CORRECTING and REPLACING Leading U.S. Bank Web Sites Differ Dramatical

CORRECTING and REPLACING Leading U.S. Bank Web Sites Differ Dramatically in Performance, Reports Keynote

    Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
    CORRECTION...by Keynote Systems

    SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 2005--In BW5293 issued April 12, 2005: The bulleted information preceding the "About Keynote Customer Experience Research" section should read:

-- Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Prospects http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_ce_banking.html

-- Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites http://www.keynote.com/solutions/slm_slr_banking.html
    sted:

-- Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking at Prospects at http://www.keynote.com/solutions/slm_slr_banking.html

-- Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites at http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_ce_banking.html
    The corrected release reads:

    LEADING U.S. BANK WEB SITES DIFFER DRAMATICALLY IN PERFORMANCE, REPORTS KEYNOTE

    Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN)

--	First Comprehensive Competitive Benchmark Report Released on the Speed, Reliability and Customer Experience Offered to Consumers on 10 U.S. Banking Web Sites
--	Two Companion Studies Provide In-Depth Assessment of Customer Experience and Service Levels and Offer Top to Bottom Rankings
--	Wachovia and Bank of America Rank Best in Customer Experience; 30 Percent of Participants Cite Privacy and Security as a Top Concern
--	Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual Top Service Level Rankings for Site Performance

    The results of the most comprehensive and in-depth studies on performance and customer experience ever performed on 10 leading U.S. banking Web sites were released today by Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), The Internet Performance Authority(R), and the findings offer up startling proof that consumers are being provided widely varying levels of performance and experience when searching for information on these sites.
    To compete successfully in the highly competitive marketplace, banking Web sites must strive every day to deliver consistent levels of performance and experience as perceived by users. Site performance, comprised of speed and reliability factors, and site experience, comprised of customer attitude, preference, and expectation factors, are essentially two sides of the same coin and are critical ingredients for delivering on the e-business goals of any Web site. The two Keynote studies of banking Web sites discovered a wide range of results from excellent to fair, and underscore the need for the business owners of banking Web sites to work aggressively to deliver a more holistically consistent experience in both performance and experience and thereby further the overall financial goals of their sites.
    The Bank of America, Bank One, Chase, Citibank, National City, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo sites were examined as part of two Keynote studies: Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Prospects and Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites.
    "After fees and free checking, banking Web sites play an increasing role in influencing consumers' selection of banks and their perception of bank brands," said Bonny Brown, director of research and public services at Keynote. "Compared to other industries, banking sites set a higher standard for overall site performance and customer experience, but there is still a large gap between the highest and the lowest ranking banks. This is important as banks compete to attract and retain customers. While service level management and customer experience management of Web sites present distinct challenges, each is equally important for an industry attempting to secure customers online."

    Wachovia, Bank of America Lead Study in Customer Acquisition, Customer Experience

    According to research with 2,000 consumers detailed in the Customer Experience study, Wachovia, Bank of America and Washington Mutual provide the best online experience for prospective bank customers. The sites topped the Keynote CE Rankings, based on an aggregation of more than 250 metrics and four indices (satisfaction, online adoption, acquisition impact and brand impact) measured in the Keynote study, including traditional opinion data, as well as behavioral data collected using Keynote's proprietary research technology.

Keynote Customer Experience Rankings ------------------------------------------------- 1 Wachovia ------------------------------------------------- 2 Bank of America ------------------------------------------------- 3 Washington Mutual -------------------------------------------------

    The same sites also outperformed their rivals in the competition for acquiring customers online, leading the Keynote Acquisition Impact Index for banking prospects, which includes five separate metrics and gauges the overall likelihood of a consumer to open an account based on their experience on the site.

Keynote Acquisition Impact Index ------------------------------------------------- 1 Wachovia ------------------------------------------------- 2 Bank of America ------------------------------------------------- 3 Washington Mutual -------------------------------------------------

    Prospective customers looking at the Web sites of Wachovia and Bank of America were over 20 percent more likely to report they would open a new account with the company than the average across the ten sites. Wachovia's success is particularly notable as it demonstrates a significant improvement compared with their overall competitive standing in previous Keynote studies. Wachovia made notable gains by improving in the "ease of exploring Web banking" and "privacy & security," two of the leading site factors that drive customer acquisition, bringing Wachovia closer to Bank of America, the leader in this important area. Nearly 30% of study participants selected privacy and security as one of the top four most important factors in selecting a bank for their personal savings and checking accounts. The Keynote study measures and competitively ranks leading bank sites on more than a dozen such key factors.

    Results Show Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual Web Sites Best Overall Performers

    In the Service Level study, which examined the speed and reliability of the sites in great detail, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, Wachovia and Bank of America sites were the best overall performers.
    "The top banks in Keynote's Acquisition Impact Rankings, which measures the overall likelihood of a user opening an account, are ranked at the top of both our Service Level rankings and our overall Customer Experience Rankings," said Chris Loosley, general manager, service level business unit for Keynote. "This shows that to acquire customers a bank Web site must address both the customer's perception of its Web site and its operational performance."
    The best performing sites topped the Keynote Service Level Rankings, based on a comparison of 10 key performance factors. These included response time (over high speed, DSL and dial up connections), response consistency, geographic uniformity, load handling, page design, network connectivity, site reliability and outage hours. The results were obtained by taking 5000 measurements of each site over a three-week period from January 20 through February 14, 2005. From this data, 34 distinct service level metrics were computed for each bank, ranked, and the rankings summarized into the 10 key performance factors.

