The Customer Experience Shift From Centralized To Federated

In the report, The Federated Customer Experience Model, we discuss the direction that mature CX organizations will eventually go in—distributing CX capabilities across the organization.  It’s built on three components: CX Centers of Excellence, Enterprise CX Coordination, and Distributed CX Skills and Mindset.

Federation is not just a path for customer experience, it’s a common path for successful transformation within large organizations. Here’s why:

• Changing an organization requires a concerted effort to define the desired end state, and to align the resources and commitment to drive change. This requires a centralized model.
• Embedding behaviors in an organization requires distributed capabilities and beliefs, which needs to be disbursed and cultivated. This requires a federated model.

The bottom line: Centralized CX success leads to federated sustainability.

Report: 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors

We just published a Temkin Group report 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors that rates the customer experience of 62 large tech vendors based on a survey of 800 IT decision makers from large North American firms. This is the fifth year of the ratings, here are links to the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 ratings.

Here is the executive summary of the report:

The 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates the customer experience of 62 large technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision-makers from large companies regarding three components – success, effort, and emotion – of their experiences with these IT providers. Out of all the vendors we looked at, HPE outsourcing, IBM SPSS, and Google earned the highest ratings, while Capgemini, Infosys, and Accenture received the lowest ratings. The average score for the Ratings dropped by one percentage-point over the past year, down from 59% in 2015 to 58% this year. Furthermore, our research shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are strongly correlated with multiple elements of loyalty behavior, including likelihood of repurchasing from the company, likelihood of recommending the company, likelihood of trying new products, and likelihood of forgiving the company if it makes a mistake.

This product has a report (.pdf) and a dataset (excel). The dataset has the details of the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, including all three components, for the 62 tech vendors as well as data on customers’ likelihood to repurchase from the vendors, their 2016 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, and their 2016 Temkin Innovation Equity Quotient. It also includes a summary of the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings, likelihood to repurchase, and Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.

Download for $695, includes report (.pdf) and data file (.xls)

The Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates three areas of customer experience: success (can customers achieve what they want to do), effort (how easy is it for customers to do what they want to do), and emotion (how do customers feel about their interaction). Here are the overall results:

Report: ROI of Customer Experience, 2016

We published a Temkin Group report, ROI of Customer Experience, 2016. This research shows that CX is highly correlated to loyalty across 20 industries. Here’s the executive summary:

To understand the connection between customer experience (CX) and loyalty, we examined feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers that describes both their experiences with and their loyalty to different companies. To examine the CX component, we used the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings (TxR), which evaluated 294 companies. Our analysis shows that there’s a very large correlation between companies’ TxR and the willingness of customers to purchase more from them. This connection holds true for other areas of customer loyalty as well. We used this data to calculate the revenue impact of CX across 20 industries. We found that a moderate increase in CX generates an average revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues. Rental car agencies have the most to gain from improving CX ($967 million), while utilities have the least to gain ($645 million). While all three components of customer experience¬—success, effort, and emotion—have a strong effect on loyalty, our research shows that emotion is the most important element. When compared with companies with very poor CX, companies with very good CX have a 16.7 percentage-point advantage in customers who are willing to purchase more from them, 16.7 percentage-point advantage in customers who trust them, 10.3 percentage-point advantage in customers willing to forgive them if they make a mistake, and 7.1 percentage-point advantage in customers who are willing to try their new products. Additionally, companies with very good CX ratings have an average Net Promoter Score that is 22 points higher than the scores of companies with poor CX. We recommend that you build your own CX ROI models, using our five-step approach for guidance.

Download report for $295

This is one of the figures in the report, and it shows the high correlation between Temkin Experience Ratings (customer experience) and purchase intentions for 294 companies across 20 industries:
Here’s an excerpt from the graphic showing the three year impact on revenues for a $1 billion company in 20 different industries:

Download report for $295

To see the customer experience levels of all 294 companies, download to the free 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings report.

P.S. Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld.

Temkin Experience Ratings Overview

Temkin Experience Ratings (TxR) is an open standard for measuring customer experience. It’s based on evaluating the three elements of every customer experience: success, effort, and emotion. TxR is one of several Temkin Ratings, all of which can be accessed from the Temkin Ratings website. 

