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As
Stock Market Recedes Customer Service and Usability Move to
the Forefront of Importance for Online Brokers
Comdirect has Best Customer Service; IMIweb Maintains Number
1 Overall Place and Xelion Drops Off Top 7 in Italy According
to BlueSky Ratings
Paris, 25th July 2001 – Research released by BlueSky International
shows that while online brokers continue to invest in adding
new products, tools, channels and information to their sites
despite the difficult market, they are losing revenue opportunities
because of under-investment in key drivers of customer satisfaction
such as phone or email services and site usability. According
to the BlueSky Ratings™ for June 2001, the leading eBrokers
are essentially copying each other in their race to add products
such as cross-border trading, mutual funds, warrants and multiple
channels, but failing to optimise their investment in technology
and products because they cannot service customers adequately
with timely and accurate answers to basic questions about
security, technology, trading or products. This inability
to cross-sell products or to increase consumer confidence
in online investing acts as an invisible drag on earnings
and decreases the return on investment made by the eBrokers
and their shareholders.
“There is a definite correlation between customer satisfaction
and revenues for online brokers according to a massive customer
satisfaction survey of more than 18,000 European investors
and visitors to online broker sites BlueSky conducted earlier
this year,” explained Suzan Nolan, president and lead marketing
analyst for BlueSky International. “We found that a “totally
satisfied” investor made 5% more online trades and increased
his online trading volume by an average of € 9500 last year,
generating additional revenues which drop straight to the
bottom line whether the broker’s business model is based on
transactions or asset volumes. However, the survey also indicated
that while 91% of investors were generally satisfied with
online trading, one in four customers were dissatisfied with
customer support and one in three customers were dissatisfied
with usability aspects like speed of page loading.”
“This feedback from European investors prompted us to revise
the BlueSky Ratings to increase the level of transparency
on how the brokers perform on customer service and usability
aspects by making those scores visible separately from the
overall rating. In this way we can deliver a better guide
for the investor who is evaluating which broker to use or
to invest in by letting him see a greater number of performance
criteria that matter, as we continue to stimulate the brokers
in Europe to be more competitive and improve their services
and offerings for the benefit of the consumer.”
The June 2001 edition of the BlueSky Ratings, BlueSky’s review
of the top seven online brokers in seven European countries,
provides private investors with an Overall Rating for functionality,
channels, products, information and tools offered by each
broker, as well as a Customer Service Rating to identify which
brokers answer the phone or email accurately and quickly,
and a Usability Rating to identify sites that are easier to
use and understand. The list of the Top 7 online brokers in
the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland,
Italy and Spain are published as the BlueSky Ratings for free,
public use, and permit a direct cross-border comparison of
the services and features offered by the best online brokers
in Europe.
“In the June 2001 BlueSky Ratings for Italy, IMIweb holds
onto their number one overall place because of the extent
of its tools, information, products and access to foreign
markets. However, it’s Comdirect Italia that beats IMIweb
for the number one Customer Service rating with better scores
for answering phone and email enquiries, and Banca Sella that
scores highest for Usability,” explained Suzan Nolan. “Some
sites that were in the Top 7 in January have been dropped
from the list because of critical usability errors or customer
service lapses, such as Xelion or Intesatrade which could
not provide an internationally accessible phone number for
customers who may be travelling on business or for holidays
outside of Italy. To not be available “anytime, anywhere”
misses our fundamental requirement of sites being convenient
for the customer to use,” she added.
“In the June 2001 BlueSky Ratings for Europe, Comdirect Germany
continues to hold onto the number one place in Europe overall
by offering an extensive range of information, products, channels,
tools, features and better than average customer service response.
However, in terms of the Usability Rating, it’s a brand new
site – Merrill Lynch HSBC in the UK – that takes the lead
over Comdirect and other established players like UBS and
Credit Suisse and demonstrates how the “next generation” of
online brokerage sites will be focusing on ease of use and
other user experience aspects to help convince the “next generation”
of customers to invest online,” Suzan Nolan continued. “For
email and phone service, Comdirect in the UK led the Europeans
because they were able to get it right 86% of the time, which
while not a perfect score, was better than most and well above
the worst case among the finalists which got customer service
right only 22% of the time. The “defective” rates on email
and phone response are unacceptably high particularly now
that the bull market is over and people care about more than
just making a low-cost trade online”
BlueSky has been independently rating European banking sites
and brokering sites since early 1997. BlueSky has consistently
awarded more points to sites that are the most comprehensive
in terms of products, tools and information, and that provide
the best customer service and user experience for Internet
share trading, with a bias towards convenience for the customer.
This means that sites that offer a larger choice of brokerage
and banking products, information, tools and multiple channels
along with superior customer service will rate more highly
than an execution-only broker that offers little or no added-value
information and permits trading of equities only through the
internet.
