2014 - Online Brokerage - Service Level Index Review
Credential Direct provided the quickest customer service responses in 2014 amongst Canadian online discount brokerage firms dethroning Qtrade Investor who had won the past two years. The results indicated that online brokerage customers are being better serviced than online banking customers, as the tip five brokerage firms respond over 2 hours quicker than online banking firms. Surviscor reviews the majority of Canadian Online Discount Brokerage firms.
View the 2014 Online Banking Results
Surviscor's Service Level Assessment Program, formerly known as the Customer Email Responsiveness (CER) Program, determines an online firm’s ability to efficiently respond to customer, or potential customer enquiries via the public customer contact forms and available email addresses. The assessment reviewed 178 service records and produced a Service Level Index per correspondence based on the hours to respond in relation to the industry peer group.
Surviscor's Response Standards have been developed based upon the total response times. The Surviscor Response Standards are:
- Platinum - Less than 2 hours
- Gold - 2 to 4 hours
- Silver - 4 to 8 hours
- Bronze - 8 to 12 hours
Credential Direct was the only firm to be awarded a Platinum Response Standard. Qtrade Investor and Scotia iTRADE attained Gold with Desjardins Online Brokerage, National Bank Direct Brokerage and TD Direct Investing were awarded Silver. There were no Bronze level firms.
THE PROCESS
The SLA Program delivers the customer service enquiries to all firms within minutes of each other. Surviscor captures the following information for each correspondence:
- All text wording transmitted between 'mystery shopper' and industry firm
- Date and Time of the transmission - Consistent for all firms
- Date and Time of the actual response to the question
- Accuracy of the actual response
- Date and Time of a firm's Auto-Response - If used
- Did the firm meet its Response Guideline - The stated guarantee of time to respond
Next Analysis: 2015 Year In Review - January 2016