Verizon and Amazon.com Top Wireless Web Sites Says New Industry Research From Keynote
Thursday, 14 September 2006
Keynote Systems has announced the availability of its latest competitive intelligence studies for the wireless phone industry. The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings and the Keynote Service Level Rankings, are part of Keynote's industry research program designed to help companies improve the technical and business performance of their Web businesses by providing extensive competitive benchmarking and insight into industry best practices.
Keynote's industry research provides a complete view of e-business performance, allowing companies to see how well their site is performing from the customer's point of view, from a competitive standpoint, as well as in terms of technical service levels (site reliability and responsiveness).
Keynote industry research provides deep insights into core functionality, such as the visual appeal and purchase process performance, as well as into the high-level business objectives of sites, such as customer acquisition success and competitive brand appeal. With Keynote industry research, companies can determine not only how their site is performing in the market, but why it is performing at that level and what can be done to improve performance.
To conduct its industry research, Keynote uses its commercially available test and measurement products. Keynote customer experience studies employ Keynote WebEffective(TM), an on-demand software platform for conducting in-depth user experience research which integrates the best aspects of usability, behavior and attitudinal research. Keynote service level ranking studies use the Keynote Transaction Perspective(R) measurement product to evaluate key performance indicators, including responsiveness and reliability, for Web sites in the study.
Keynote's competitive intelligence studies are one of three Keynote products in mobile testing and monitoring that also includes Mobile Application Perspective, an interactive testing and automated monitoring service for mobile content, and Mobile Device Perspective (version 2.0 was announced yesterday at CTIA), an automated monitoring solution using real handsets to ensure quality of mobile services. For further information on Keynote's Mobile Quality products, visit http://www.keynote.com/solutions/slm_mobile_test_monitor.html.
Keynote's competitive intelligence studies of the wireless phone industry included the Web sites for Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN), Boost Mobile, Cingular (NYSE:T) (NYSE:BLS), LetsTalk, Nextel (NYSE:S), Qwest Wireless (NYSE:Q), Sprint PCS (NYSE:S), T-Mobile (NYSE:DT), Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), Virgin Mobile, and Wirefly.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings study, which is available for purchase, examined the online experience of more than 2,000 prospective wireless phone customers as they interacted with these leading sites. The study captured more than 250+ metrics for each site and ranked the sites in dozens of categories including customer acquisition success, brand appeal and customer satisfaction.
Keynote's research approach examines both consumer attitudes and behavior to provide a detailed understanding of the impact that these sites have on customer experience and actions. This study was conducted during June 2006.
The Keynote Service Level Rankings study, also available for purchase, examined the technical performance of leading wireless phone provider sites, including overall site responsiveness and reliability. Keynote uses its proprietary Transaction Perspective measurement computers ("agents") to perform the actions of a consumer browsing and purchasing from leading wireless Web sites.
The agents performed transactions, collecting details of site performance and reliability during a one month period during which they collected over 6,500 data points and examined 40 key performance metrics for each site. Keynote analysts used these data points to rank the sites in the study on each of seven key performance factors, which are critical aspects of the operational excellence for wireless Web sites. The service level study was conducted during June and July 2006.
Amazon.com Tops the Wireless Market in Keynote Customer Experience Rankings
Amazon.com ranked as the top site among wireless phone provider sites in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings, an overall measure of customer experience and customer satisfaction across the more than 250+ metrics measured in the study.
The study found that Amazon's success was driven by its steadily strong performance across all areas of site experience including phone and plan searching and shopping processes, as well as in the check out or purchase process. Let's Talk was the top site in terms of customer satisfaction based on its plan and phone search and shopping process performance, and on its price clarity.
Verizon Wireless Tops Rankings for Site Reliability and Responsiveness
Verizon Wireless was the top site in terms of site responsiveness, an indication of how fast the sites were in downloading pages and executing transactions, and in site reliability, an indication the site was highly available and experienced little or no downtime, according to the Keynote Service Levels Rankings study.
The Keynote Service Level Rankings study reports that, as an industry, site availability dropped slightly from 2005 to 2006, and several sites showed major degradations in broadband performance, possibly due to the increasingly complex pages offered up to consumers. One of the sites studied reported a major issue in its checkout process; with almost a 10% average failure rate for customer's trying to complete the purchase transaction. Despite these concerns, the industry displayed relatively consistent performance.
Customer Experience Management
Keynote's customer experience management (CEM) services offer both competitive intelligence studies and custom engagement services examining best practices and consumer attitudes and behavior on the Web. To learn more about Keynote's CEM solutions, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/customer_experience_management.html.
Service Level Management
Keynote's service level management (SLM) solutions provide enterprises with the tools to align IT and e-business goals. To learn more about Keynote's SLM solutions, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/service_level_management.html.