Amid Banks’ Focus on Dashboards, Personalization and Building Trust, Bank of America Ranks No. 1 for Online Consumer Experience
Wilmington, Del., May 11, 2022 – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of the Q2 2022 edition of its semi-annual Online Banker Scorecard. Bank of America continued its winning streak, ranking No. 1 with the highest Overall Score for its digital user experience in Keynova Group’s competitive evaluation of 20 leading U.S. retail banks. The Scorecard’s findings show that top-ranked banks are delivering more efficient desktop dashboard options and navigation, enabling consumers to personalize their digital banking experience and adding features to build trust and maintain consumers’ confidence in digital banking.
“Banks are focused on transforming online banking user interfaces with options to personalize the customer experience with customized dashboard account summary screens, improved navigational efficiency and educational insights or offers tailored to the customer,” said Susan Foulds, managing director, Keynova Group. “Advancements in customer service also continue to set banks apart as chatbots evolve into offering hybrid two-way messaging for customer assistance and some banks offer options to schedule remote meetings.”
Key Findings:
Top Banks Offer Efficient Desktop Dashboard Navigation
Online banking dashboards or account summary screens are evolving to display key account information and streamline navigation to frequent actions or tasks. Specifically, Bank of America, Chase, PNC and U.S. Bank provide seamless usability elements that create an efficient customer experience and the ability to complete banking activities with just a few clicks. To reduce navigation from the home screen, cash flow summaries are available within one click of the secure dashboard page at 50% of the reviewed sites and 30% display recent payments and transfers to quickly reference. Making transfers is one of the most common post login activities for online banking customers; one in four banks enable users to make a transfer directly on the dashboard screen without having to navigate deeper into the transfer path. Fewer banks, only 20%, allow customers to view or toggle to view pending payments and transfers from the initial summary screen.
Personalization Adds Value to the Customer Experience
Providing a personalized customer experience encompasses several components of digital banking—the option for users to choose the account information and links they wish to see on login and the ability to proactively push customized content on the site or via notifications. Only 15% of banks − BMO Harris, Huntington and Truist − offer this level of customization of the dashboard summary screen, enabling users to select information and links via widgets or tiles; however, more are planning to incorporate personalization into their online channels.
The next frontier of personalization is proactive and predictive insights and financial management tools. Only Truist currently provides personalized financial insights for the customer through online banking. And only Huntington sends a proactive external alert informing customers that their account is at risk of overdraft based on account activity before the balance becomes negative.
Customer service options that meet consumers’ diverse lifestyles and needs are also essential to maintain a high touch digital banking experience. Hybrid chatbot messaging with authenticated users, which supports an inquiry and response conversation and hands off to live chat at some sites, is trending—offered by 40% of the banks evaluated. 70% of banks offer customers the option to schedule branch appointments whereas just 15% of banks (Citi, M&T Bank and U.S. Bank) currently offer video meetings.
Building Trust and Maintaining Consumers’ Confidence in Digital Banking
Banks that personalize the user experience help to engender customers’ trust. Adhering to fundamental best practices for fee visibility, real-time alerts and for privacy and security are also critical to building and maintaining consumer confidence as well as an enduring brand. Today, only 30% of the banks evaluated transparently display fees and the ways to avoid them in the account management area (separate from standard fee schedules). And, surprisingly less than 50% of banks allow users to set privacy and marketing preferences—Chase, USAA, and Wells Fargo stand out with clear messaging and opt-out preferences.
About the Online Banker Scorecard
Keynova Group’s semi-annual, fact-based Online Banker Scorecard, offered for more than two decades, evaluates digital user capabilities, customer experience elements, and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive mobile strategy in banking. The evaluation encompasses the websites of Bank of America, Bank of the West, BMO Harris, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, PNC, Regions Bank, Santander, TD Bank, Truist, Union Bank, USAA, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. For more information please visit: https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#banking
About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation’s foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group’s Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm’s proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.
For more information:
Meggan Manson
Young & Associates, for Keynova Group
301-371-6995
megganm@yapr.com