Publix, Trader Joe's, Aldi, and Chick-fil-A Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings, Published by Temkin Group

WABAN, Mass., Feb. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, Publix and Trader Joe's earned the highest scores in the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings, ranking 246 companies across 19 industries. Joining those firms in the top 12 spots are Aldi, Chick-fil-A, Amazon.com, Sam's Club, H.E.B., Dunkin' Donuts, Save-a-Lot, Sonic Drive-In, Little Caeser's, and Ace Hardware.

While grocery chains, fast food chains, and retailers dominate the top of the Temkin Experience Ratings, health plans earn the dubious distinction of defining poor performance, taking seven of the 15 lowest spots. The five lowest scoring organizations are: US Airways, Time Warner Cable, Days Inn, Empire BCBS, and 21st Century.

In this year's ratings, 37% of companies earned "good" or "excellent" scores, while 28% are rated as "poor" or "very poor." Companies with at least a "good" rating grew by nine percentage points since 2012 and by 21 points since 2011. Of the 203 companies that are included in both the 2012 and 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings, 57% firms had at least a modest increase. The companies that made the largest improvement over 2012 are Citibank, TriCare, TD Ameritrade, Office Depot, EarthLink, Hardees, and Regions Bank.

"It's wonderful to see that customer experience is improving, although many companies still have a long way to go," states Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.

In its third year of publication, the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings examines customer experience across 19 industries: airlines, appliance makers, auto dealers, banks, car rental agencies, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, grocery chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, retailers, software firms, TV service providers, and wireless carriers.

The Temkin Experience Ratings evaluates three areas of customer experience: functional (can customers do what they want to do?), accessible (how easy is it to work with the company?), and emotional (how do consumers feel about their interactions?).

Here are some additional findings from the research:

• The companies with ratings that most outperform their industry averages are TriCare (health plans), USAA (insurance), credit unions (banks), Kaiser Permanente (health plans), Advantage (rental cars), AOL (Internet services), USAA (banks), Marriott (hotels), Charles Schwab (investment firms), and Alaska Airlines (airlines).
• The companies with ratings that most underperform their industry averages are Days Inn (hotels), RadioShack (retailers), 21st Century (insurance carriers), US Airways (airlines), Motel 6 (hotels), HSBC (banks), Morgan Stanley (investment firms), Apple Store (retailers), and HSBC (credit cards).
• Leaders in functional experience are Publix, Trader Joe's, and Costco. Laggards are Dollar and US Airways.
• The leader in accessible experience is Ace Hardware. Laggards are Medicaid, Days Inn and US Airways.
• The leader in emotional experience is Publix. Laggards are Time Warner Cable and US Airways.
• Of the 18 industries that were in both this year's and last year's ratings, 11 earned higher scores in 2013. Wireless carriers improved the most, while appliances declined the most.

The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings along with other ratings can be accessed at the Temkin Ratings website, www.TemkinRatings.com.

The report "2013 Temkin Experience Ratings" can be downloaded for free from the Customer Experience Matters® blog, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, www.TemkinGroup.com.

About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is widely recognized as a leading customer experience research and consulting firm. Many of the world's largest brands rely on its insights and advice to steer their transformational journeys. Temkin Group combines customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of organizations to help accelerate results. Rather than layering on cosmetic changes, Temkin Group helps companies embed practices within their culture by building four critical competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. The firm's ongoing research identifies leading and emerging best practices across a wide range of activities for engaging the hearts and minds of customers, employees, and partners. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email to [email protected].

Customer experience matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.

This press release was issued through eReleases® Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Temkin Group

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