Banking on a better online experience

Internet banking is one of the oldest and most common internet activities. After more than a decade of handling transactions, it seems reasonable to expect that the banks would be wowing customers with their online banking services.

But the latest Customer Experience Industry Benchmark report on the internet banking sector shows just two banks – Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank – are managing to exceed customer expectations.

The rest of the sector has room for improvement, with experts saying the banks need to do a better job of outlining the benefits and costs of online banking from within their actual online banking services.

The latest Customer Experience Industry Benchmark was compiled for SmartCompany by customer experience research firm Global Reviews. The Benchmark, which appears every month on SmartCompany, measures the online customer experience by examining a website’s content, features and functionality. Typically more than 400 individual criteria are evaluated.

In terms of evaluating the internet banking sector, the Global Reviews look at seven key questions:

• Is internet banking a service I need?
• Can I quickly and easily register for internet banking?
• Is the login process convenient?
• Can I view/manage my account/s in a single location?
• Is it easy to pay bills?
• Is it easy to transfer funds?
• How can I contact the bank?

The end result is an Index score, which is presented as a percentage. A website with a score of below 55% is considered to have failed to meet customer expectations; a score between 55-68% is considered to have met expectations; a website with 68-83% has exceeded expectation; and anything above 83% is marked as outstanding.

The Global Reviews study examined six banks: ANZ, CBA, Citibank, ING Direct, NAB and St George.

CBA was the top-ranked bank with a score of 68.6%, NAB ran second with a score of 68.2% while ING Direct was third with an index score of 67.2%.

However, the scores fell away from there, leaving the sector with an average score of 63.6%, suggesting the banks are meeting client expectations but have some way to go to exceed them.

Global Reviews’ managing client advisor Mark Nunan says the problems are basic ones.

“Most banks do not adequately summarise the key benefits and features of internet banking, or provide clear access to this information,” he says.

“Most banks do not provide links to fees and charges information from within internet banking and most banks do not offer the opportunity to opt out of receiving paper statements from within internet banking.”

Nunan says that while banks did score well for providing customers with the ability to pay bills from their bank, there were some comments that some banks did not provide customers with adequate information on the security processes and technology that protect them when paying bills.

He also points out that all banks could do more to improve their customer service levels while users are actually banking online.

“The industry has not moved into the online chat space therefore customers are unable to receive an immediate answer to a specific question.”

Top five tips:

• Sell the service. Nunan says banks can do a much better jobs of summarising the key features and benefits of internet banking. “This represents a clear opportunity to increase existing customer usage and inspire new people to register for internet banking.”
• Basic information matters. Nunan says banks must provide clear links to fees and charges information from within internet banking to reinforce trust and transparency.
• Think about the wider product suite. Nunan says banks should “offer customers a clear pathway from within internet banking to opt out of receiving bank statements in the mail.”
• Mix online with physical. Chat facilities and “call back” forms (explain your problem and the bank will call you back) would be easy ways for banks to improve online access to immediate support and troubleshooting.
• Highlight security. When it comes to money, there is no such thing as too much security information. Nunan says when people are interacting with online banking, banks should include “clear statements about the measures they undertake to ensure internet banking security”.