The browser wars may be over, but the battle for space within the browser is just heating up. In the past 30 days alone, two major Net companies, eBay (July 11) and Ask Jeeves (July 29), have launched proprietary Internet Explorer toolbars. They join Yahoo (2000) and Google (2001) as purveyors of a “persistent presence” through browser extensions.

While eBay spent millions developing its toolbar, several alternatives can provide a similar desktop presence for a fraction of the cost, in many cases no more than a couple thousand dollars. There are eight ways to give banks one-click access from the browser/desktop.¹

One

Windows Shortcut

One of the simplest and most powerful ways to maintain a desktop presence is to encourage users to create a shortcut to the bank’s Web site. The shortcut can reside on the PC desktop, the lower task bar, or both (see screenshot below). Simply instruct users on how to create a shortcut by dragging your URL to the appropriate area, or better yet, program the function for them so that all it takes is a click of the mouse to make it happen. Google does a little of both, posting instructions on how to “Googlify” your browser www.google.com/options/defaults.html  and providing a downloadable toolbar

Advantages: Understandable and easy to use

Disadvantages: May go unnoticed among the clutter of desktop and taskbar buttons

Cost: Very low; zero to a few thousand dollars

Tech Support: Negligible

Bottom Line: Highly recommended for all

Two

Bank as the Home Page

We think financial institutions make an excellent choice for browser start pages, [1] especially if you offer something that users want to see every day such as the weather forecast. Users will appreciate the speedy download of a start page devoid of  advertisements and annoying pop-ups.

Tell users how to change the home page by tweaking their browser settings, or better yet, program the change for them, so all they have to do is select a “make us your home page” button from your Web site. To improve customer uptake, you might run a sweepstakes and give a DVD player to every thousandth user that makes you their home page.

Wayne County Bank provides great instructions for making it the start page on virtually any browser still in use www.waynecountybank.com/start_page.html .

Advantages: Unparalleled visibility every time your customer goes online; plus the built-in home button takes users directly to your site with a single click

Disadvantages: It’s easy for the user to change the browser setting to a different home page

Cost: Very low; zero to a few thousand dollars

Tech Support: Negligible

Bottom Line: Highly recommended for all

Google helps users create a button on their Internet Explorer Links toolbar through a simple drag-and-drop procedure www.google.com/options/winexplorer.html

Three

Bank Icon on the Link Bar

One of the three main IE toolbars is called Links. This toolbar comes preloaded from Microsoft with links to its company sites. There is also a button called “Custom Link.” This function allows users to drag a URL to the link bar to create a shortcut to any Web page (see our customized links bar below). You can simply instruct users on how to create a link to your company, or create a small program to automate the process (see Google screenshot above).

Advantages: Great visibility for customers that use the Links bar

Disadvantages: Many users don’t display the Links bar, or don’t know how to customize to show Web sites other than the Microsoft default links

Cost: Very low; zero to a few thousand dollars

Tech Support: Negligible

Bottom Line: Highly recommended for all

Four

Bank Icon on the Main IE Toolbar

Since many users don’t use, or even load, Internet Explorer’s Links bar, you can create a program that will add a bank link to Internet Explorer’s Standard Buttons bar (the toolbar with back, forward, and stop buttons). This option requires users to run a small program downloaded from your site. Many Web developers could build this for you for a few thousand dollars or less.

To see it in action, check out Harmony Hollow Software’s Add-a-Button freeware program  www.harmonyhollow.net/aab.shtml  This program lets users easily define new buttons for the IE toolbar (see screenshot below).

Advantages: Easy to use and stays with the browser forever unless deleted by the user

Disadvantages: Can be lost among the clutter of the toolbar; may require the end-user to tweak toolbar settings in Internet Explorer to make the new button visible

Cost: Low, a few thousand dollars

Tech Support: Requires good instructions on how to make the button visible; may result in calls from confused users, but the calls shouldn’t be too difficult to troubleshoot

Bottom Line: Highly recommended provided you have the tech support resources to explain it

Five

Full Bank Toolbar

Microsoft created this opportunity when they built added functionality into IE 5.0 that allowed outside developers to create custom toolbars for a relatively low cost. Many companies are deploying custom toolbars to navigate their intranets. Top consumer Web sites such as Google, Yahoo, and eBay have created toolbars for their power users. A full custom toolbar provides users an entire row of buttons that load on their browser each time it’s launched. The toolbar makes your online banking program simpler to use and differentiates it from the competition.

