Washington Mutual Still Satisfaction Leader in VocaLabs Customer Care Study
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2006--Vocal Laboratories Inc. (www.vocalabs.com) today announced the results of its first quarter 2006 SectorPulse study on the quality of telephone based customer service among five financial services companies. For the third quarter in a row Washington Mutual earned an "A" grade in Caller Satisfaction when compared not just to other financial institutions, but to businesses of all types. The other banks were unchanged with Bank of America and Wells Fargo both earning a "C" and Citibank a "D".
This study focused on Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Citibank (NYSE:C) and the Internet funds transfer company PayPal, a subsidiary of e-Bay (NASDAQ:EBAY).
While not a direct competitor to traditional banks, PayPal processes millions of online financial transactions each year. For the third quarter in a row the company earned a "C" in Customer Satisfaction.
For 1Q06' Citibank and PayPal earned "C"s in single call completion, a measurement of the percent of callers able to complete their business without calling back, while the other institutions were at the "D" level.
VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik comments: "The continuing poor grades for 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 three 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 85,000 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.
