The Dorothy Rule

There’s a specific rule we use to get more customers to finish digital journeys.

It’s not better UX.

It’s not fewer screens.

It’s called the Dorothy Rule.

And I stole it from a film made in 1939.

Don’t make customers click more than three times.

Is it feasible- not always.

But as a design ambition, it’s not a bad place to start.

At the end of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy discovers that to get home she only has to click her heels three times.

Had she been opening a bank account:

“Click your heels 27 times.”

Dorothy clicks.

“Now go to the Emerald City to verify your identity.”

Off she pops down the Yellow Brick Road.

At the Emerald City:

“You didn’t need to come here. You need to click your heels again.”

Somewhere around Munchkinland, Toto bites someone.

Ridiculous.

Except three years ago, almost exactly this happened to me, without the red shoes.

I’d been with my bank for 30 years and wanted a business account.

I tried online.

Go into your bank to get verified.

So I went in.

You need to go online.

Excellent.

I’d become trapped between the physical and digital versions of the same bank.

Then I found they had a new digital bank…in the high steeet.

I went in.

“We’re not really here. We’re a digital bank.”

Short of poking the person in the eye to check they were real, I pointed out that I was standing directly in front of them.

Could I open an account?

No.

A chatbot does that.

Go on line. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

Again, apparently, they weren’t real.

So I opened their remarkably physical door, went home to my actual house and, 20 minutes later, opened an account with Starling Bank.

A real one.

They even let me put real money into it.

Money I can use to buy real cars to drive to actual coffee shops where they serve genuine Victoria sponge cake.

It was quite a breakthrough.

I’ve loved them ever since.

And if there’s a problem?

Wait for it.

You can talk to a real person.

They don’t even pretend to be a hologram.

This morning I needed another account.

Two clicks - not three.

Done.

Starling, I love you.

Marry me.

And here’s the interesting bit.

2026 banking research found 3.36 digital applications are abandoned for every ONE account successfully opened.

Roughly 77%.

These customers already want to get to Kansas.

We keep sending them down the Yellow Brick Road.

Perhaps we’ve got digital transformation backwards.

Customers don’t care if it’s digital, physical, AI-powered or delivered by a bloke called Dave.

They want to get something done.

So ask:

What does the customer actually want?

Then remove everything that doesn’t help them get it.

Don’t build a better Yellow Brick Road

Get them to Kansas.

And you can sign up to my newsletter for more of this stuff in only one click. See what I did there.

https://lnkd.in/eTFmmQKe

STARLING BANK LIMITED.