The Customer Respect Group today released its Q1 2010 Executive Review of Financial Services websites.
The report examined how well 13 leading Financial Services websites support site visitors in researching retirement products and services. The sites were those of AXA Equitable, Fidelity, The Hartford, ING, John Hancock, Lincoln Financial, Mass Mutual, Nationwide, Principal Financial, Prudential, TIAA-CREF, Transamerica (AEGEON), and Sun Life.
The leading sites overall were:
- Fidelity
- AXA Equitable
- Nationwide
- TIAA-CREF
- John Hancock
The evaluation was structured around three sub-indexes:
- Content Presentation – How well sites provide content that caters to a range of different learning styles by using media such as interactive tools and calculators, rich media presentations, and videos
- Navigation – Does the site allow intuitive navigation to maximize task completion? Users who get confused or lost on a site typically leave or find alternative methods or websites to research their needs.
- Dialog –Website content can never address every question. Users who do not find satisfactory information will seek answers from company representatives. Dialog measurements extend to email, real-time chat, access to callback, central telephone numbers and local offices and agents.
Besides the overall leaders, three sites performed quite strongly in specific areas relative to their competitors: Mass Mutual, The Hartford, and Principal.
Read more about the Q1 2010 Financial Services inudstry report on our website
The report findings show that with the exception of a few leading sites, the industry has a long way to go to fully satisfy the needs of its visitors. One issue is that some companies increasingly segment information across a confusing number of websites. Whether they are microsites with a focus on one product area, or related sites that specialize in certain demographics, to the visitor they just mean more clicking, loss of orientation and possible task abandonment.
Another problem found was company-centric and not customer-centric site organization, where information and tools relevant to people researching retirement was spread across different site sections, often with poor links between them. Furthermore, visitors on many sites will have undue difficulties should they choose to engage with organizations, thereby making purchasing a product or making an investment unnecessarily difficult.
