Bank websites have room to improve: Forrester

Three of Canada’s seven largest banks have received failing grades for their websites, which for many consumers, have become their main point of contact with the financial institutions, according to Forrester Research.

National Bank of Canada, Desjardins and the Bank of Montreal all failed to meet the minimum standards of the study, while Scotiabank eked by with a score of 50 out of 100. CIBC has the top-rated bank site in Canada, although with a score of 66, which according to Forrester’s scale just meets the minimum standards.

Source: Forrester Research Inc.

Canadians are turning to the Net for a number of their financial needs. Checking accounts and credit card balances was the most common online activity, with 64% of Canadian online households saying that they have accessed websites for that purpose in the past 12 months. But Canadians are also looking to the Internet for more than their basic balances; about a third of the online households were looking online for annuities in Canada while 25% say they have investigated life insurance online in the past year.

The report, titled 2007 Canadian Bank Public Web Site Rankings, found that most Canadian bank websites struggled with presentation and their ability to provide friendly online applications for things like chequing accounts. All scores were generally lower than they were in 2006, primarily due to the addition of new categories in the study.

One of Forrester’s chief criticisms was that Canadian websites lead with product pitches instead of goals. TD Canada Trust was a rare exception. “Ask any financial service company why its customers choose that firm, and you’ll get answers like ‘We’re close to the customer’ or ‘We have great customer service,'” notes Brad Strothkamp, the author of the report, “yet banks and credit unions never highlight those benefits on their sites.”

Another area where the banks consistently came up short is the usability of their product application forms that make it difficult for consumers to purchase bank products. “We are continually amazed at how many sites fail this easily solvable issue,” Strothkamp notes in the report. “When shoppers on your site are ready to purchase, make it as easy as you can for them to buy.”

Despite the poor overall scores, there were some bright spots, particularly when it came to application functionality and completing the sale. CIBC, among other things, walks its potential customers through a pre-application page that tells visitors what information they will need and what they can expect after they complete the online form.

“Our clients bank frequently online, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve their online banking experience based on their feedback,” Christina Kramer, CIBC’s senior vice-president of retail markets, said in a release following the publication of the report.

Other sites, like the one operated by Bank of Montreal, were applauded for their credit card applications, which were easy to follow and clearly called out application errors when they occurred.

Forrester outlines four steps to improve online sales. Given that in 2005, 34% of Canadian households researched a financial product exclusively online, banks will want to take note.

• Get visitors to where they want to go — and fast. Consumers often have to work too hard to get the information they want. Too many steps, poor search engines, and lousy navigation clog up the experience and frustrate the user.

• Guide visitors through the selling process. When a customer walks through the front door of a branch, an employee finds out what that person needs and then makes a recommendation. Not online. “Far too many sites are organized around product instead of goals,” the report notes.

• Ask for the sale. There are times when you want to make sure clients are able to answer their own questions, preferably with the aid of a well-designed website. But when clients want to purchase a product, that’s not the time to leave them without a direct line of communication if they run into trouble. TD leads the way in this area, making customer contact a priority.

• Set expectations and meet them. Make sure clients know what information they need to fill out an application online for a financial product and follow-up with an email to inform them of what happens next. Firms that have placed an emphasis on this have noticed a 25% increase in started applications and 50% increase in completed ones, according to Forrester.

It’s the sort of advice that can apply to all sites that allow clients to access their accounts or purchase products online.

Filed by Mark Brown, Advisor.ca, mark.brown@advisor.rogers.com

(04/16/07)