Washington Mutual Still on Top in VocaLabs Customer Care Study

Posted by Anonymous on January 18, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2006--Vocal Laboratories Inc. (www.vocalabs.com) today announced the results of its fourth quarter 2005 SectorPulse study on the quality of telephone based customer service among five financial services companies.

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).

For the second 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. Bank of America and Wells Fargo both earned a "C" and Citibank a "D".

While not a direct competitor to traditional banks, PayPal processes millions of online financial transactions each year. For the second quarter in a row the company earned a "C" in Customer Satisfaction.

All five institutions earned only a "D" grade in their ability to complete their customer's business with a single phone call.

VocaLabs CEO Peter Leppik comments: "The continuing poor grades for Call Completion are especially 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.