New data has revealed the lender websites that best connect with home loan customers.
A Home Loans Industry Digital Marketing & Sales Effectiveness Report by Global Reviews shows the RAMS website offered consumers the best experience while they were considering a home loan.
ING Direct came second, followed by St George Bank and
ANZ.
The four specific stages of consideration are initial engagement; introducing options; evaluating options; and facilitating decisions.
The benchmark tracks the customers’ journey, across key brands in the financial services sector, from their initial engagement with the website through to completing the application form.
“If consumers can’t see a solid reason to pursue their research with a brand, they soon move onto the next website,” Global Reviews regional commercial director Ché Carbis said.
Research showed on average, one in six consumers move to the next home loan website if they encounter a problem.
“This means there is a great deal of room for improvement relative to the other products offered by the financial services sector,” said Carbis.
The study showed 29% of customers said they would generally research and consider three brands and a further 19% researching five brands.
“Brand awareness and loyalty can only go so far - our research shows it needs to be backed by a website that’s easy to use,” Mr Carbis said.
Potential consumers were most impressed with lenders that had good interest rates/offers (47%); a comparing options tool (30%); they trusted the companies (29%); products/offers were easy to understand (29%); and the website helped them find products/services quickly (29%).
“It’s the prospective behaviour that you don’t generally get to see that needs to be implemented in the development of a better online customer experience,” said Mr Carbis.
