviews to quickly earn the trust of people who are fresh to research.

The hyper-targeted audience were invited to take a full online screener, to both validate what the social data had already told us about them and to fill in details specific to this project. Each person who passed through the online screening stage was then contacted with a final qualification test, to establish their comprehension, creativity and technical ability.

Participants were researched using Liveminds online qualitative platform. This allowed us to get closer to their real lives, because we got feedback before, during and after actual interactions with their bank. We asked people to video their interactions with customer service, feedback on examples of progressive banking technologies, and even draw pictures that captured the emotional relationship they have with their bank. We generated 100,000 words from 21 people, across five days.

The mobile videos participants shared of their interactions with banks gave us a window into their raw feelings as they unfolded in the real world. This helped us understand some of the triggers of joy and frustration when it comes to AI, virtual assistants and customer service.

Mobile diaries captured gut reactions to banking touchpoints. This helped us understand the impact of communications and service experience on brand relationships. We also explored reactions to innovation in banking to help us understand the frames of reference people use when evaluating the value in innovation. Participants drawings allowed us to get into more emotionally sensitive, power-dimensions of the bank-customer relationship. It helped us explore how people felt insecure and undervalued. We also looked at the positive underpinnings of the relationship. Often to do with the way technology enhances their control.

By understanding the ways in which banks empower or disempower people, we could help Google focus on where they can add most value and help build more balanced relationships.

The needs that emerged from the study where then mapped to the technology products of Google, to identify ways that Google can be of most value to banks.

Georgina Altman, Strategic Insights Manager at Google, was impressed with the quality of the participants and the insights generated, saying:

"Liveminds’ unique approach to recruitment based on behaviour, gave us authentic and highly engaged participants who we anticipated would be hard to find, given that people do not switch banks that much and since progressive uses of technology in banking are still relatively niche. By surfacing the behaviours and attitudes that are most prominent amongst banking customers we’ve been able to generate fresh hypotheses and, as a result, ask new and challenging questions of our own internal data."