Temkin Group has been publishing its TxR benchmark since 2011. This data allows you to compare customer experience of companies within an industry, as well as across different industries. The most recent TxR covers nearly 300 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

We publish a free research report with the results every year:

• 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings
• 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings

This video provides an overview of TxR:

 

Measuring the Temkin Experience Ratings

The TxR is based on asking individual questions for Success, Effort, and Emotion.

For each of these questions, we take the percentage of consumers who select 6 or 7, and subtract the percentage who select 1, 2, or 3. That gives each company a rating for Success, Effort, and Emotion. The overall Temkin Experience Ratings for each company is the average of those three scores.

You can access this data from the Temkin Ratings website (TemkinRatings.com):

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• How do you select the industries? Temkin Group selects industries that it believes will showcase a wide breadth of customer experience. The industries need to have at least a few players large enough to be included in our published ratings. Every year we re-examine our list of industries. In 2017, for instance, we combined TV & Internet service providers into a single category and added streaming media services.
• How can we get our company included in the ratings? Temkin Group does not look for, nor accept, requests for inclusion in the ratings. We select the companies that we believe are most likely to have at least 100 respondents, which is our minimum level for inclusion in our published research and data.
• How much does it cost to participate? Nothing. Temkin Group does not charge companies to participate in any of the Temkin Ratings. We also do not solicit companies to “help them” improve their ratings. the only way to improve your ratings is to focus on improving your customer experience. Temkin Group can certainly help in that area, but we make no promises about what will happen to any company’s scores.
• Why does Temkin Group publish the Temkin Ratings? Our goal is to shine a bright light on the state of customer experience (and other areas for other ratings). We feel that the best way to do that is to provide a fully independent, data-centric benchmark that cuts across industries, and to make the results freely available to the public. You can download a free copy of the Temkin Experience Ratings report of see all of the results on theTemkin Ratings website.
• Our company did well in the ratings, can we publicize the results? Yes, as long as you follow our guidelines.  We even have badges that you can use if your company is in the top 10% overall or the leader in one of our 20 industries.
• How do you get the survey respondents? We purchase access to online consumer panels from third party firms, and they ensure that we get the required responses. We set quotas to make sure that our total base of respondents mirrors the U.S. census distribution for age, gender, income, ethnicity, and region. We do not get customer contact information from companies, but instead ask consumers to identify the companies that they’ve interacted with during the previous 60 days.
• How do you calculate the ratings? We asked consumers to rate three components of the experience, Success, Effort, and Emotion, on a 7-point scale. For each component, we take the percentage of consumers that gave a rating of 6 or 7 and subtract the percentage that gave a rating of 1, 2, or 3. This results in a “net goodness” rating for each of the three components. The overall Temkin Experience Rating is an average of the three “net goodness” percentages.
• Why don’t you weight the components (success, effort, emotion)? If we started to add weightings to the components, then it would appear as if one is more important than the others. All three elements are part of consumers’ overall experience.
• We’re a <name the industry>, should we really worry about emotion? Yes! We get asked this for many industries, most often from health plans and TV service providers. First of all, if you’re one of those firms, I’m confident that you have an opportunity to improve across all three dimensions of customer experience. Instead of thinking about trying to reach the positive emotion ratings of other industries, it might be good to eliminate some of the negative emotions you deliver.
• Isn’t it unfair to rate our company with retailers and supermarkets, since our interactions are more complicated? No! Consumers develop their expectations for customer experience based on their interactions with a large variety of companies across many industries. The Temkin Experience Ratings provides an opportunity to compare companies’ customer experience with their industry peers as well as with companies from other industries.
• Why do TV service providers, Internet service providers, and health plans get such low ratings? There are some industries that have habitually poor customer experience. In many of the cases, these problem stems from some form of monopolistic power. TV service providers and Internet service providers have carved out regions and have limited competition, while health plans have created monopolies for employees through their contracts with employers. The good news: In most of these cases, these monopoly powers are being challenged by structural changes and new competitors.
• How can I get data from previous years? You can download our free report for each year of the Temkin Experience Ratings. Here are links to the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 ratings. You can also see all of the data at the Temkin Ratings website, and there are links to previous years ratings as well. You can also purchase the datasets for each year if you want to see more of the details.

11 Customer Experience Trends for 2016 (The Year of Emotion)

It’s once again the time of year for me to publish my CX trends. In my post last year I named 2015 “The Year of Employee.” With this post, I’m declaring 2016 “The Year of Emotion.”

