The Keyno Te Benchmark The Mobile & Internet Performance Review Performance and Usability: c onnecting with cU stomers on the n ew internet Volume 1, Issue 1 WInter/sprIng 2007Dear Fellow executive: Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Keynote Benchmark, a high-level intelligence report for every executive and manager who is involved in online strategy and execution, or whose organiza- tion depends on a successful Web presence. That’s just about all of us. For years now, we’ve been testing, measuring and monitoring the online performance of some of the world’s leading organizations. In this issue, we look at how Web and mobile performance and usability have become even more critical to overall customer satisfaction, and ultimately your success. A lot of people are talking about “Web 2.0.” Some dismiss the term as just a catchphrase. But by any name, everyone’s business is and will be affected by this wave of new technology that includes rich Internet applications, broadband content including streaming media, social networking, user-generated content, and the continued growth of the mobile Internet. The overwhelming challenges these radical changes present for usability experts and Web operations teams are just beginning to be truly appreciated. In this first issue of Benchmark, you’ll meet usability and performance experts from yahoo!, Fidelity Investments, Mauron ewMedia, MobiTV, Akamai, PowerReviews, and others. you’ll get a glimpse of how these ...
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Umag Gupta Cairma ad Ceo, Kt Sstms
Keynote Benchmark
A Demanding Marketplace Keeps Online Brokerages Fighting for the L ead
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Part Brokerage, Part Technology Company: An Interview with Fidelity Investments
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The Online Competition for America’s Ears & Thumbs
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Is Streaming Ready for Prime Time?
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Customer Experience 2.0: Designing for a Demanding, Distractible User
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Keynote Benchmark
ADemandingMarketplaceKeeps Online Brokerages Fighting for the Lead
While brokerage Web site reliability ranks as the highest of any industry —
and while the majority of investors use the Internet to research and manage their investments —
online brokerages still face challenges in getting investors to actually trade online. Dg”irfqackuiw,st“ralpvstiquitisctiutida,trumscugittapdrawpasrd-srckrtkamituctctsrut,spsdidastmsiptitfiicamalkar.tsfrudtismtiasiadstamcisarcipplgcarulwitdusissvabprt,sctgras,isbasputratildibualtrmwrkboilg.rkpa“rtfirpt-glrf”gi Wit accss t cmptitiv sits just a mus click awa, li brkrags ar flig prssur t mt vr-icrasig custmr xpctatis ad rigrus prfrmac stadards. Attractig ad kpig custmrs rquirs t just t rigt suit f prducts ad srvics, but a fficit, ituitiv li xpric as wll.
Keynote Benchmark
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Keynote Benchmark
One of the most frequent complaints — expressed by 27 percent of the prospective customers — focused on the communication of fees and commissions on the sites.
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Keynote Benchmark
chart d: busIness Impact dr Ivers
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source: “customer experience rankings study for brokerage Prospects,” June 2006, Keynote competitive research.
overall product offering and online features — including research and account tools — are the biggest drivers of brokerage web site success.
the online arms of full-ser vice brokerages offer many of the same ser vices as the online-only discount brokerages, with the advantages of established credibility and the option of traditional ser vice deliver y. a recent Keynote competitive research study ranked nine full-ser vicebrokerage sites on a detailed repor t card using a 300-point system, evaluating sites for functionality, ease of use, privacy and security, and quality and availability. the scorecard ranked the sites in specific critical tasks such as monitoring accounts and por tfolios, managing cash and positions, and researching investments.
smith barney placed first in per formance in functionality, quality and availability, “use accounts,” and “learn and plan” tasks. the wells fargo site was the leader in ease of use, privacy and security, and research.9
the scorecards for financial ser vices are bi-annual repor t cards developed by Keynote competitive research and released in september 2006. full ser vice brokers scorecard is one of three industr y research offerings Keynote has created for this market segment. “the scorecards are designed to help companies stack themselves up against their competitors, to determine what specific aspects of their sites have the biggest impact on their business, and to identify what challenges and oppor tunities need to be addressed to gain the competitive edge,” said chris musto, general manager, financial ser vices, for Keynote systems.