Keynote Service Level Rankings ------------------------------------------------- 1 Wells Fargo ------------------------------------------------- 2 Washington Mutual ------------------------------------------------- 3 Wachovia ------------------------------------------------- 4 Bank of America -------------------------------------------------

    "Although the banking industry has set a high standard for online service, no bank dominated every one of the 10 key performance factors, showing that banks need to work on all 10 areas. Indeed, even the best banks have room for improvement," said Loosley. "The gulf between the most reliable and lest reliable banks is enormous. The best bank was down only four minutes during the entire month of the study, while the worst bank reported over 29 hours of downtime. Clearly banks still need to focus on site reliability. The best site design is worthless if the site is down."

    Background on the Two Keynote Studies Performed on Banking Web Sites

    In the first study, Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Prospects, Keynote analyzed the behavior and feedback of a panel of 2,000 prospective bank customers interested in initiating Web banking or switching banks as they explored banking options and services at leading bank Web sites. Keynote's overall Customer Experience rankings are compiled through analyzing four indices: Customer Satisfaction, Brand Impact, Acquisition Impact, and Online Adoption.
    In the second study, Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites, Keynote compared the performance of the ten banks' Web sites when applying for a consumer checking account. A total of 5,000 measurements were taken using Keynote's highly accurate and realistic Transaction Perspective(R) measurement service. The same banks topped Keynote's Customer Experience and Service Level rankings.
    Research has shown that brand affinity and purchase intent are significantly influenced by a customer's online experience. That is why measuring e-business performance from the perspective of the end user has become so important. That data, however, must go beyond understanding the basic metrics of Web site transaction speed and reliability to gain deeper insights into customer behavior patterns and technical performance. This knowledge can then be used to improve the overall e-business customer experience.
    "The experience of a prospect on a banking Web site is becoming of ever increasing importance in the acquisition of new customers," said Dr. Bonny Brown. "And the sites that provide the best experience are clearly winning out in the competition for new customers."
    Dr. Brown noted that Keynote research now shows Web banking services as a more important factor for consumers in choosing a bank than either branch locations or ATM locations.

    Poor Service Levels Can Cost Banks Customers

    This new report and previous Keynote studies indicate that customers are very open to switching banks or using different banks for different services, and that they find doing so much easier in an online environment. The data suggests that performance is critical to bank's ability to acquire customers online and outages and errors are hampering the success of some leading banks. Prospective customers are simply not going to open an account if they encounter Web site problems while filling out the application.
    About half the banks Keynote tested experienced significant outages during the study -- defined as hourly periods when errors exceeded 30 percent. Outages were often observed during peak periods, which would obviously reduce the bank's ability to acquire new customers. Keynote's testing also revealed that the core application-processing component of many sites, which is the key to acquisition of new customers, was the most error prone. The service level study identified eight key areas in need of improvement for most banks: improving dial-up performance, improving consistency, continuing to focus on page design, reducing the number of pages needed to perform an application, continuing to focus on home page response time, reducing content errors, reducing outages and improving the reliability of the application processing components of the site.
    Keynote found that Bank of America and Wachovia's Web sites delivered the most consistent response times, while Washington Mutual offered the quickest site response times for DSL subscribers. Most sites provided poor response time for dial-up customers, suggesting that banks have designed their sites with a preference for customers with high-speed Internet connections.
    Keynote conducts two separate banking studies each year to examine online customer experience and Web site service levels. One study focuses on current customers, the other on prospective customers.
    Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Prospects and Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites provide in-depth competitive analysis of the Web banking industry and contain hundreds of additional data points and a detailed analysis of study findings. The studies may be purchased together or separately. For more information about the two studies, to download abstracts or to purchase the studies, visit:

--	Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Banking Prospects http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_ce_banking.html
--	Keynote Service Level Rankings for Banking Web Sites http://www.keynote.com/solutions/slm_slr_banking.html

    Keynote Systems provides a full range of measurement and monitoring, service level and customer experience management services. Keynote's research studies provide insights into Web banking industry trends and service level and customer experience competitive benchmarks of leading bank Web sites.

    About Keynote Customer Experience Research

    Keynote is the leading provider of customer experience research services, offering both syndicated and custom research examining consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. Keynote's research provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies for a variety of vertical industries. In addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote's proprietary research technology and access to a pool of 160,000+ panelists allows for the collection of detailed qualitative and behavioral data that inform its reports.
    Keynote CE (CE) Rankings are available for a number of industries including the retail, banking and credit card industries, as well as several travel verticals, including the airline, cruise and rental car industries.
    To learn more about Keynote's syndicated research offerings and for a list of the various vertical industry reports that are available, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_syndicated_research.html

    About Keynote Service Level Management and Syndicated Research

    Keynote Service Level Management (SLM) solutions provide enterprises with the tools to align IT and e-business goals. Keynote's SLM solution suites offer a comprehensive approach to the problem of managing e-business service levels effectively for IT, for application deployment and support personnel, and for e-business executives.
    To learn more about Keynote's SLM solutions visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/service_level_management.html.

    About Keynote

    Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), The Internet Performance Authority(R), is the worldwide leader in e-business performance management services. Over 2,100 corporate IT departments and 16,000 individual subscribers rely on Keynote's growing range of measurement and monitoring, service level and customer experience management services to improve e-business performance by reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and increasing profitability.
    Keynote is viewed as The Internet Performance Authority due to the company's global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis over 60 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis, the company's market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets and leading customer research that provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies.
    Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.

    Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2005 Keynote Systems, Inc.

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CONTACT: Keynote Della Lowe, 650-403-3233 dlowe@keynote.com Dan Berkowitz, 650-403-3305 dberkowitz@keynote.com or Lippert Heilshorn & Associates Mike Hopkins, 212-838-3777 mhopkins@lhai.com

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