In the upcoming year, CX will continue to grow in importance for companies and an even larger number of organizations will begin their CX journeys. In this environment, we expect to see:

1. Culture Change Intensifying. Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” We agree and believe that customer experience is a reflection an organization’s culture and operating processes. As you can see in our video Driving CX Transformation, customer-centric culture requires mastering four CX core competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness. We saw a surge of interest in the topic of culture in 2015, and we expect even more executives to begin the long-term journey of culture change in 2016.
2. Effort Metric Expanding. Every interaction has three components: Success, Effort, and Emotion. Companies have started to use versions of an “effort” score as a key CX metric, because it provides a good mechanism for identifying areas of improvement. We expect this trend to intensify, and for effort to become a more mainstream topic next year. See the 2015 Temkin Effort Ratings.
3. Customer Journey Designing. Customer journey mapping has become one of the most popular CX tools as it helps provide a customer-oriented viewpoint. While many of these efforts have been heavily focused on isolated mapping events, we expect to see companies use the lessons from CJM to drive more decisions and changes across their organizations. As this happens, we recommend that more companies adopt what we call Customer Journey Thinking©.
4. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile… Continuing. Mobile continues to become a more dominant interaction channel… and through increasingly varied types of devices. In 2016, we expect more companies to get beyond the basic level of making mobile-friendly websites and launching mobile apps. Organizations will rethink their offerings and operating processes, baking in assumptions that customers and employees are continuously connected.
5. Speech Analytics Piloting. As companies get comfortable using text analytics and collecting customer insights from unstructured data, they often focus on their largest interaction dataset: contact center calls. While the technology has limited the use of speech analytics in the past, we believe 2016 will be the tipping point and expect to see a flutter of companies with speech analytics pilots.
6. Predictive Analytics Personalizing. As companies connect rich customer feedback with reams of CRM and operational data, the value of predictive modeling will rise exponentially. In 2016, we expect to see firms that have built data hubs over the last few years investing in predictive modeling and using the insights to develop a more personalized treatment of customers.
7. Metrics to Action Realigning. Voice of the customer programs (including NPS), are a mainstream component of most CX programs. But these efforts overly focus on collecting data at the expense of taking action on the insights. The problem stems from a desire to measure and track everything, which ends up consuming much of VoC teams’ capacity and budget. Next year we expect an increasing number of companies to shift their emphasis from tracking metrics to enabling action. As this occurs, they will lower their reliance on multiple-choice ratings scales to focus more on unstructured sources (comments, contact center interactions, etc.) and will increase their use of more qualitative techniques such as customer interviews and ethnography.
8. Value-as-a-Service Emerging. As consumers get comfortable with companies like Uber and AirBnB and use more iTunes apps and cloud-based applications, they are being trained to pay for things as they need them. The notion of buying something that you may or may not use in the future is becoming outdated. In 2016, we expect this consumer behavior to push more companies to break apart their offerings into bite-sized pieces. As this happens companies will need to earn loyalty more frequently and ensure that customers get value from the things that they purchase.
9. Employee CX & Empathy Training. As more companies roll out their CX change efforts, we expect to see them look for ways to train large groups of employees – to teach them basic CX concepts and to instill a sense of customer empathy. Why? Because more firms realize that sustainable CX success requires engaging employees — not simply introducing processes changes and expecting “blind” compliance. In 2016, the need for this training will grow rapidly, and CX professionals will respond by working with their training departments and outside consultants.
10. CX Profession Maturing. Customer experience has come a long way over the last few years, as CX practitioners have shared lessons learned and improved upon best practices. Nothing illustrates this maturity better than the Customer Experience Professionals Association and the increasing number of Certified Customer Experience Professionals. As this trend continues, we expect to see CX professionals become more focused on helping their organizations achieve business and brand objectives. This will change their role from experts of tools to collaborators of change.
11. Emotion Arising. Our research shows that emotion is the component of customer experience that has the largest impact on loyalty, but it is also the area where companies are least adept and often seemingly ignore. Over the past few years, neuroscience and behavioral science research has begun to fuel new techniques for affecting human emotions. In 2016, we expect to see a major jump in the number of companies that discuss, measure, and design for emotion. It will also become a hot topic at CX conferences.