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The brokerage industry boasts an average Web site reliability rating of 99.5%, a figure higher than any other industry and slightly above the 99.0% threshold level for site reliability in the competitive financial services sector.
part brokerage, part technology company : an Interv Iew w Ith fIdelIty Investments
in 2006, fidelity investments vir tually swept the customerpaul graham:in the brokerage and trading area, we completed experience rankings in a Keynote industr y study of ten leading a total redesign of all the brokerage trading screens available online brokerages. fidelity topped the ratings for overall customer forcustomers and prospects. and aside from all the screen and experience, brand impact, acquisition impact, and customer navigational changes, there is richer information about what fidelity satisfaction, and finished number two in online adoption.Keynoteoffers, how it can benefit you, and how to use it. Benchmarkmagazine recently caught up with two fidelity on the “how to use it” side, a new t rading Knowledge center was executives to discuss some of the changes they’ve made that delity move to the head of the indust here ar launched. and in that web site — this is all in front of the login helped fi r y. e — anyone can access fundamental information not only about excerpts from our inter view with Parrish ar turi and Paul graham, both senior vice presidents in fidelity’s retail brokerage. howto use fidelity’s trading products but also fundamentally how to access the markets and how to use fidelity’s tools and trade Benchmark:fidelity showed a significant gain in customer smar ter. we’ve launched 15 modules in this learning center and experience ratings from 2005 to 2006, according to a Keynote we’ll be launching 30 more modules in the coming year. competitive research study. what changes has fidelity made in the past 12 to 18 months to enhance the experience for the way the learning center is designed — it’s called the t rading Knowledge center — it’s really focusing in on the way people like customers and prospects? to learn. there’s a streaming video in there. there’s text. there are parrish ar turi: five different ways you we’ve completely redesigned a number ofcan learn about the products, and strategize sections including things like our retirement products and as well. ser vices area, and our retirement resource center. last year, it’s really a unique experience and has gotten a lot of great
on the retirement side we released our “myPlan” of fering, which, with the “myPlan” snapshot, in just a few questions, gives you a sense of where you stand in terms of your retirement saving. and then we also redesigned our tool called the retirement Quick check, that is deeper into the site and gives you more detailed view of where you stand in terms of retirement.
“Everything that we do is based on what we call ‘best-of-customer and
representative feedback.’ We think about use cases and personas and we use a whole host of different information.”
response from our customers and from prospects. and as i mentioned, it’s all in front of the login.
Benchmark:how did you decide which aspects of the site to redesign, and what types of changes to make?
parrish ar turi: that we do is based on what we callever ything “best-of-customer and representative feedback.” we think about use cases and personas and we use a whole host of dif ferent information — primar y and secondar y research, usability, com -petitive analysis — to frame up where the oppor tunities are.
paul graham:we do have what we feel is a ver unique way to y understand our customers through what we call “Value network.” when our customers call into fidelity representatives, we have an immediate and real-time process to take that information and pass it into a database so that we can assess customer needs and trends. we look at that information ver y intensively as we think about new products to launch, what things we need to fix, and get a temperature check of our customers’ satisfaction.
Benchmark:have you been able to measure the impact of these changes? how do you track results?
Keynote Benchmark
fidelity’s home page gives customers ready access not only to the details of their accounts, but also to one of the internets richest repositories of investment data and research.
parrish ar turi:our measures of success are traditionally in terms of things like click-through, throughput, conversion rates, as well as satisfaction scores — before and after. in each of those cases when we’ve done redesigns, we’ve seen our metrics improve.
Benchmark:clearly you’ve put a lot of effort and resources into the trading Knowledge center, setting fidelity.com up as the go-to place to learn everything from the basics to sophisticated trading concepts and strategies. now, outside of learning, what sort of prac -tical functionality have you been working on for active customers?
paul graham: activewe’ve taken numerous initiatives in the trader and brokerage space in the last 12 months. as one example, we’ve launched many new capabilities in the options marketplace. the options market is probably one of the fastest-growing markets in the industr y, growing at greater than 20 percent per year. on the research side, we launched a new sector-trading analy -sis capability. we already have the most independent equity research in the marketplace. and last year, we complemented that with new sector research, where you can now actually look through and learn about sectors in the marketplace, etfs in the marketplace, as well as mutual fund sectors, all in one place.
over the last month and a half, we launched additions to the best fundamental research in the marketplace in terms of quality and depth and breadth.
on the active trader side, there were enhancements in terms of per formance of the product, reduced market data latency. w e improved and made the applications swifter.
