Hilton, Westin, and Lexus Have the Happiest Customers

In my previous two posts, I examined the link between happiness and loyalty and exposed happiness levels by consumer segments. Now I want to look at which companies have the most (and least) happy people as customers. We did not ask if the people were happy with the company, just if they were happy in general. The companies probably have little influence on the overall happiness of their customers, but there is still a gap across companies.

I examined 249 companies that had at least 100 consumer responses and identified the average “net happiness” ratings for their customers. The “net happiness” is the percentage of people who agree that they are typically happy minus the percentage that disagee with that assessment. The overall “net happiness” for the U.S. is 66% (74% are happy and 8% are unhappy).

Here’s what we found:

• Hilton, Westin, Lexus, Alamo, Hertz, and Courtyard By Marriott have the happiest customers
• Medicaid, TracFone, Virgin Mobile, 21st Century and EarthLink have the least happy customers
• The “net happiness” scores range from 56% to 82%

My take: Since our previous analysis shows that wealthier people are more happy, we’d expect companies that serve wealthier consumers to have higher happiness ratings. So it’s no surprise that there are a number of upscale brands at the top and Medicaid at the bottom. But what does this mean for a company?

Since happy people are more loyal, the companies that attract happier customers will have a disproportionate advantage in building loyalty. Also, I would imagine that it will tend to be more pleasant to work as a front-line employee at companies that serve happier customers.

The bottom line: I’d rather work in the front-lines for Hilton and Westin than for Medicaid