• by Tanya Gazdik , July 5, 2011

The consumer business of big banks is at a crossroads. After years of deep freeze, many organizations are starting to ramp up consumer efforts online and consequently marketing in consumer banking is undergoing a big change, according to a report from Change Sciences.

The 73-page report evaluated the consumer experience of 14 bank websites in 2011, evaluating the use of social media, mobile support, the role of bank home and product pages, the use of video, and the role of product innovation.

Sites evaluated included those of Ally Bank , Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, EverBank. HSBC Direct, ING Direct, PNC Bank, PNC Virtual Wallet, SunTrust, US Bank and Wells Fargo.

PNC Virtual Wallet scored at the top in the overall site ranking, followed by EverBank, Ally Bank and ING Direct. Coming in at the bottom were Chase and SunTrust.

According to the report, the online-only consumer-direct banks (with the notable exception of PNC's Virtual Wallet) are currently doing the best job of connecting with consumers online. "Among the big national and regional banks, there are pockets of change (call them noble experiments) but they are not yet more than this," according to Steve Ellis, a Change Sciences principal and one of the authors of the study. "Transforming how they connect with consumers in a comprehensive way over the next few years will clearly be the big banks' opportunity to lose."

If consumers have been burned and are truly fed up with their banks, where is the impact on the balance sheet? Whether Ally and ING Direct really "threaten" the big banks isn't the issue, Ellis says. "Consumer banking is about marketing and how marketing gets done is changing. Banks like Ally and ING Direct are simply ahead in the consumer banking marketing game. What they have succeeded in doing (perhaps with the luxury of a blank slate) is engaging with customers online in a new and powerful way."

Social media and an always-on, always connected internet have radically changed the tone of business online, according to the report. Increasingly, consumers expect and demand accountability from the companies they do business with.