HSBC
Empathising with Loss: Researching the Bereavement User Journey
Year
2024
Timeline
7 weeks
Category
Emotional Experience Design
Service
UX research report
Goal
When dealing with loss, users often struggle to find clear guidance and emotional reassurance in digital services. Existing bereavement experiences tend to be either overly clinical or too generic, failing to reflect the emotional complexity of grief. The challenge: How might we design a digital experience that delivers genuine empathy while still providing clear, practical support throughout a highly sensitive service journey?
Result
Designing a Compassionate, Clear & Efficient Bereavement Experience Based on in-depth research combining stakeholder interviews, staff-led user interviews, secondary research, and competitive benchmarking, I proposed a set of strategic UX solutions aimed at improving both: - Customer experience through empathy, clarity, and emotional reassurance - Operational efficiency by reducing friction, delays, and internal workload These solutions focused on simplifying complex processes, improving transparency, and supporting users during emotionally vulnerable moments.
Stakeholder Interview
To define the research scope and success criteria, my team conducted a virtual interview with Declan Lavendar, Head of Deposits, FX & Payments at HSBC Australia. Objectives: - Improve the Dealing with Bereavement digital journey - Identify key pain points across both digital and in-branch experiences - Understand frontline and operational challenges - Align UX opportunities with business goals
Staff Interviews Findings
HSBC recruited 20 participants, including frontline and back-office staff. I facilitated and documented four in-depth interviews — three with frontline staff and one with a back-office specialist. Key focus areas: - Roles & responsibilities - End-to-end processes - Pain points & operational friction - Customer interactions - Website usability - Training & support gaps Key insights uncovered: - High cognitive and emotional load on both customers and staff - Frequent documentation gaps leading to rework - Repetitive customer enquiries driven by unclear process visibility - Strong need for clearer digital guidance and system support
Interview Synthesize
Key research findings revealed three major improvement areas: - Process Transparency Customers and frontline staff lack visibility into case progress, causing confusion and repeated inquiries. → Recommendation: Improve case status visibility and establish clear update guidelines. - Communication Clarity Complex legal language and text-heavy content create barriers, especially for non-native English speakers. → Recommendation: Simplify instructions and provide multilingual, step-by-step guidance. - Operational Consistency Inconsistent document handling and case processes increase errors and delays. → Recommendation: Standardise document requirements and internal workflows.
Current Process Flow & Key Pain Points
After synthesising the interviews, I mapped the end-to-end service flow to visualise where communication and information breakdowns occur. Key Observations - Email is the primary communication channel between customers and the back office, making it difficult to efficiently track case progress and respond in a timely manner. - This results in delayed responses, duplicated inquiries, and customer frustration. - Frontline staff have limited visibility into back-office processes, preventing them from effectively supporting customers or providing clear guidance. - The reliance on manual document handling and fragmented systems further increases workload and operational inefficiency. Core UX Problems - Poor visibility of case status - Inefficient communication flow - High reliance on manual processes - Limited frontline empowerment
Service Blueprint & Process Insights
After mapping the current process, I developed a service blueprint to visualise customer interactions, frontline actions, and back-office operations. (Due to project constraints, direct customer interviews were not conducted. While every effort was made to capture the full journey, some steps may be missing.) Key Insights - Most of the process occurs in the back office, involving multiple internal teams and external stakeholders. - Complex cases often require coordination across several departments and third parties, significantly increasing processing time. - Based on frontline feedback, some cases can take weeks or even years to resolve. - While this multi-step process ensures accuracy and compliance, it also creates operational bottlenecks and long waiting times for customers. Key UX Challenge - Balancing process accuracy and regulatory compliance with speed, transparency, and customer experience. Creating a service blueprint revealed how complex back-office workflows and cross-department dependencies contribute to long processing times and poor customer experience.
