A bank’s public website no longer has the luxury of serving as a passive storefront. AI-powered overviews, social media influencers, and other personal finance sites increasingly shape how consumers discover and evaluate financial products, making it harder for financial institutions to engage the public through their own digital channels. As a result, far more weight is placed on a site’s first impression—and on its ability to guide consumers toward products that can enhance their financial situation and ultimately build a lasting relationship with the bank.
A recent report from Javelin Strategy & Research, How to Make Bank Websites a Better Place to Learn, Shop, and Buy, analyzes the websites of five leading financial institutions. The result: too many banks put the onus on prospective customers to understand which products they need, how those products work, and how to evaluate their benefits. In doing so, they miss a critical opportunity to establish an advice-driven relationship from the very first interaction.
A Sense of Purpose
One of the biggest mistakes banks make with their websites, according to Lea Nonninger, Digital Banking Analyst at Javelin and the author of the report, is treating them primarily as sales platforms. Too many sites are designed to push products, when their real purpose should be helping prospective customers understand their options and pick the account that best fits their needs.
““When a customer comes to a public site for the first time, they might think all they want is a checking account,” Nonninger said. “The bank could potentially step in to tell the customer that what they need is a savings account next to their checking account. Or they might be best served with an investment account instead. It’s a way to get to know your customer before they are even a customer, and setting them up for the for success in the future.”
Siloed Information
Banks and credit unions typically showcase tab after tab of siloed deposit accounts, credit cards, loans, and wealth services—an approach that can leave inexperienced shoppers feeling lost, overwhelmed, and unsure of where to begin. For existing customers, or for people simply seeking financial guidance, there is often an educational hub. However, this content is usually buried or isolated within the public website.
Worse still, the sales experience and the educational content often live in completely different sections of the site—or even in separate parts of the app. As such, customers looking for education may never discover the accounts designed for them, while those looking for accounts may miss the guidance that would help them make more confident decisions.
“Public sites are often set up to showcase the requirements for the account, like the fees or overdraft protection,” Nonninger said. “If that’s the only takeaway that a customer gets from the site, the bank is missing out on a big chunk of the relationship they could be having with that customer. It should be less about the products that we have, and more about the solutions we have to a customer’s problem. That’s a different approach to forming that relationship.”
“Help Me Do It”
Public bank sites are usually set up as do-it-yourself experiences. Most of the content is available, but it’s to the customer or prospect to find what they need—whether that means navigating educational hubs, reviewing all account requirements, or searching through FAQ pages.
“They will probably find the answer they’re looking for, but it’s very much a do-it-yourself experience,” said Nonninger. “You have to figure out how to educate yourself on different account types to see how that applies to your situation, rather than the ‘help me do it’ approach, where the bank would step in to guide the customer through that experience. It could be with a quiz or a wizard or a chatbot experience, anything that can help bring the right content in front of the customer when they need it.”
These factors have become more important as customers visit branches less frequently. When a customer has to figure out the right account on their own, the public website must provide the kind of personalized support and guidance they would have previously received from a bank counselor.
The current guidelines and quizzes offered by banks are often limited in their ability to guide the customer effectively. They usually contain just three to five questions and rarely resemble the traditional sales experience a bank can provide. Upgrading these tools with more personalized questions that demonstrate how the bank can solve existing problems could shift the website from a purely transactional platform to one that genuinely helps customers identify the accounts or services they need.
The Search Challenge
The limitations of bank websites in providing customer service are becoming especially important as AI continues to transform online search. Most banks have never faced this level of innovative competition online. Services like ChatGPT and Gemini are already tailoring consumers’ research experiences to their own purposes.
These AI-driven changes are influencing consumer behavior. Banks must respond proactively to remain relevant. Otherwise, they risk appearing on the second or third page of a Google search, where a quick Gemini overview might only highlight three or five banks—potentially excluding them from consideration entirely.
“If you’re not mentioned in that summary, no one’s going to find you,” Nonninger said.
Starting the Relationship
The public site is where the relationship between a bank and its customers should begin. Banks should leverage their public sites to start building a full relationship, understanding customer needs and showcasing how their products can best help them in the future.
Banks need to recognize the importance of elevating their public site in today’s digital era. As digital banking continues to advance in security and mobile banking apps grow in popularity, it is vital not to overlook the role of the public site.
“That’s really where the relationship starts,” Nonninger said. “We can’t afford to waste that potential, and that opportunity to build a strong relationship with the customer.”
