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Small Business Owners to Banks: Simplify My Life

 

New Research Shows Banks Have Not Made Significant Improvements to Their Sites

SB Informer
Tuesday, October 30, 2007; 06:05 AM

New York, NY -- Increasingly, small business people turn to the Web when they seek financial services. A new report released today by online user experience experts Change Sciences looks at what small business people experienced as they attempted to learn about and apply for small business services on 31 leading financial services sites.

To jump to a detailed overview of the research visit: http://www.changesciences.com/reports

The leading site (Chase) is more than 1.1 times easier to use, more informative and more persuasive than the poorest performer overall (CitiBusiness), and more than 36% better than average.

Over the last 8 months, over 90% of the sites reviewed have made substantive site design changes, most with little effect. “Sad to say but most site changes in this vertical fall into two categories: the top performers making their sites even better, and everyone else making cosmetic changes that have little effect on performance,” said Steve Ellis, a Change Sciences partner.

Chase is the only site to have made significant changes that have radically affected its performance (going from an 11th place ranking to the first position).

Not one site has added the ability to open a small business account online since April of 2006. 35% of the 31 sites support this key user goal.

The three top performers overall are:

1. Chase
2. Wells Fargo
3. Bank of America

Other sites evaluated in the research include: BB&T, CitiBusiness, Citizens Bank, Comerica, Commerce Bancshares, Compass Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First Citizens Bank, First Horizon, FirstMerit, HSBC, Huntington, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Marshall & Ilsley, National City, PNC, RBC Centura, Regions, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Sovereign Bank, SunTrust, TD Banknorth, US Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and Zions Bank.

To download the complete overview of the research, including extensive data highlights, sample charts, a report table of contents and methodology visit: http://www.changesciences.com/reports

About Change Sciences Group
Change Sciences was founded in January 2000 to help companies optimize online business by basing decisions on how people use technology while they live, work, and play.

Contact: Rhonda Mills, Change Sciences Group, Inc., 888-864-1160 x731,  [email protected]

Other News by This Company New Report Ranks Banks' Small Business Web Experience - January 30, 2007