Meridian Bank
A regional bank with a strong branch network and an online application that was quietly losing its customers.
People were starting an application and giving up before the end.
Meridian had spent years building trust on the high street. Online, that trust did not carry across. The account application ran to seven screens, asked for the same details twice, and gave no sense of how far along you were.
Most people who dropped out did so on a phone, in the evening, on the screen that asked for documents they did not have to hand. The bank could see the numbers but not the reason.
We were asked to find out where the flow was failing and to fix it, without changing the underlying compliance checks the bank is required to run.
We rebuilt the flow around the person filling it in, not the form.
We sat with the data and with a handful of real applicants. The pattern was clear within a week. The flow asked for too much, too early, and never told people what to expect.
So we cut the application to four screens, moved the document upload to the end, and added a quiet progress marker. Where the bank needed extra detail, we asked for it in plain language and explained why.
Map the drop-off
We traced every exit point and ranked them by impact.
Cut and reorder
Seven screens became four, with the hard parts moved last.
Test with real people
We ran the new flow with applicants before a line shipped.
Ship and watch
We launched in stages and measured each step.
“They treated our customers' time as if it were their own. The numbers followed.”