Press Release

PayPal Outperforms Traditional Banks in VocaLabs Satisfaction Study

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2006--Vocal Laboratories Inc. (www.vocalabs.com) today announced the results of its latest SectorPulse study on the quality of telephone based customer service among five financial services companies tracked over the first six months of 2006. While not a direct competitor to traditional banks, PayPal, a subsidiary of e-Bay (NASDAQ:EBAY - News) processes millions of online financial transactions each year, and for the first time outscored more traditional financial institutions. When compared, not just to traditional banks, but to businesses of all types the company moved up from a "C" to a "B" in Customer Satisfaction and from "C" to "B" in Call Completion, a measurement of the percent of callers able to complete their business without calling back.

This study focused on Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM - News), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - News), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC - News), Citibank (NYSE:C - News) and PayPal.

Washington Mutual slipped from an "A" to a "B" in Caller Satisfaction but improved to a "C" in Call Completion and Wells Fargo improved from a "C" to a "B" in Satisfaction while remaining unchanged in Call Completion This placed the two in a statistical tie for best service quality among traditional brick and mortar financial institutions. The other bank's scores were unchanged from the previous study with Bank of America earning a "D" in Completion and a "C" in Satisfaction, while CitiBank's scores were the opposite with a "C" in Completion and a "D" in satisfaction.

VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik comments: "While several institutions did improve over the previous study, poor grades for caller Satisfaction and Call Completion remain troubling in this industry. Repeat calls to complete a single piece of business frustrates customers and negatively impacts the financial performance of a customer service operation. Across all the financial services companies for which we have data, about one customer in four must call more than once, an unnecessary burden on both the customer and the company."

To learn more, visit www.vocalabs.com. An Executive Summary and complete SectorPulse-Financial data reports are available by subscription. Contact Rick Rappe' at rrappe@vocalabs.com.

About SectorPulse

VocaLabs' SectorPulse reports compare the customer service quality for different companies in the same industry, using data and call recordings from the companies' customers.

VocaLabs has recruited over 80,000 individuals to provide feedback on customer service experiences, from which we drew the participants for this study. VocaLabs panelists who are customers of one of the companies included in this study were asked to participate by having their customer service calls tracked and completing surveys before and after the call.

About Vocal Laboratories

Vocal Laboratories delivers statistically reliable feedback on the user friendliness of telephone based customer service whether delivered via traditional call centers or self-service technology. Clients are end user enterprises, call center consultants, application providers and equipment vendors. VocaLabs' methodology results in highly accurate data on both technical performance and the impact of service on caller opinions.

Contacts

Vocal Laboratories, Inc., Eden Prairie
Rick Rappe', 952-941-6580 X 205
rrappe@vocalabs.com
www.vocalabs.com