Small Business Multi-Market Research
Multi-phase international research initiative across Canada, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and the Caribbean to understand the experiences of small business clients with Scotiabank’s business banking platforms.
Organization
Scotiabank, Global Transaction Banking
Timeline
Phase 1 (Canada): March - July 2025
Phase 2 (LATAM): August - September 2025
Phase 3 (Caribbean): October - January 2025
Role
Led user research end to end, defined research strategy and methodology, aligned with cross functional stakeholders.
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Maze
The Brief
In April 2025, the International Business Banking team engaged the UX Research team in Global Transaction Banking to better understand how small business users navigate business banking platforms across markets and identify opportunities to improve their experience.
We began by focusing on Canada, where small business clients are often in a position where they have to choose between ScotiaConnect (SCO) and ScotiaOnline (SOL) to fulfill their digital banking needs. While SCO is catered towards larger businesses with complex needs, many business banking clients find it complicated, leading to low adoption (43% activation rate) and underuse.
Despite this, about 70% of clients use both platforms together - so we wanted to understand why that was, and for what use cases small business clients use ScotiaConnect as opposed to ScotiaOnline.
"We don’t know what level of complexity or simplification is needed in ScotiaConnect or ScotiaEnLinea to best support small business clients.”
— Canadian Small Business stakeholder
What we sought to learn
Understand the drivers for small business clients to use and to sign up for ScotiaConnect while using Scotia
Map the workflows of small business clients in SCO and SOL, including usage, behaviors and contexts of use
Gather key pain points for small business clients as they use ScotiaConnect and Scotia Online and navigate the two platforms
Identify capability gaps in business banking for SMBS
So that we can:
Prioritize functionalities and capabilities that small business clients
What we did
Reviewed support call logs, enhancement tickets, and SCO Pulse survey data to identify high-level pain points and issues.
Screener survey to profile business banking clients, platform usage, and recruit interview participant
In-depth client interviews: semi-structured 60 minute sessions
Moderated usability interviews
What we learned in Phase 1 - Canada
I don’t want to do banking, I want to do businesses
Small business clients see the bank as one of the many tools to run their operations. They want to complete tasks with minimum friction.
Clients: We build, heal, plan, create, and ScotiaConnect is one of the many tools we use to run our businesses. Don’t make us click around so much to get our tasks done.
Also clients: We account for ~60% of payment-related help desk calls, and consistently lower your NPS, logging 54% of ScotiaConnect Pulse surveys last quarter (33% of us detractors).
I need fast, high-value business payments
Clients: Our payments are typically lower value than corporate clients payments, but sometimes we need to transfer large amounts, for investments, equipment, travel, that go beyond personal banking limits.
Also clients: We are still using branches to send wires. 32% of all wires executed by business banking clients are happening in branch.
I need support for my operations, not friction
Clients: We hire seasonal and contract employees, and we’re also trying out different accounting software and third-party apps to streamline our banking.
Also clients: Current options for user administration and integrating between our systems and the bank’s are limited or where available complicated or “buggy”.
The two worlds need to make friends
Clients hop between platforms for identical accounts, with separate credentials and inconsistent flows, hurting activation and driving calls. Single sign on, and one login and one token are pivotal.
Clients: Why can’t you make it easier for us to bank with you? Why do we have to access the same accounts on two platforms?
Also clients: We love Scotia, have used it for years, and we want to do most or all of our banking with you.
I expect the bank to have my back
Clients: We’re innovative, agile, and entrepreneurial problem solvers. We know how to navigate complexity and figure it out when we need to.
Also clients: We still expect solid support when challenges arise. Our success can hinge on avoiding embarrassing client situations and frantic branch visits to fix issues.
Impact
Migration readiness
Proactive comms, and short format training (video and job aids)
1 Interconnected vision and roadmap
towards single sign-on, unified identity/permissions, and clarified cross-platform boundaries.