The bottom line: Happy 2016, and enjoy the Year of Emotion!

Report: 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors

We just published a Temkin Group report 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors that rates the customer experience of 62 large tech vendors based on a survey of 800 IT decision makers from large North American firms. This is the fourth year of the ratings, here are links to the 2012, 2013, and 2014 ratings.

Here is the executive summary of the report:

The 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates the customer experience of 62 large technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision makers from large companies on the success, effort, and emotion components of their experiences with these IT providers. IBM SPSS and Intel earned the top ratings, while Cognizant and BMC were at the other end of the spectrum with the lowest ratings. The average score this year, 59%, represents a six percentage-point increase over last year and is the highest score achieved since the ratings’ inception in 2012. Our research also shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are strongly correlated with elements of loyalty, such as repurchasing, Net Promoter Score, innovation success, and forgiveness.

This product has a report (.pdf) and a dataset (excel). The dataset has the details of the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings, including all three components, for the 62 tech vendors as well as data on customers’ likelihood to repurchase from the vendors, their 2015 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, and their 2015 Temkin Innovation Equity Quotient. It also includes a summary of the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, likelihood to repurchase, and Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.

Download for $695, includes report (.pdf) and data file (.xls)

The Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates three areas of customer experience: success (can customers achieve what they want to do), effort (how easy is it for customers to do what they want to do), and emotion (how do customers feel about their interaction). Here are the overall results:

Other highlights from the research:

• The top seven firms earned “good” Temkin Experience Ratings, which is a score of 70% or higher. IBM SPSS topped the list with a score of 76%, followed by Intel Corporation with 74%, IBM Software (not SPSS), with72%, and HP Outsourcing with 71%.
• The lowest rated tech vendor is Cognizant with a score of 32%, and it is the only company to earn a rating lower than 40%. Seven other firms have ratings of 45% or below: BMC, Wipro, Hitachi, ADP, Deloitte, Capgemini, and CA Technologies.
• The average Temkin Experience Ratings across all of the tech vendors is 59%, which is jump from 53% last year. It is the also the highest level over the four years of the study.
• Success has the highest average rating of 64%, effort is next at 61%, and emotion has the lowest rating, 52%.
• The analysis shows a high correlation between technology vendors’ customer experience ratings and a number of areas of loyalty. Compared with companies in the bottom quartile of the ratings, tech vendors in the upper quartile have a 15 percentage point advantage in customers who are likely to repurchase from them, a 25 percentage point advantage in the number of customer who are likely to try a new offering right away, a 19 percentage pint advantage in customers who are willing to forgive them if they make a mistake, and a 31 point Net Promoter® Score advantage.

This product has a report (.pdf) and a dataset (excel). The dataset has the details of the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings, including all three components, for the 62 tech vendors as well as data on customers’ likelihood to repurchase from the vendors, their 2015 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, and their 2015 Temkin Innovation Equity Quotient. It also includes a summary of the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, likelihood to repurchase, and Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.

[Download sample of data file (.xls)]

Download for $695, includes report (.pdf) and data file (.xls)

Report: ROI of Customer Experience, 2015

We published a Temkin Group report, ROI of Customer Experience, 2015. This research shows that CX is highly correlated to loyalty across 20 industries. Here’s the executive summary:

To understand the connection between customer experience (CX) and loyalty, we examined feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers that describes both their experiences with and their loyalty to 293 companies across 20 industries. Our analysis shows a strong correlation between customer experience and loyalty factors such as repurchasing, trying new offerings, forgiving mistakes, and recommending the company to friends and colleagues. While all three components of customer experience—success, effort, and emotion—have a strong effect on loyalty, our research shows that emotion is the most important element. When we compared the consumers who gave companies a very good customer experience rating to those who gave companies a very bad customer experience rating, we found that at companies with high customer experience ratings, the percentage of customers who plan on purchasing more is 18 points higher, the percentage who will forgive the company if it makes a mistakes is 12 points higher, the percentage who will try a new offering is 10 points higher, and the percentage who trust the company is 19 points higher. Additionally, companies with very good CX ratings have an average Net Promoter® Score that is 24 points higher than the scores of companies with poor CX. We built a model to evaluate how, over a three-year period, customer experience impacts the revenue of a $1 billion business within each of the 20 industries. This model shows that CX has the largest impact on the revenue of hotels ($823 million) and rental cars ($755 million) over three years. This report also includes a five-step approach for building a model that estimates the value of CX for your organization.

