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| Design and Organization Most Important Aspects of Overall Customer Experience for 3rd Party Auto Seller Websites - Latest Research from Keynote Systems Reveals |
SAN MATEO, Calif., May 05, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN), today announced the results of the Keynote Competitive Research Industry Study examining U.S. Third-Party Auto websites. In the 2011 U.S. Third-Party Auto study Cars.com took first place for Best Overall Customer Experience and eBay Motors came in first for Best Overall Technical Quality. The entire study is available for immediate purchase. To request more information please visit: http://bit.ly/thirdpartyauto. Winners of Keynote Competitive Research studies are invited to participate in the company's Online Excellence Program which recognizes the "best of the best" websites as ranked in the studies. The rankings are based on responses from real users, who were observed as they accomplished tasks on each of the sites studied, as well as real data collected through Keynote website monitoring to assess the technical quality of the sites. For each study, Keynote recognizes the companies with the overall top ranking, as well as those exhibiting excellence in specific categories. For the 'Customer Experience' portion of the study, Keynote observed and conducted online interviews with 2,000 prospective auto buyers (a mix of those considering purchasing a new vehicle, purchasing a used vehicle, or purchasing a new and/or used vehicle) as they interacted with the websites of a total of 10 leading Third-Party Auto sites (200 people per site): AOL Autos, Automotive.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, eBay Motors, Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book, MSN Autos, Vehix.com and Yahoo! Autos. For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, Keynote performed 5,000 total measurements for each site, for a total of 50,000 total measurements, from 12 locations in the U.S. Keynote Competitive Research produces leading industry research using the company's commercially available Web performance monitoring and real user experience testing products. Keynote regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, technical quality (responsiveness/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading websites across a wide variety of vertical markets including financial services, automotive, media/entertainment, retail, travel and technology. More Information about the Customer Experience Rankings for US Third-Party Auto Websites For the 'Customer Experience component of the study, Keynote sent 200 U.S. resident Internet users to each of the 10 websites. The online panelists evaluated the website's home page and then researched and compared different makes and models. Panelists then searched for and priced a specific new vehicle and a specific used vehicle of interest, selecting for features, options, and any other criteria important to them. Finally, they were asked toassume they wanted to sell their current vehicle online and start the process of creating a listing for their vehicle on each site, going as far as possible with the process without entering in a credit card number. The study revealed that when tested by actual users Cars.com offers the strongest Overall Customer Experience, placing first in all three indices from which Keynote derives its Overall Customer Experience rankings -- Brand Impact, Conversion Impact and Customer Satisfaction. Other key findings include:
"Based on our analysts' observations and interviews with our panel of real online users, our 2011 study of US Third-Party Auto websites revealed that a well-designed, well-organized site can have a major impact on potential car buyers and sellers overall customer experience, driving both brand perception and overall conversion outcomes," said Christopher Musto, general manager of the Keynote Competitive Research group at Keynote. "With this knowledge in mind, it's clear that customers appreciate the clean design and functionality of the Cars.com website." More Information about theTechnical Quality Rankingsin the U.S. Third-Party Auto Website Study In addition to evaluating customer experience with its panel of actual users, the Keynote study also examined two broad aspects of technical quality: responsiveness and reliability. Responsiveness comprises: high speed response, DSL (midband) response, response time consistency, geographic uniformity and load handling, while reliability is comprised of availability and outages. For the 'Technical Quality' portion of the study, using measurement computers located in 12 cities across the U.S., Keynote measured a typical transaction of starting at the site's home page, searching for a new vehicle to research and ending at pages with specific vehicle details. Based on the thousands of transactions monitored over the course of the study, eBay Motors came in first for Responsiveness (or speed), and tied with Yahoo! Autos for Reliability to earn first place for Overall Technical Quality. "Based on tens of thousands of measured transactions that Keynote performed for this study eBay Motors set the standard for technical excellence, outpacing the rest of the competition in our Responsiveness rankings and scoring a perfect 1000 on our Reliability scale," said Ben Rushlo, director of performance management at Keynote. In order to collect the Technical Quality data Keynote used its Transaction Perspective(R) product, the leading real browser-based service for measuring and monitoring website performance from the end user perspective. With Keynote Transaction Perspective the company examines website performance from multiple geographic locations by simulating users clicking through transactions on a website. Keynote collected more than 5,000 data points that detailed each of the sites' technical performance in terms of page responsiveness and reliability. The study is available for purchase from Keynote and comes with extensive analysis of brand impact, acquisition impact, reliability and responsiveness and the factors that drive sites' performance in these areas. Clients will receive an executive presentation, extensive back-up charts and illustrations, and online access to all clickstreams, verbatims, question responses and panel facts for all panelists at all sites for all tasks and can download and use this data in their own research. To inquire about a copy, please visit us online at: http://bit.ly/thirdpartyauto. Follow Keynote on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/KeynoteSystems and www.twitter.com/Keynote_Mobile About Keynote Keynote Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN) is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring. We provide companies with solutions for continuously improving the online experience. Founded in 1995, Keynote delivers testing, monitoring and measurement products and services for any enterprise including online portals, e-commerce sites, B2B sites, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure providers. Keynote products and services help companies improve customer experience in four areas: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and real user experience testing. Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority(TM), Keynote has a market-leading on-demand infrastructure of over 3,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 275 locations around the world. Keynote's 2,800 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 1-800-KEYNOTE. Keynote(R), DataPulse(R), CustomerScope(R), Keynote CE Rankings(R), Keynote Customer Experience Rankings(R), Perspective(R), Keynote Red Alert(R), Keynote Traffic Perspective(R), Keynote WebEffective(R), The Internet Performance Authority(R), MyKeynote(R), SIGOS(R), SITE(R), Keynote(TM), The Mobile & Internet Performance Authority(TM) and Keynote FlexUse(TM) are trademarks or registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2011 Keynote Systems, Inc. SOURCE: Keynote Systems Keynote Systems, Inc. |