HSBC HK wins in prestigious awards programme for banking app’s Lite mode

It offered a simplified option for customers in accessing mobile banking services.

As the leading bank in Hong Kong, HSBC made it a point that its key to success is to put customers at heart. With that in mind, it launched the HSBC HK App Lite Mode.

HSBC is the first in Hong Kong to launch a lite mode of its flagship banking app. This option provides targeted customers with a simplified mode in narrowing the gap between traditional banking and technology.

According to the company, it rocketed its banking service digitization over the past three years and achieved the "banking in packet" via platform upgrade and numerous mobile journeys.

Customers are now able to do most of the banking activities via the HSBC mobile app.

The Lite Mode is specifically designed for customers who are less digitally savvy and may need more support from HSBC. This may range from onboarding to becoming used to accessing their accounts through the app.

The Lite Mode blueprint was achieved through several kinds and rounds of research, including understanding its group of customers.

It features basic functions to keep the interface clean and simple, making banking services more accessible. In addition, to better optimise the customer experience, Click-to-Call was introduced to allow customers to contact the bank in a faster and less complicated way.

Multiple teams within HSBC worked as one team to complete the design, development, release, promotions, and operation and branch arrangement, within seven months’ time.

Majority of the listed users are from the targeted customer group, and half of the unique visitors were new to the banking app.

For this development, HSBC HK received the Mobile – Banking award in the recently concluded Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards. Now in its fourth-year run, the awards programme recognises outstanding companies that made exceptional contributions in pursuit of technological innovation.

In selecting the winners, it crowned the best first-rate firms with the most innovative and unique IT initiatives and solutions that helped push forward doing business in Hong Kong.

The judging panel took into consideration the technology perspective HCBC brought into the persona concept and capability of the service. Instead of using the traditional segmentation, this showed a more strategic way of offering what customers really want and intimately need.

This also enabled HSBC as a business to do market research and targeted promotion in a more effective manner.

For this achievement, HSBC cited its Internal operations, who took the ‘Customer at the Heart’ goal in mind when developing the product. In fact, it also received a Merit from the HKJC Age-friendly City Partnership Scheme Award 2022.

HSBC said that the success of the Lite Mode gave it the confidence that it is walking towards the right strategy and direction. It is looking into improving the Lite Mode app in delivering quality banking services for its customers.

The Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Hong Kong Business Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].