these were the headline highlights of 2006.
fidelity’s extensive trading knowledge center is a vast resource parrish ar turi:addition to all the things that Paul talked about,in of knowledge for everyone from first-time investors to seasonedthere are a number of other enhancements for customers on the ser vice side, including adding check images to the site for our pros. users can learn in a host of formats, from interactive videos to in-depth articles.cash management customers, making por tfolio information clearer, improving self-ser vice capabilities, P in reset, and making money movement easier both inside fidelity, across fidelity accounts, as well as to outside fidelity accounts.
part of fidelity’s “myplan,” rolled out in 200, is a step-by-step widget that quickly assesses the state of the user’s retirement savings plan — or lack thereof!
we’ve also been ver y focused on security. last year we rolled out our customer Protection guarantee which says to customers, if anything happens with their accounts due to fraud or unauthorized transactions, we will reimburse them.
and it’s all par tof our ongoing program around driving engage -ment to help our customers become more and more comfor table with the web and also understand fidelity and what we can do for them on fidelity.com.
Keynote Benchmark
“We’re at an inflection point and we’re seeing a new tide and sea change in the technology capabilities that are being made available through the Web.”
Benchmark:next topic: what about your mobile customers? what are you doing to enable customers to interact with fidelity using their cell phones and blackberries?
paul graham:we have a persuasive offering called “fidelity anywhere.” it provides the same kind of functionality that the customer would find inside the login on the web. we see an increasing trend of customers that are actually using them not only for getting financial information, whether that be quotes or other wise, but actually to transact with us.
parrish ar turi:Just a couple of months ago, we launched a new shor t messaging ser vice. it’s a technology that’s ver y unique because it leverages your telephone, versus a richer connection that you might need the internet for, where you can actually receive text messages. it runs through the voice system so that you can receive aler ts and text messages directly from fidelity to your telephone.
paul graham: in terms ofwe’ve been well ahead of the cur ve wireless capabilities. as the devices increase their capacity and ability to accept richer data streams, we’re going to be able to provide more capabilities.
parrish ar turi: of the next generation is creating wirelessPar t actionable aler ts. so you’ll be able to actually execute based on the aler t that we’re sending you, whether that might be to make a transaction or transfer funds.
Benchmark:what are the biggest challenges fidelity is facing in the next 12 to 18 months?
paul graham:one is, new smaller competitors entering the marketplace. we hadn’t seen that in a while and they tend to be trading-oriented firms of fering trading capabilities for pretty low prices. so there’s also some pricing pressures in the marketplace.
and i’d say another challenge is really technology. i really feel like we’re at an inflection point and we’re seeing a new tide and sea change in the technology capabilities that are being made available through the web … ser vice capabilities that are allowing for functionality that was once required of a thick client now can be done through the web site. more people than ever have dsl or cable capabilities. fidelity is a financial ser vices firm but we’re also a technology firm. through fidelity labs you can actually par ticipate in beta format, and tr y new capabilities, such as visualization and other new technologies. a tremendous amount of our time is focused on technology and we have some interesting and unique experiences that are pushing the boundaries of the technology marketplace.
parrish ar turiSenior Vice President, Web Channel Fidlit Prsal Ivstmts
Parris Arturi is rspsibl fr cal vrsigt ad maagmt f t custmr xpric www.fidlit.cm, Fidlit’s primar csumr Wb dstiati, as wll as maagmt ad dvlpmt f Fidlit’s wirlss ad autmatd p cals. Arturi ad is tam ar taskd wit dlivr ad xcuti agaist cal sals ad srvic gals, as wll as surig cmptitiv ladrsip ad diffrtiati f Fidlit’s csumr ffrigs. Arturi lds a B.A. dgr i ecmics ad a MBA, bt frm Wak Frst Uivrsit. paul graham Senior Vice President Retail Brokerage Product Development Fidlit Prsal Ivstmts Paul Graam is rspsibl fr t stratgic dircti f Fidlit’s rtail brkrag busiss, ad vrss all rlatd prduct dvlpmt ffrts, i additi t Activ Tradr capabilitis trug Fidlit’s li cal. Graam lds a B.S. i Fiac frm Lg Islad Uivrsit ad a MBA frm t Uivrsit f Dallas.