Merrill Lynch Benefits

Background

Merrill Lynch's Benefits group manages retirement, pension, deferred compensation, and stock option accounts. While the group was doing very well, they brought us in to see if there were opportunities to increase their value to the company and their customers. Users had reported that the site had all the features they wanted, but that many tasks were difficult to accomplish.

Additionally, while the interface was initially designed for users who got all their benefits from a single company, Merrill Lynch was looking for ways to accommodate the small number of users who had multiple active accounts with different companies.

Project Summary

After extensive interviews, it became clear that the biggest opportunity for growth was in converting benefits customers to full Merrill Lynch retail customers when they opened IRA or other investment accounts. Research showed that users felt the site provided excellent financial tools and information, but that users weren't associating those services with Merrill Lynch.

The redesigned site visually and structurally separated company benefits from the planning and research tools that Merrill Lynch provided. Users could still reach the information with the same number (or often fewer) clicks, but were more aware that they were using Merrill Lynch tools.

In addition, the most common activities for primary users were re-designed for easier usability. Since most users only used the site occasionally and were dealing large sums of money, they tended to give up and call customer support as soon as they felt uncomfortable. To address that, flows were broken down in to a single action per screen. Simple and plain-language instructions were displayed at the top of each screen. A persistent left navigation was also added that offered the user personalized and context sensitive information, help, and links.