Adaptive Initiative—

Our solution to reduce the number of PINACLE-related calls made to Treasury Management Client Care is a digital service innovation that supports better user learning of the banking platform from the moment they log on. The New Help is designed as a value-added modification to PINACLE Commercial and PINACLE Express that complements the existing workflows in both tools.

Our proposed Adaptive Initiative consists of two main components: Quick Help and Task Manager.

Upon review of the insights we extracted from our discovery research, need validation, and evaluation of early concepts, we decided that our final solution must do three things: augment user flow, support users’ tendency toward trial and error, and optimize client care efforts.

Collapsing navigation

One of our main goals in tackling the challenge of user support on PINACLE was to collapse navigation in accessing help. In the current state of PINACLE Express, users must drill down through several categories of information architecture to access PDFs that provide support documentation about the tool. Through our research, we found that users perceived this as an investment of time that takes longer than calling a customer service representative. Therefore, we wanted to reduce the amount of time it takes to find context-relevant support documentation in order to change the balance of time in the user’s troubleshooting calculation.

“I don’t really use PINACLE for any of this information [ACH]. I go straight to Small Business. It doesn’t really give me any useful information, and it’s just too many steps.” - Controller

Task-oriented workflow

Throughout our user testing process, we found that PINACLE users frame challenges they face in terms of tasks and verbs, which runs counter to the noun-centric modules and information architecture of PINACLE Express.

“By default, just from being on that page, the task tiles are reminders. But when you click on them, they should also act as shortcuts to take you to the area where you can complete that banking transaction.” - Controller

Scaffolded learning

PINACLE users told us time and again that they like to learn by doing; these users prefer to jump right in rather than sitting through a webinar or reading through a guide. They want help that supports them when they don't know what comes next. The New Help uses “scaffold and fade” learning supports to provide support to new users when they need it and to be available (but less prominent) at all times when they don't.

“I would definitely use something like Quick Start for training, having my team, people that aren’t really accustomed to accounting, get into this and be able to set up new receivers and wire payments and things like that.” - Accounting Manager

Supported Autonomy

Throughout our generative and evaluative research, we found that PINACLE users want to feel like they have control over their workflows. Our prototypes that explored predictive functionalities with regard to user actions elicited strong reactions from our testers, most notably from fear of making mistakes. At the same time, users were eager to try out our prototyped task manager, driven by a predictive algorithm that learns from user behavior; they thought it would be a great way to efficiently accomplish tasks. We designed the New Help to complement users’ need for control in the high-stakes realm of corporate accounting with augmentation of user flow. All predictive elements can be controlled by the user and do not automate the completion of tasks; instead, they ease use of the PINACLE suite by understanding and supporting the user’s independence.

“I’ve had predictive options before with our accounting software, and that was how things really quickly and easily messed up… For me, I’d rather be completely aware and in control of what’s going on, especially when it comes to accounting.” - Accounting Manager

Offloading training

Our research showed that the current PINACLE on-boarding and training experience is not meeting the needs of users. Cursory onboardings by sales associates provide only an orientation to the product. After that, clients who are using PINACLE are meant to learn how to use the portal through webinars and tip card PDFS, but they often wind up directing general help and training questions to TMCC representatives (even though they’re not meant to be product educators). Our solution helps offload the burden of client training from TMCC onto the interface. Quick Help appears on every screen to provide context-aware support, but it also scaffolds new users at the beginning and fades as they use the product over time, effectively teaching the client how to use the portal. This will free up TMCC representatives’ time spent on training calls and will decrease the number of overall inquiries.

“There is no on-boarding in PINACLE itself, but the associates on the sales team are supposed to do some on-boarding and welcoming. ” - TMCC Representative

User confidence

One of the reasons that clients and TMCC representatives cite for calls to TMCC is lack of confidence on the part of the client. Accounting is a high-stakes domain, and users’ uncertainty of the outcomes of their actions contributes to chronic calls to client care. Our Adaptive Initiative solution supports clients by providing them with access to the information that they need to feel equipped and competent. As users’ confidence in their ability to use PINACLE increases, so too will their positive feelings about banking with PNC.

“You have people who call every time [they try to do something in PINACLE]. It’s a confidence thing… They might call in for help three or four times a week.” - TMCC Representative

Our final design solution is the necessitates and lays a strong foundation for a roadmap toward a more all-in-one PINACLE experience, where nearly every related action taken by the user can be done within the portal itself. Each phase of this road map involves a different level of user versus system input.

Initially, users will create and complete their own tasks in the Task Manager. These interactions will constitute a training data set that will be used to train a recommender algorithm. Once trained, which will be able to suggest recurring tasks to users, personalized according to their regular behaviors.

Taken together, the Task Manager and Quick Help lay a strong foundation for movement toward an all-inclusive PINACLE experience.