Mortgage Sites That Anticipate Customer Questions Score Highest in New Change Sciences Research

Business Wire, June 16, 2004

IRVINGTON, N.Y. -- Change Sciences Group, Inc. has released its 2004 Q2 report on the customer experience offered by eleven leading mortgage web sites. The research compares the web sites from the perspective of new homebuyers, move-ups, investors, and refinancers.

Sites were judged on seven main areas:

- Providing a clear starting point for getting information about mortgages

- Assisting customers in understanding the loan options for mortgages

- Educating customers in refinancing

- Helping customers determine if refinancing is advantageous

- Letting customers get a rate quote easily

- Viewing estimated closing costs for loans

- Giving customers various options for applying

Consumers continue to apply for mortgages in person or over the phone, but a well-executed web strategy builds brand trust by making it easy to get answers to common questions before applying.

"The process of getting a mortgage continues to be daunting to all but the most savvy consumers. Sites that anticipate what consumers want to know will win the confidence, and ultimately the business, of consumers," said Steve Ellis, Change Sciences founder and partner.

National City earns the top spot in the rankings by providing easy access to a quick comparison of products, and simple calculators for refinancing and rate quotes. Bank of America and Wells Fargo round out the top three with refinancing calculators that provide clear links to potentially confusing terms and pre-fill information for customers when possible. US Bank fares the worst by making it difficult to find balanced information about products and burying information about mortgage types and rates in FAQs. Sun Trust, a newcomer to the list, scores poorly because the site does not provide live rate quotes, instead promising contact from a representative after the customer fills out a lengthy form.

The overall site rankings are as follows:

1. National City

2. Bank of America

3. Wells Fargo

4. E*Trade

5. Chase

6. Citibank

7. ABN AMRO

8. Washington Mutual

9. Wachovia

10. SunTrust

11. US Bank

For more information on this and other Change Sciences research, please visit:

http://www.changesciences.com/research.html

Change Sciences Customer Experience Benchmarking Reports are based on its Typifi(tm)benchmarking process. Typifi allows for the empirical comparison of sites across key usability metrics. Our benchmarking reports show site owners how their sites compare with those of competitors, in terms of how a customer would use it, thought-by-thought and keystroke-by-keystroke. Sites that are easy to use attract and retain more customers. These sites also project a positive brand image. Using Typifi, Change Sciences' analysts can identify and document web design best practices, allowing site owners to make changes that matter to the bottom line.

Change Sciences was founded in January 2000 with the idea that companies can optimize key business processes by basing decisions about technological change in how people use technology while they live, work, and play.