-- Edmunds Improves Service Levels and Customer Perceptions Rise
-- Kelley Blue Book's Brand is Strong, Competitors Have Low Brand Awareness
-- Cars.com Wins Over Customers with Strong Vehicle Search Function
-- Auto Sites for Leading Search Engines Trail Pure Third Party Sites
New competitive intelligence from Keynote Systems , The Internet Performance Authority(R), shows a tight race in the online automobile sales and information industry, with Edmunds.com edging out Kelley Blue Book as the top ranked site in the industry based on its strong improvements in site performance and service levels.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Third Party Auto Sites is based on an examination of 2,000 prospective car buyers as they searched and performed tasks on third party auto sales and information sites, which are operated independently of manufacturers. The Autobytel.com, Automotive.com, AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, CarsDirect.com, Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book, MSN Autos, Vehix.com and Yahoo! Autos Web sites were examined during the study.
Keynote ranked the auto sales sites in terms of their online customer experience based on an analysis of 250+ metrics measured during the study, including evaluation of the vehicle search process, vehicle comparison functions and the views and information available on the site.
Keynote Customer Experience Rankings
3rd Party Auto Web Sites
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1 Edmunds.com
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2 Kelley Blue Book
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3 Cars.com
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Edmunds.com, which trails Kelley Blue Book in brand awareness, edges out the well-known auto sales and information site in terms of the online customer experience primarily because it avoids performance problems and errors with the site, which can frustrate prospective customers. Some of the company's primary competitors experience performance problems, such as long page load times or errors, which cause their standing with customers to dip.
"The top three auto sites are relatively competitive with each other in terms of the online customer experience and customer conversion," said Dr. Bonny Brown, director of research and public services for Keynote. "However, Edmunds.com edges out its leading competitors based on strong user perceptions of its site performance. Service levels always play a role in customer perceptions, but we see a particularly heavy influence in the auto sales and information industry."
"As auto sites increasingly rely on video and Flash, and provide content-heavy and rich internet applications to attract customers, site performance will increasingly need to be monitored to ensure an error free experience for the customer," said Ben Rushlo, manager of professional services with Keynote.
Edmunds.com also performed strongly in the vehicle comparison function and in the vehicle views and information categories. Kelley Blue Book performed relatively well across all categories measured in the study, but particularly well in the overall design and organization of its site, as well as on vehicle availability, views and information. Cars.com bested its competitors in the vehicle search function and in the vehicle advertising process.
Vehix.com was notable in its strong overall improvement since the last wave of the Keynote study conducted just under a year ago. The site, which redesigned its home page in the past year, saw a significant jump in the home page appeal category, and in the overall design and organization of its site.
The leading independently branded auto sales sites -- Edmunds.com, Kelley Blue Book and Cars.com -- all outperformed the auto sites of the leading search engine brands. However, Yahoo! Autos had a relatively strong showing, receiving a strong overall customer satisfaction ranking.
The leading independently branded auto sales and information sites also had stronger positive brand perceptions than those sites operated by the search engine companies. Overall brand awareness in the third party auto industry is very low, with only Kelley Blue Book starting out with strong brand perceptions. Approximately 70% of the prospective car buyers in the study had a positive brand perception of that company prior to testing the site, a likely result of Kelley Blue Book's well-known off-line publication.
Once prospective customers test-drive the leading sites, their brand perceptions skyrocket, with Yahoo! Autos jumping 57%; MSN Autos jumping 54% and Cars.com jumping 52% in positive brand perception once prospects test-drove their sites.
"Kelley Blue Book clearly has the strongest brand in the industry, but the perceptions of competitor brands, especially Yahoo! Autos, MSN Autos and Cars.com, greatly improve once consumers test-drive their sites," said Dr. Brown. "These sites should rev their marketing engines to get prospective buyers to their sites. It will certainly pay off in brand perceptions and sales leads."
In the race to attract new customers, Edmunds leads with 70% of prospective customers seeing it as the site that "has tools that make vehicle research easier." Kelley Blue Book is the second best site at converting browsers into sales leads, and out paces its competitors as the site consumers trust and see as having a good reputation; 55% of study participants say they trust Kelley Blue Book, a figure nearly twice the industry average. Cars.com ranks third in the customer conversion category, and 60% of customers feel its pricing information is detailed and up to date, a figure significantly above the 47% industry average. More than two-thirds (71%) of Yahoo! Autos users say that site is easy to use, propelling that site to the fourth position in prospective customer conversion.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Third Party Auto Sites provides in-depth competitive analysis of the online auto sales and information industry and contains hundreds of additional data points, as well as a detailed analysis of study findings. For an abstract reviewing the study please contact Dan Berkowitz at dberkowitz@keynote.com.
Customer Experience Management
Keynote's customer experience management (CEM) services offer both competitive intelligence studies and custom engagement services examining 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
For more information about Keynote's Competitive Intelligence offerings view: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/competitive_intelligence_tpl.html
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote Systems (Nasdaq "KEYN") is the worldwide leader in services that improve online business performance and communications technologies. Keynote helps approximately 2,300 corporate customers and 13,000 individual subscribers become "the best of the best" online. The business premise supporting Keynote's mission is: "Online businesses can't manage what they don't measure." As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with unbiased benchmarking data, competitive analysis and operational metrics from the customer perspective. This data measures service levels and customer experience of Web sites, broadband services and mobile communications.
Known as The Internet Performance Authority(R), Keynote manages a market-leading infrastructure of 1,600+ measurement computers and mobile devices in over 114 locations and 66+ metropolitan areas worldwide that assess service levels and a panel of over 160,000 consumers who participate in interactive Web site tests that assess user experience. These online user experience tests capture customer attitude and behavior to answer the critical "why" behind the "what." Keynote's geographically distributed measurement services, on-site monitoring appliances, competitive intelligence and custom studies ensure that its customers outpace their competitors in online service levels and overall user experience.
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 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2006 Keynote Systems, Inc.