"We are pleased to end the year on such a high note in terms of customer service and loyalty," said Ken Thompson, chairman and CEO of Wachovia Corporation. "The results we've seen are a testament to the investment Wachovia has made in becoming a customer service leader in our industry."
Wachovia based its year-end assessment on customer service and loyalty scores from surveys conducted for the company by a leading independent research firm. In November, Wachovia earned a loyalty score of 51.7 percent, which is the highest on record for the company. In addition, Wachovia's customer service scores continued to trend upward, and in 2006 the company attained its highest customer service scores to date.
Wachovia also was recognized for providing exceptional customer service across the company's businesses by several outside organizations. Accolades include:
- Wachovia scored higher than its banking industry peers for the fifth consecutive year in the 2005 University of Michigan Business School's American Customer Satisfaction Index.
- Wachovia won the 2006 Brandweek Customer Loyalty Award for the second year in a row.
- Change Science magazine's benchmarking report for 2005 ranked Wachovia No. 1 in online customer experience.
- In September, Consumer Reports magazine ranked Wachovia first among major banks in overall customer satisfaction and third overall among all banks surveyed for personal banking.
- In July, the Corporate and Investment Bank was named Best Investment Bank in the Global Real Estate sector by Global Finance magazine— based on business results, reputation, management excellence and innovation.
- Wealth Management was recognized by Private Asset Management, a publication of Institutional Investor, as its 2006 Platform Provider of the Year.
"While 2006 has been an outstanding year from the perspective of customer service, we still have a lot of work ahead of us," said Gwynne Whitley, head of Corporate Customer Service Excellence. "Our goal is to have loyal customers— customers so satisfied they will be with us for life and will refer Wachovia to their friends and family. Through our focus on customer loyalty, we will continue to deliver the highest value to our customers and shareholders."
About Wachovia
Wachovia Corporation (NYSE:WB) is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, providing a broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services. Including the Golden West merger, which closed on October 1, 2006, Wachovia has retail and commercial banking operations in 21 states with 3,400 retail banking offices from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California. In addition, two core businesses operate under the Wachovia Securities brand name: retail brokerage with 737 offices in 49 states and in Latin America, and corporate and investment banking in selected industries nationwide. Other nationwide businesses include mortgage lending in 39 states and auto finance covering 46 states. Globally, Wachovia serves clients through more than 40 international offices. Online banking is available at wachovia.com; online brokerage products and services at wachoviasec.com, and investment products and services at evergreeninvestments.com. At September 30, 2006, Wachovia had assets of $559.9 billion and market capitalization of $88.2 billion. On the same date, based on pro forma data, Wachovia's combined assets were approximately $700 billion and combined market capitalization was $107 billion.