Secondary Research & Industry Insights
To complement primary research, I conducted secondary research on best practices for supporting vulnerable customers, with a particular focus on users facing language barriers and emotional stress. Key Guidelines (ACCC) Based on guidelines from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), effective support for vulnerable customers should include: - Clear and accessible information - Sufficient time for decision-making - Non-pressured communication - Support for third-party assistance - Easy access to multiple contact channels - Clear policies for hardship and disputes - Staff training for sensitive engagement Benchmark Analysis: Bereavement Services I also reviewed bereavement service websites across multiple countries to understand how complex and emotionally sensitive processes are communicated. This analysis focused on: Information structure, Tone of communication, Accessibility, Multilingual support, Transparency of process Key Insights - Clear, step-by-step guidance significantly reduces user anxiety. - Emotional tone and language simplicity are critical for trust. - Multichannel and multilingual support greatly improve accessibility. - Transparent process communication reduces inquiry volume and frustration. Design Implications These findings informed the design strategy by prioritising: - Simplified information architecture - Multilingual and culturally sensitive design - Clear progress tracking - Empathetic tone of voice - Multiple communication touchpoints Secondary research informed inclusive design principles, ensuring accessibility, emotional sensitivity, and trust in complex service journeys.
Research Recommendation 1 Improving the First Step: Streamlining Back-Office Workload & Reducing Customer Friction
Key Insight The current process only begins meaningful assessment after documents reach the back office, which leads to: - Repeated email follow-ups - Missing or incomplete documentation - Processing delays - Increased back-office workload A major root cause identified through service blueprint analysis was that critical information is not captured early enough at the frontline stage, resulting in frequent back-and-forth communication and operational inefficiencies. Recommendation 1. Empower Frontline Staff to Initiate Case Setup Shift frontline staff from a passive document-receiving role to a proactive case initiation role. - Enable frontline staff to: Conduct initial screening, Collect essential customer information, Create and initiate cases before passing them to the back office Why it works: - Captures critical data earlier in the process - Reduces information gaps - Minimises rework for back-office teams - Improves ownership and accountability across teams Early data capture significantly reduces processing time, miscommunication, and operational friction. 2. Introduce a Shared Checklist for Customers and Staff Design a single, shared checklist used by both customers and frontline staff that clearly outlines: Required documents, Step-by-step guidance, Screening questions to determine applicable requirements Key benefits: - Aligns expectations between customers and staff - Reduces customer confusion and anxiety - Improves document accuracy and completeness - Decreases repeated clarification emails By guiding customers and staff through a structured intake process, most documentation can be prepared upfront, leading to faster case setup and fewer delays. UX Value This recommendation improves not only operational efficiency, but also the customer experience at the most sensitive moment of their journey. Providing clarity, structure, and proactive support at the first touchpoint builds trust, reduces emotional burden, and creates a smoother end-to-end service experience.
Research Recommendation 2 Introducing an Estimated Timeline & Progress Tracker to Improve Transparency and Trust
Key Insight Customers experience high levels of uncertainty and emotional stress due to the lack of visibility into: - Current case status - Remaining steps - Expected processing time This results in: - Repetitive status enquiries - Increased frontline workload - Lower customer trust - Heightened emotional anxiety during an already sensitive life event Recommendation Implement an Estimated Timeline & Progress Tracking Feature Introduce a visual timeline and progress bar that clearly communicates: - Key stages of the process - Estimated duration of each stage - Overall progress toward completion This feature helps customers understand where they are, what comes next, and how long it may take, reducing uncertainty and improving emotional reassurance. Inspiration from Real-Life Experience During my own visa application process in Australia, the progress bar and timeline tracker played a critical role in managing my expectations. By visualising: - The typical processing duration - Key milestones I was able to remain patient, informed, and reassured throughout a complex and emotionally demanding process. This experience highlighted how transparent timelines can transform anxiety into confidence. How It Would Work (HSBC Context) 1. Product-Based Setup Customers select the type of product(s) held by the deceased (e.g. savings, credit cards, investments, loans). 2. Dynamic Timeline Calculation The system calculates an estimated processing timeline based on: - Number of involved departments - Compliance requirements - Historical processing data 3. Visual Progress Tracker Once submitted, customers see: - A progress bar representing each processing stage - Estimated durations per step - Clear indication of current status This provides a single source of truth for customers and frontline staff UX Value This feature introduces predictability, transparency, and emotional reassurance into a highly sensitive service journey. By clearly setting expectations and providing continuous feedback, the experience becomes: - Less stressful, more human, and more trustworthy. Designed a progress tracking system that reduced customer anxiety, increased transparency, and lowered operational overhead by setting clear expectations across complex service journeys.
Research Recommendation 3 — Best Practice Benchmarking Designing Empathy, Clarity & Accessibility in Bereavement Services
Mentor evaluations
Mentor evaluations highlighted my strengths in Discovery, Resourcefulness, Agile collaboration, and Empathy, demonstrating design capabilities at a Midweight to Senior level.
