Adrian Short
Design, citizenship and the city
Crisis? What crisis? UK banks websites’ responses to the HMRC child benefit data loss
21 November 2007
Yesterday, the chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, made a statement to Parliament that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had lost two data discs containing the personal details of 25 million UK citizens, including in many cases their banking details.The data is the complete database of all UK families with children, and includes names, addresses, dates of birth and the details of 7.25 million bank accounts. The head of HMRC, Paul Gray, has resigned.
While it is believed that these discs have not fallen into the wrong hands, clearly there is the potential for a major and unprecedentedly widespread breach of privacy and security and massive public concern.
Mr Darling intentionally delayed disclosing this matter to the public for several days to enable government organisations and banks to prepare for, among other things, a huge increase in enquiries from members of the public.
Below is a snapshot of UK banks’ websites at around midday today, nearly a full day after the public had been informed of the issue and several days after the banks had prior notice to prepare.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-size screenshots.
Red link to an info page in the sidebar on the right. Shows above the fold. Not bad, but could be bigger and better differentiated from the item below it.
Rating: good.
No mention of the issue on the home page or any obvious information about it anywhere else.
Rating: poor.
No mention of the issue on the home page or any obvious information about it anywhere else.
Rating: poor.
The first of the four big boxes under the main image is a generously-sized link to a help page on the issue. While it isn’t contrasted from the rest of the content, the size, positioning and text are very good.
Rating: very good.
No mention of the issue on the home page, not even in the column called Common Enquiries in dark blue on the bottom right. Clicking through to the Help Centre doesn’t help, either.
Rating: poor
No mention of the issue on the home page or anywhere else. Even a search for “HMRC” only brings up a page about pensions. Unusually, the site appears to have no news feature whatsoever.
Rating: poor.
No mention of the issue anywhere on the home page or elsewhere that I can see. They manage to make room for a link about “London 2012″ - a sporting event several years hence, but nothing on customers’ current concerns about their security.
The site doesn’t include a search box either, always the first fallback for people that can’t find what they want by click navigation.
Rating: extremely poor.
There’s a link to a help page on the issue at the top of the home page, labelled up as Latest News: Loss of Child Benefit Records by HMRC. The help page covers all the main points well. The link to the help page is slightly confusing as it’s the Latest News bit rather than the headline itself that’s clickable. Nonethless, the text and positioning are good, even if it could have been slightly bigger and better emphasised.
Rating: very good.
Summary
So overall, quite a mixed batch in this admittedly arbitrary sample.
Three banks at least recognise the issue and the need for them to communicate clearly with their customers about it. All could be improved by temporarily sacrificing the design unity of their pages by picking out a home page link or info box in a different colour. This would have been particularly effective if done by Barclays and First Direct as their pages are essentially monochrome.
Five banks have either not addressed the issue at all or perhaps have decided that they don’t need to communicate on the matter via their websites.
A comparison of the relative call volumes to the contact centres of all these banks would be interesting and probably instructive.
Doing it Right
Don’t cry wolf. Crisis communications only apply in a crisis. Just as when everything is bold nothing is distinctive, crisis techniques need to be used sparingly otherwise they lose their effect.
Think contrast. Use size (big), positioning (high up) and contrast (different colours) to pick out your main link on the home page.
If the situation demands it, put all the immediately relevant information on the home page and move the usual content to a secondary page.
Do it quickly. Timing matters. Uncertainly and possibly panic will be greatest shortly after the news breaks.
Be prepared. A crisis communications plan should be ready for activation at any time. Make sure this includes your web team.