Every four months, BlueSky reviews over 3,000 financial service
sites in Europe to select 12 Internet brokerage sites in each
country that offer the best overall transactional features
and functions, information, interactive capabilities, product
mix and tools. The 12 sites are reviewed a second time and
the seven best sites are selected and put through a final
series of six tests in the six categories described in the
Methodology below. The ratings period takes approximately
6 weeks: all service calls are done during the same 7 – 10
day time period and with the same questions in each country
to fairly measure service and response levels.
The list of the BlueSky
Ratings Top 15 European Online Brokers for June 2001 can be
found below for Top 15 Overall, and are then ranked by Email
& Phone Service and for Usability. The complete country-by-country
BlueSky Ratings for June 2001 can be found in the Brokers
section of the www.EuropeanInvestor.com web site, and on the
www.tradeineuros.com site. The BlueSky Ratings cover the top
seven online brokers in seven European countries. Eight key
decision points are compared for each, such as the number
of international markets traded, IPO and mutual fund offerings,
trading languages and residency requirements. The cost of
commissions is also compared, but does not count in the ratings.
An explanation of the methodology and criteria used for the
ratings can be found below or on www.europeaninvestor.com/EIC/Brokers/BlueSky_Ratings/
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BlueSky’s eBroker Rating Methodology
BlueSky rates brokerage sites in six separate categories.
By adding these six categories together BlueSky produces an
“Overall Rating”:
Category 1.) Transaction ability (17% of the overall rating)
To qualify for BlueSky’s broker rating sites must first offer
basic brokerage transactional ability for equities. BlueSky
awards points progressively to online brokers who additionally
offer fund trading online, IPO trading online as well as online
banking. By offering all four categories of transactions brokers
are the capable of achieving all the points in this category
or 17% of the total overall rating. Fewer points are awarded
in this category if brokers only offer one or two of the listed
transactional services.
Category 2.) Channel ability (5% of overall rating) BlueSky
awards points to brokers who provide various channels through
which to get information and do transactions. For example,
if a broker offers channels that include phone brokering,
WAP, PDA, SMS, IVR, touch tone, and alerts, they will achieve
the maximum number of points for channels which accounts for
5% of the total score. Brokers score progressively higher
in this category by offering more channels.
Category 3.) Specialized products, information, tools and
research (16% of overall rating) Specialized products include
warrants and bonds, and specialized information and tools
includes elements like a fund centre, IPO area, frequent trader
area, educational area, as well as research reports, market
briefs, other tools and information centres including broadband
presentations. The information section comprises 16% of the
“Overall Rating” .
Category 4.) Multiple stock markets and multiple fund selling
ability (10% of overall rating) Brokers are rewarded on their
ability to sell equities on multiple international exchanges
and on their ability to sell multiple funds. The percentage
of the final score is 10%. Brokers receive higher scores by
offering more exchanges and by offering more and better-organized
funds on their sites.
Category 5.) E Mail and Phone service (26% of overall rating)
This is perhaps one of the more important categories to measure
quality in since Internet brokerage customers need information
about products, services and functionalities on sites given
the complexities of online brokerage sites and making investment
decisions. The total score in this section comprises 26% of
the “Overall Rating.”
(Note: If the eBroker could not give a phone number that could
be accessed internationally (outside the home country) they
were automatically excluded from the Top 7 because they do
not conform with BlueSky’s “anytime, anywhere” convenience
requirement.)
During the same 7 – 10 day period, BlueSky places 20 anonymous
calls, and during the ratings period sends 20 anonymous emails
to each broker asking each the same a series of questions
about security, trading, products and services. BlueSky researchers
measure the quality, accuracy and helpfulness qualities of
the answers, as well as the time – whether seconds or days
– that it takes to answer questions.
Category 6.) BlueSky User Experience & Usability (26% percent
of overall rating) BlueSky measures user experience for the
following six criteria:
1. Complete and detailed information.
2. Easy and clear navigation.
3. Clear and complete instructions.
4. Consideration for new users.
5. Consistent look and design and interface.
6. Transaction ability.
7. Relationship building and interactivity.
8. Sales support.
9. Cross-selling of products ability.
10. Promotions.
11. Product and service benefits.
12. Other non-brokering online information like education.
13. Features and quality of the service as demonstrated online.
BlueSky does not factor price into the ratings because a customer’s
sense of value for money cannot be determined by price alone.
About BlueSky International
BlueSky International Marketing Inc., a financial services
research and consulting company, is the leader in providing
accurate facts and insight about the international Internet
to financial services companies, world wide, since 1997. BlueSky’s
original research and analysis identifies competitive opportunities,
provides industry benchmarks, anticipates key trends and compares
market direction on the Internet across multiple countries
in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
BlueSky Ratings™ is the first independent, cross-border Internet
rating service that helps people find the online broker offer
and service that’s best for them. For more information see
www.blueskyinc.com
For more information about the ratings or to arrange an interview
please contact:
Suzan Nolan or Walter Bazar
BlueSky International
Telephone
Paris: +331 53 59 39 47
suzan@blueskyinc.com
BlueSky International Tel: +331 53 59 39 47
Fax: +331 53 59 39 48
www.blueskyinc.com
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