Shifts in Banking Industry as Online Banking Eclipses Other Services

Vividences groundbreaking research into online banking is the only major initiative to examine the customers actual interaction with leading bank websites and, as a result, has uncovered a number of unique findings, including many that run counter to existing industry perceptions. The Growing Significance of Online Banking Previous Vividence research details the transformational role online banking is having on the industry, and notes that the effect of these changes may be even more dramatic than previously understood. In the most recent Vividence study, close to 50 percent of consumers said online banking and bill payment services were a very important factor in choosing their bank as compared to just 42 percent who said the physical location of a bank or ATM was a factor. Further, banks that offered a positive online experience significantly increased their overall brand affinity with consumers -- and, conversely, banks that provided a frustrating online experience for consumers actually damaged their offline brand. On average, only 1 in 4 consumers express a strongly positive image of bank brands. However, those banks with positive online customer experience rankings significantly increased their brand image, with 3 out of 5 customers expressing a positive image post online experience. The Customer Experience Gap The Vividence studies have uncovered a well-established gap between how the leading websites perform as compared to the least appealing websites. Bank of America and National City have finished atop the rankings among both current customers and prospects, whereas Chase and Fleet have finished at the bottom of both rankings. The next wave of the Vividence study, examining 2,000 current customers as they interact with leading banks, will be released in September 2004. The study tracks hundreds of metrics across each leading bank website and has established indexes to track customer satisfaction, customer acquisition, online adoption success and brand impact. Keys to Improving Customer Experience Vividence research has demonstrated that, in the banking industry, major site redesigns of a website are not necessary to significantly improve the customer experience. Vividence Customer Experience Rankings Vividence Customer Experience Rankings are competitive benchmarking studies that allow companies to better understand their target customers and their competition on the web. Vividence uses its proprietary software and a panel of thousands of Internet users to gather the quantitative, qualitative, and behavioral data that inform the reports.