Download report for $295

This is the first figure in the report, and it shows the high correlation between Temkin Experience Ratings (customer experience) and purchase intentions for 293 companies across 20 industries:

Here’s an excerpt from the graphic showing the three year impact on revenues for a $1 billion company in 20 different industries:

Download report for $295

To see the customer experience levels of all 293 companies, download to the free 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings report.

P.S. Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld.

USAA and Credit Unions Lead Banks in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

USAA and credit unions tied for the top spot, each with a rating of 81%, putting them in 8^th place overall out of 293 companies across 20 industries. Credit unions (which is a rating for a group of credit unions, not one company) have earned the highest ranking for banks over the past four years. USAA has been hovering around the top of the banking list since 2011, but this is the first year that it actually took the top spot.

Meanwhile, BB&T debuted on the Ratings at the bottom of the industry, with a rating of 61% and a rank of 199^th overall. Citibank was not far ahead, receiving a rating of 62% and coming in 187^th place overall.

Here are some highlights from the banking industry:

• Overall, the banking industry averaged a 71% rating in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings and placed 5^th out of 20 industries. The average rating of the banking industry stayed steady at 71% between 2014 and 2015.
• The ratings of all banks in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows: USAA (81%), A credit union (81%), Regions (78%), SunTrust Bank (73%), PNC (73%), Chase (73%), Citizens (73%), TD Bank (72%), S. Bank (72%), Capital One 360 (72%), Bank of America (67%), Capital One (67%), Wells Fargo (66%), Fifth Third (66%), Citibank (62%), and BB&T (61%).
• Citizens (+6 points), Fifth Third (+6 points), and Bank of America (+4 points) improved their ratings the most between 2014 and 2015.
• TD Bank (-8 points), Wells Fargo (-5 points), and Regions (-3 points) declined by the most percentage-points between 2014 and 2015.

USAA Leads Credit Cards in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

For the fifth straight year, USAA took the top spot in credit cards with a rating of 80%, placing it 13^th overall out of 293 companies across 20 industries. USAA has been the highest-rated credit card issuer since the Ratings began in 2011. Discover and American Express tied for second place, each with a rating of 73% and an overall ranking of 76^th. At the other end of the spectrum, HSBC was the lowest-rated credit card issuer for the third year in a row, with a rating of 54% and an overall ranking of 253^rd.

Here are some highlights from the credit card industry:

• Overall, the credit card issuers industry averaged a 67% rating in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings and placed 6th overall out of 20 industries.
• The ratings of all credit card issuers in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows: USAA (80%), Discover (73%), American Express (73%), Barclaycard (69%), Chase (68%), Citigroup (66%), Capital One (66%), S. Bank (66%), Bank of America (63%), Wells Fargo (61%), PNC (58%), and HSBC (54%).
• USAA (+3 points), HSBC (+3 points), Discover (+2 points), American Express (+2 points), and Barclaycard (+1 points) all improved their ratings between 2014 and 2015.
• Wells Fargo (-7 points), Capital One (-3 points), and S. Bank (-2 points) declined by the most percentage-points between 2014 and 2015.

Fidelity Investments Leads Investment Firms in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Here are some highlights from investment firms:

• The investment industry’s average declined sharply over the past year, down from 67.7% in 2014 to 64.0% in 2015. The industry tied for 9^th place out of the 20 industries we evaluated.
• Despite dropping by three percentage-points, Fidelity Investments earned the highest average of any investment firm, scoring 72% and place 89^th out of 293 companies. This is the second year in a row that Fidelity took the top spot; although, it still took second place every year between 2011 and 2013. Charles Schwab took 2nd place int e industry with a Rating of 69%.
• Capital One 360 spent its first year in the Ratings at the bottom of the investment industry, scoring 55% and placing 245th out of 293 companies.
• Of the 12 companies we looked at both last year and this year, only three improved their ratings. Scottrade improved the most, going up eight percentage-points since 2014, while Wells Fargo Advisors went up by four points and Merrill Lynch improved by two points.
• Nine companies decreased their rating between 2014 and 2015. The companies that dropped the most were TD Ameritrade (-14 percentage-points), E*TRADE (-9 points), Edward Jones (-8 points), and Charles Schwab (-6 points).
• Since 2014, TD Ameritrade’s three component score declined more than any other investment firm’s. Its success score dropped by 14 percentage-points between 2014 and 2015, while its effort score dropped by 12 points and its emotion score dropped by 15 points.
• Since 2014, Scottrade’s three component scores improved more than any other company’s. Its success score improved by eight percentage-points over the past year, its effort score improved by 10 points and its emotion score improved by nine points.
• Capital One 360 fell furthest below the industry average for both the success and effort score.

