Some key points extracted from the press release from these studies:
- "Our studies have consistently shown a strong correlation between a positive online experience and increases in brand equity and customer acquisition and retention."
- "Our rankings show a strong finish by many of the larger banks in the industry. This finish is based not on market or brand positioning, but rather on the investment and focus these companies have put into building the industry's best online banking sites,"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Keynote Customer Experience Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard
Rankings
(Overall Customer Satisfaction and (Overall Online Excellence and
Experience) Implementation of Best Practices)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Wachovia 1 Chase
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 National City 2 Citibank
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Bank of America 3 Bank of America, Wells Fargo
(tied)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Keynote Service Level Rankings Keynote Service Level Rankings
Site Reliability Site Responsiveness
(Indicator of Being Highly (Indicator of How Quickly Pages
Available, Low Downtime) Loaded, Transactions Completed)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 National City 1 Wachovia
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Citibank 2 Chase
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Wells Fargo 3 National City
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Full press release:
SAN MATEO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 18, 2006–Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN):
— Three Separate Competitive Intelligence Studies Examine Customer Experience, Service Levels and Best Practices at Leading Online Banks
— Wachovia, National City and Bank of America Lead in Customer Experience
— National City and Wachovia Lead in Service Levels (Site Reliability and Responsiveness)
— Chase, Citibank and Bank of America Demonstrate Online Excellence with Best Practices
Three new competitive intelligence studies from Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), The Internet Performance Authority(R), provide an unprecedented and in-depth examination of the competitive landscape of the online banking industry. For the first time, Keynote is offering studies that examine the full spectrum of online performance including the customer experience, site reliability and responsiveness and an examination and comparison of industry-wide best practices. Together, the studies offer extensive detail on the performance and competitive positioning of 29 leading banking Web sites.
"This is the first set of competitive intelligence studies to examine banking Web sites from all angles," said Lance Jones, manager of Internet research for Keynote. "To achieve their business goals and stay competitive, banks need to ensure their sites are performing well on a technical level, customer experience or satisfaction level and in terms of incorporating industry best practices. Without detailed metrics into each of these critical areas your online service will likely fall behind the competition."
The three Keynote studies are: The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Web Sites, a study which examined the online experience of prospective bank customers measuring 250+ metrics including satisfaction levels, brand appeal and customer acquisition success. The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites, which examines the technical performance on banking sites including overall site responsiveness and reliability. The Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard, which measures and ranks banking sites for online excellence according to their use and execution of 290+ industry best practices.
The Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citibank (NYSE:C), National City (NYSE:NCC), PNC Bank, SunTrust (NYSE:STI), US Bank (NYSE:USB), Wachovia (NYSE:WB), Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Web sites were evaluated for the Keynote Customer Experience and Service Level Rankings studies. An additional 19 banks were evaluated for the Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard.
Wachovia, National City and Bank of America topped the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an overall measure of customer experience and customer satisfaction across the more than 250+ metrics measured in the study; while the Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America sites were determined to be the best sites in terms of overall online excellence according to the Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard. The National City and Wachovia sites were ranked as providing, respectively, the industry's best site reliability and site responsiveness in the Keynote Service Level Rankings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Keynote Customer Experience Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard
Rankings
(Overall Customer Satisfaction and (Overall Online Excellence and
Experience) Implementation of Best Practices)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Wachovia 1 Chase
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 National City 2 Citibank
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Bank of America 3 Bank of America, Wells Fargo
(tied)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Keynote Service Level Rankings Keynote Service Level Rankings
Site Reliability Site Responsiveness
(Indicator of Being Highly (Indicator of How Quickly Pages
Available, Low Downtime) Loaded, Transactions Completed)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 National City 1 Wachovia
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Citibank 2 Chase
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Wells Fargo 3 National City
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Web Sites is based on an examination of the online experience of 2,000 prospective customers as they interacted with 10 leading banking Web sites. The study measured more than 250+ metrics for each site and determined industry leaders in terms of customer satisfaction, brand appeal and customer acquisition success, as well as ranked the sites in more than a dozen different categories including ease of exploring online services, ease of opening an account and customer support.
Wachovia topped the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an overall measure of customer experience across the more than 250+ metrics measured in the study. Wachovia bested the competition based on the ease with which prospective customers could explore its online banking functions, as well as strong satisfaction with its customer support. Wachovia was also viewed as the most "helpful" online banking site.
Wachovia's success in appealing to prospective customers translated into a significant brand boost for the company, with two-thirds (66%) of prospective customers having a strongly positive image of the bank after experiencing the site, as opposed to just 14% expressing a strong brand preference before experiencing the Wachovia site. Nearly all banks gain a brand boost after prospective customers experience their Web sites, with an average 35% boost. However, Wachovia experienced a brand boost nearly two times greater than the industry average. The positive online experience also made Wachovia the most successful bank in terms of online customer acquisition.
