Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote, announced the results of the Keynote Q2 2012 Banker Scorecard.

Covering 23 large and regional banks and more than 300 criteria describing customer experience best practices, the Keynote Banker Scorecard ranks online customer experience best practices in consumer banking.

Among the highlights of the latest Scorecard:

- Bank of America repeats as winner for Overall Score, with 87 points out of 100, while taking first in all four categories – Functionality (tied with Wells Fargo), Ease of Use, Privacy & Security and Quality & Availability

- Bank of America also places first for three tasks: Look Up Information, Transact and Learn and Plan

- Citibank wins for Open Account

- Chase wins Get Service

Among the trends that the Keynote Scorecard has been tracking, Mobile Banking offerings continue to grow in number with 13 banks now offering SMS, mobile and at least two smartphone apps and a growing number of smartphone apps supporting remote check deposit.

The first several banks to release tablet-optimized apps will soon be joined by more, as development focuses on the iPad, as well as Android and Kindle apps.

Ease of Use trends include banks reworking error reporting, repositioning key account information and expanding the use of dynamic pages, all to reduce the clicks required to learn timely information and complete tasks.

Digital customer service options are expanding as well, with banks rolling out live chat within online banking and also embracing Twitter.

Keynote's Scorecards for Financial Services are industry-specific scorecards that use a framework of 200+ expert-determined criteria to measure a sites' ability to meet best practice guidelines. Criteria are grouped into industry-specific "user tasks" (e.g., apply for an account, transact, or learn & plan) and "categories" (functionality, usability, privacy & security, quality & availability) in order to help firms identify the strengths and/or opportunities in specific areas of their sites.

Each Scorecard is created and maintained by a team of Keynote analysts who are considered thought leaders in usability, online privacy, Web security, content quality and accessibility. To collect Scorecard data, Keynote follows a rigorous research process that includes interviewing and surveying Scorecard companies, opening accounts with firms for direct Website examination, and conducting automated site analysis.

Keynote Releases Results of Study on Customer Experience for US Retail Bank Marketing Sites

Keynote Competitive Research also released the results of a new study examining the business and technical effectiveness of US Retail Bank Marketing websites.

In the 2012 Bank Marketing study BB&T took first place for Overall Customer Experience, while in the Technical Quality portion of the study Wells Fargo took first for Responsiveness (Speed), and U.S. Bank scored first for Reliability.

Winners of Keynote Competitive Research studies are invited to participate in the company’s Online Excellence Program which recognizes the "best of the best" websites as ranked in the studies.

The rankings are based on responses from real users, who are observed as they accomplish tasks on each of the sites studied, as well as real data collected through Keynote website monitoring to assess the technical quality of the sites. For each study, Keynote recognizes the companies with the overall top ranking, as well as those exhibiting excellence in specific categories.

For the ‘Customer Experience’ portion of the study, Keynote observed and conducted online interviews with 2,000 prospective online banking customers as they interacted with the websites of a total of 10 leading US banks (200 people per site): Bank of America, BB&T, Chase, Citibank, Citizens Bank, PNC, Regions Bank, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

For the ‘Technical Quality’ portion of the study, Keynote performed 6,000 total measurements for each site, for a total of 60,000 total measurements, from 12 locations in the US The data was collected every day over a one month period during the websites’ peak period (8:00 AM-Midnight, EST., Monday-Sunday).

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