Advantages: Very high visibility taking a whole row of browser real estate; easy to use and aids site navigation with a choice of buttons that connect users directly to desired functions; subsequent toolbar changes are automatically delivered to users during their next connection.

Disadvantages: Limited to IE 5+ browsers; higher tech support impact since this will be most users’ first experience with a new toolbar; users may not like losing screen real estate so you will need to coach them on how to move the bank toolbar onto the same row as their main toolbar.

Cost: Varies; low (a few thousand dollars) for a static row of shortcuts to defined banking functions; high (six-figures) for an interactive and database-driven toolbar such as eBay.

Tech Support: Varies depending on the complexity of the toolbar; but even the simplest toolbar will require good instructions and minor tech support.

Bottom Line: Top choice; recommended for anyone with at least a minimum level of tech support resources.

Six

Bank Icon in the System Tray

This is a clever trick that hadn’t occurred to us until we began using WeatherBug. Create a small application that places an icon in the Windows system tray (lower righthand corner). The low-budget approach simply loads a Web page shortcut and/or popup menu into the Windows system tray A far more pricy, but much more useful alternative, is to use your system-tray icon to alert customers to material changes in their account, such as an impending overdraft. For example, your logo could change colors to tell users they needed to check their accounts.

You could also give users with secure machines the option of displaying their actual checking or credit card balance with a single click of the system tray icon, thus avoiding a needless trip to your Web site for routine balance inquiries. Like WeatherBug, the bank statement would appear almost instantaneously because the graphics would already have been downloaded when the machine was first booted up. Only the text fields would be downloaded when the user clicked on the link.

Advantages: Easy to use

Disadvantages: May go unnoticed among the clutter of the system tray; increases boot-up time by a few seconds

Cost: Varies; low for a static bank icon, high for user-defined alerts and pop-up displays

Tech Support: Varies depending on the complexity of the program; but should be relatively low if the program is well crafted

Bottom Line: Recommended for innovators looking to differentiate their services

Seven

Bank-Branded WeatherBug

Instead of creating your own program to run in the system tray, use a private-branded WeatherBug that places real-time temperatures in the system tray and loads the entire weather picture each time the computer boots up. Every time your customer or prospect checks the weather they will see an interactive bank billboard. For complete information on this approach.

Advantages: Frequent contact with users each time they check the weather; turnkey system with little, if any, internal systems impact.

Disadvantages: High ongoing subscription cost; tech support for a unique program; increases boot-up time, especially if the entire program is launched.

Cost: High; up to $3 annually per user

Tech Support: WeatherBug has fleshed out most of the bugs in the support of its 13 million users; but as with any program, troubleshooting individual issues may be thorny.

Bottom Line: It’s a great program, one of the best on the Net, but requires a substantial marketing budget; recommended for those willing to spend money to differentiate their company and drive incremental sales.

Eight

Daily Instant Statement

Another interesting approach is leveraging instant messaging (IM) technology to deliver desktop messages whenever your customer logs in to the Web (but no more than once per day). Each time a registered user logs in, your instant messaging server would be notified and a message would be delivered to the user’s screen, such as their current balance, or a mini-statement of transactions that have posted since their last login. Regarding inherent privacy issues, we say let the user decide. The reality is that most users’ machines are more secure than physical mailboxes where paper statements sit for hours vulnerable to anyone who might walk up and remove them.

Advantages: Saves the hassle of logging in for routine inquiries; differentiates your online service

Disadvantages: May be overboard for many customers who would prefer not to hear from their bank at login; significant IT expenditures to stay abreast of the numerous instant-messaging systems.

Cost: Relatively high; varying from 5 to 7 figures depending on the complexity of the messaging system.

Tech Support: High tech support to troubleshooting user problems with their IM system.

Bottom Line: BLEEDING EGE WARNING! But could be an excellent way to differentiate your online banking and increase customer retention; but requires a large investment in development and ongoing support; email alerts are probably a better alternative for now¹.

For a strategic discussion of how to profit from instant messaging technologies, we recommend Paul Jamison’s recent report, Instant Messaging to be Recast in Marketing Role, available from Online Banking Report (see enclosed flyer or email info@onlinebankingreport.com ).