National City placed second in the rankings based on the appeal of its overall site design and organization, as well as the ease with which a new customer can open an account online. Bank of America, which has placed in the top echelon in all Keynote banking studies, again ranked very strongly in the latest Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, bolstered by its first place ranking in ease of opening an account and its top-tier performance in ease of exploring online banking and customer support.
"Keynote measures the customer experience because ultimately all business success is driven by the customer experience," said Lance Jones. "Our studies have consistently shown a strong correlation between a positive online experience and increases in brand equity and customer acquisition and retention."
The Keynote Online Excellence Rankings
The Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard evaluates and ranks bank Web sites based for online excellence based on an examination of more than 290+ best practices and collection of more than 8,000 pieces of competitive data. The 29 banking sites evaluated for the study are ranked overall for online excellence and in four online categories including Online Banking Functionality, Ease of Use, Privacy & Security and Quality & Availability.
The Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America sites were determined to be the best sites in terms of overall online excellence according to the Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard. Wachovia, which ranked first in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, also placed within the top echelon of banks in the Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard.
The study noted that Chase recently completed a major overhaul of its site and that this contributed significantly to the sites' jump from sixth to first place in its overall score from the previous WebExcellence Scorecard in Q3 2005. Chase also rose to second place in the Ease of Use category and took top honors for the Transaction and Service tasks category. Citibank ranked second overall based on its first place ranking in the Functionality and Privacy & Security categories. Bank of America and Wells Fargo tied for third position with both banks performing well in terms of breadth of functionality and in the privacy and security aspects of the site.
"Our rankings show a strong finish by many of the larger banks in the industry. This finish is based not on market or brand positioning, but rather on the investment and focus these companies have put into building the industry's best online banking sites," said Christopher Musto, general manager, financial services for Keynote. "The Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard is designed to help companies learn from and adopt the best practices in the online banking industry."
The Keynote Service Level Rankings
The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites examined the IT health/technical performance on leading banking Web sites including overall site responsiveness and reliability. National City, Citibank and Wells Fargo had the industry's best reliability, indicating those sites were highly available and experienced little or no downtime. Wachovia, Chase and National City were the industry's best in terms of site responsiveness, an indication of how fast the sites were in downloading pages and executing transactions.
In general, the banking industry is experiencing minor reliability issues, with only 3 of the 10 banking sites studied showing better than 99% availability during the peak periods, a threshold reliability rate recommended by Keynote for most industries. Almost all the errors occurring on banking Web sites occurred in the account application areas of the site, whereas the home page and marketing pages, with their reduced complexity, showed few problems. Two major banking sites experienced more than 18 hours of outage time during the four-week evaluation period. Several leading bank sites also demonstrated major load handling issues, indicating that their sites cannot support the current load without significant slowdowns in performance.
For an abstract about Keynote's competitive intelligence studies of customer experience and service levels provided by banking Web sites, call 650-403-3305 or email dberkowitz@keynote.com.
For more information about Keynote's Competitive Intelligence offerings view: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/competitive_intelligence_tpl.html
In addition to the banks listed above, the following bank sites were included in the Keynote WebExcellence Scorecard: BB&T, Citizens Bank, Commerce Bank, E*Trade Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First National Bank, First Tennessee Bank, Hibernia National Bank, HSBC, Huntington, Key Bank, LaSalle Bank, M&I Bank, National City, NetBank, PNC, Regions Bank, Sovereign Bank, SunTrust Bank, TD Banknorth, Union Bank of California, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Webster Bank.
Customer Experience Management
Keynote's customer experience management (CEM) services offer both competitive intelligence studies and custom engagement services examining best practices and consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. To learn more about Keynote's CEM solutions, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/customer_experience_management.html
Service Level Management
Keynote's service level management (SLM) solutions provide enterprises with the tools to align IT and e-business goals. To learn more about Keynote's SLM solutions, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/service_level_management.html.
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN) is the worldwide leader in services that improve online business performance and communications technologies. Keynote helps approximately 2,300 corporate customers and 11,000 individual subscribers become "the best of the best" online. The business premise supporting Keynote's mission is: "Online businesses can't manage what they don't measure." As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with unbiased benchmarking data, competitive analysis and operational metrics from the customer perspective. This data measures service levels and customer experience of Web sites, broadband services and mobile communications.
Known as The Internet Performance Authority(R), Keynote manages a market-leading infrastructure of 1,600+ measurement computers and mobile devices in over 114 locations and 66+ metropolitan areas worldwide that assess service levels and a panel of over 160,000 consumers who participate in interactive Web site tests that assess user experience. These online user experience tests capture customer attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what." Keynote's geographically distributed measurement services, on-site monitoring appliances, competitive intelligence and custom studies ensure that its customers outpace their competitors in online service levels and overall user experience.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2006 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Bankwatch 