Sam’s Club and Amazon Deliver Best Customer Experience in Retail

This post examines the 24 retailers included in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings.

Sam’s Club was the top rated company across all industries and only one of eight organizations with an “excellent” rating. Five other retailers were in the top 20 positions in the overall rankings: Amazon.com (#10), Target (#14), Walgreens (#14), BJs Wholesale Club (#18), and Lowe’s (#18).

The retail industry received the third highest average customer experience rating, falling only behind grocery chains and fast food restaurants. Despite the strong performance of the industry, one retailer, RadioShack, earned a “poor” rating while seven other retailers at the bottom of the list received “okay” ratings: Office Depot, eBay, Barnes & Noble, Sears, Kmart, Best Buy, and Macy’s. The remaining retailers earned “good” ratings.

While most industries showed improvement between 2011 and 2012, retailers were one of four industries that registered a slight decline. Sam’s Club and Toys “R” Us are the only two retailers with more than a five-point increase in their ratings between 2011 and 2012. Kohl’s and Costco are the only two retailers with more than a five-point decrease in their ratings between 2011 and 2012.

Do you want to see the data? Go to the Temkin Ratings website where you can sort through all of the results for free. You can even purchase the underlying data if you want to get more access.

The bottom line: There’s a wide gap between good and bad in retail CX