Discover Financial Services have announced victory in a prestigious industry survey of the top credit card websites after edging ahead of previous winners Bank of America.
The Discover website was awarded the “Best Overall Customer Experience” in the 2011 Keynote Competitive Research Industry Study of American credit card marketing websites.
Keynote Competitive Research spent time studying the connections between a bank’s public website and their long term customer satisfaction. The study found that a good online experience can lay the groundwork for a long standing relationship between the bank and their consumers.
A spokesman for Keynote explained that the most successful websites in the annual study were those who regularly promoted a positive outcome to users and that prospective cardholders responded best to websites which offered a sense of trust by answering crucial questions regarding the products and services being offered by the bank.
The annual study was conducted by Keynote Competitive Research by putting together a panel of 1,800 prospective credit card customers from across the United States and interviewing them as they spent time looking at various websites operated by all of the country’s major credit card issuers including American Express, Bank of America, Bank One, Chase, Citi, Discover, HSBC, PNC and US Bank.
In addition to the overall customer experience ranking, Discover Financial Services also earned top ratings in a number of specific categories including ease of making an online application, design and organization of the website and customer satisfaction.
Discover Financial Services can thank their strong information technology team for their success in the 2011 Keynote Competitive Research Survey. The team has recently been recognized for creating one of the best high tech places to work in the country according to a leading IT industry magazine. Computerworld Magazine named Discover as one of their “100 Best Places to Work in Information Technology” for the ninth consecutive year.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief Scot Finnie said that Discover’s team had earned this year’s number 35 ranking by
encouraging an environment that encourages IT professionals to embrace the customer service mission and the business priorities of their organization.
Discover’s success in the 2011 Keynote Competitive Research study certainly reflects this view as the company is clearly doing everything possible to provide a high level of customer service both in their direct dealings with consumers and by offering a user friendly, informative website which puts potential customers at ease.
