Abstract

The case addresses a critical issue that many well-established companies encounter in their digitisation efforts—the challenge of motivating customers to shift from traditional methods to digital channels. This case centres on the digitisation struggles of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), a leading banking and financial services provider.

HSBC has invested heavily in technologies to enhance operational efficiency and customer experiences, aiming to digitise all service journeys and achieve an ambitious 80% adoption rate for each service by 2026. However, in Hong Kong (HK), HSBC faces a significant obstacle: its commercial banking customers are hesitant to use digital services. In 2023, the adoption of digital services in HK remained consistently low, all falling below 50%.

Confronted with economic uncertainties, HSBC has to take a cautious approach to digitisation and carefully consider the necessary steps to achieve its digitisation goals. This case gives students an opportunity to analyse the incentives behind customers’ adoption of new technologies. It offers students the chance to apply marketing frameworks, such as the AIDA model, to a real-world scenario and learn how to attract and persuade customers to switch to digital channels.

Using this case study, students can gain insights into the dilemmas that companies face during digitisation. On the one hand, companies need to invest in IT to remain competitive and realise cost savings. On the other hand, they may struggle to overcome customer inertia for various reasons. Beyond the challenges of digitisation, this case also allows students to analyse possible causes and discuss and propose possible solutions.  After studying this case, students will be able to identify the digitisation issues at hand and offer various strategies for persuading customers to use digital channels.

Learning Objectives

The teaching objectives of this case are:

1.       To understand the challenges of digitisation in changing customer behaviour.

2.       To analyse the pain points behind customer resistance to digitisation.

3.       To apply the technology acceptance model to understand customer behaviour in adopting new technologies.

4.       To learn to use marketing communication models to persuade customers to change their behaviour.

5.       To suggest and evaluate possible ways to change customer behaviour.