By Malcolm Otter

Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN) has published recently the Global Best Practices Study for Bank Marketing Websites. This study contains the results, insights and best practices from an international online customer experience study of over 10,000 consumers, using the leading bank websites in 8 countries. UK banking sites monitored in the study were: Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS and Santander, and the results were compared to 47 banking sites around the world.

Results from this study indicate that none of the UK banks monitored appeared in the global top ten for overall customer experience with the Co-operative Bank scoring the highest ranking – in 12th place. Halifax and Nationwide were the next best performers in 16th and 17th place globally. The Co-Operative Bank’s homepage was also perceived to be the most helpful in the UK, with 63% of participants recognising this trait. This was closely followed by RBS and HSBC. Success rates for customers being able to open an account were the highest for the Bank of Scotland, with 82%. This is compared to the lowest success rate in the UK, with one institution registering only 56%, meaning that almost half of site visitors were not able to open an account online on this site because of customer experience issues.

Banks have a variety of ways to engage existing customers and new-to-bank commercial prospects. For all customers, the marketing site is critical, as it’s now the main channel of communication with the bank’s target audience. The Keynote Global Best Practices Study for Bank Marketing Websites focused on correlating intentions, behaviour and outcomes to gain insight into brand impact, and whether site visits would convert to account sign-ups. Using Keynote’s commercially available WebEffective, an online usability testing tool, the global study revealed that strong similarities emerge as top drivers of brand and acquisition for deposit prospects – site design and organisation was shown to be the strongest driver, which is heavily influenced by homepage appeal. Participants indicated that the homepage sets expectations for what you can do on the site, and how you should go about doing it.

Successful bank marketing sites drive high customer acquisition rates and also deliver an excellent impact on brand perceptions. They make the new-to-bank prospects more receptive to engaging with the bank in the future, and ultimately more likely to set up an account. This research gives site managers a clear understanding of global best practice to help them improve the business outcomes for the site. The driver analysis helps them prioritise effectively with solid evidence to show where they should be investing in the site to deliver greatest ROI by showing which customer experience levers to pull and which to avoid to drive acquisition and brand perceptions. Our WebEffective technology, which was used to run the research, tells you not only what users are doing at your Web site, but also why they interacted with your site the way they did.

It’s surprising to see the UK banks lagging so far behind financial institutions from other countries – in particular the US, Canada and Australia. It’s essential that banks keep up with best practice online, otherwise they risk losing valuable customers to the competition and could end up investing in areas of the site that ultimately don’t lead to more business.

More information on study

The Keynote Global Best Practices Study was conducted in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland focusing on leading banks including Bank of America, Chase, Deutsche Bank, Danske bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Bank of Canada. Companies interested in finding out more about Keynote products and services can request a Keynote consultation online: http://www.keynote.com/company/contact/uk.html.

More about Keynote Competitive Research

Keynote Competitive Research produces leading industry research using the company's commercially available Web performance monitoring products as well as real user experience testing products and consulting services. Keynote regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, technical quality (responsiveness/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading Web sites across a wide variety of vertical markets including financial services, automotive, media/entertainment, retail, travel and technology.

About the author and Keynote

Malcolm Otter is Senior Director at Keynote Systems, a global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring. The firm provides companies with solutions for continuously improving the online experience. Founded in 1995, Keynote provides testing, monitoring and measurement products and services for any enterprise including online portals, e-commerce sites, B2B sites, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure providers. Keynote products and services help companies improve customer experience in four areas: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and real user experience testing.

Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority(TM), Keynote has a market-leading on-demand infrastructure of over 3,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. Keynote's 2,800 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

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 1-800-KEYNOTE.