JetBlue and Southwest Lead Airlines in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Overall, the airline industry averaged a 63% rating in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 12^th place out of 20 industries. It was also one of only five industries to improve its rating over the past year, increasing its average by 1.2 percentage-points.

JetBlue took the top spot with a rating of 75%, placing it 52^nd overall out of 293 companies across 20 industries. Southwest Airlines came in second with a rating of 72%, placing it 89^th overall. JetBlue shot up from the middle of the pack in 2014 to the top spot in 2015, improving by an astounding 15 percentage-points over the past year.

At the other end of the spectrum, Spirit Airlines, which made its debut on the ratings this year, was the lowest-scoring company in the industry. It received a rating of 47%, which put it in 281^st place overall.

Here are some additional findings from the airline industry:

• The ratings of all airlines in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows: JetBlue Airlines (75%), Southwest Airlines (72%), Delta Airlines (69%), Alaska Airlines (69%), Virgin America (63%), American Airlines (57%), United Airlines (56%), US Airways (55%), AirTran Airways (52%), and Spirit Airlines (47%).
• JetBlue Airlines (+15 points), Delta Airlines (+6 points), and Alaska Airlines (+4 points) improved the most between 2014 and 2015.
• American Airlines (-5 points), United Airlines (-5 points), and AirTran Airways (-4 points) were the only companies in this industry whose ratings declined between 2014 and 215.

Marriott and Sheraton Lead Hotels in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Here are some highlights from the hotel industry:

• The hotel industry tied for 7th place out of the 20 industries we evaluated in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings. After decreasing its average score for the past three years, the hotel industry increased in the 2015 Ratings to 66.2%, up from 60% in 2014, the highest rating over all five years.
• Out of any of the 20 industries that we evaluated, the hotel industry saw the largest improvement over its 2014 ratings as the industry average increased by 6.2 percentage points between 2014 in 2015.
• Marriott earned the highest Temkin Experience Rating in the hotel industry (75%), followed closely by Sheraton and Courtyard by Marriott. (74%).
• Ramada Inn and Motel 6 had the lowest overall scores as well as the lowest component scores of companies in the industry.
• Residence Inn jumped 16 points in the last year, up to 69% from 53% in 2014, the largest increase for any company in the hotels industry.
• Best Western (-5) was the only hotel to see a decrease in its ratings between 2014 and 2015.
• Eight companies increased by 10 or more percentage-points in 2015: Marriott (+11 points), Courtyard by Marriott (+10) points, Hampton Inn (+10 points), Hilton (+10 points), Hyatt (+14 points), Residence Inn (+16 points), Westin (+13 points), and Super 8 (+13 points).
• Marriott earned the highest rating for the success component (78%) and the effort component (81%), while Hampton Inn earned the highest rating for the emotion component (70%).

Alamo and Enterprise Lead Rental Cars in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Here are some highlights from the rental car industry:

• Although down from its peak of 61% in 2012, rental car agencies saw a slight increase in their average experience ratings, from 59.3% in 2014 to 60.0% in 2015.
• Alamo claimed the top spot and continued its upward trend. It increased by eight percentage-points between the 2013 and 2014 TxR, and by another nine points between the 2014 and 2015 TxR. Enterprise earned the second spot with a Rating of 67%.
• For its first year on the Ratings, Fox Rent A Car took the bottom spot with a rating of 42%, placing 292nd out of the 293 companies we evaluated.
• Rental car companies made up three of the bottom twenty companies: Fox Rent A Car (42%), Dollar (47%), and Thrifty (50%). Overall, scores in this industry ranged from “very poor” to just “okay.” And the industry tied for 15th place out of 20 industries with an average rating of 60%.
• Rental car agencies also increased their average rating in both the success and the effort component. Their success average increased from 62% to 63% and their effort average increased for 63% to 64%. The industry’s emotion average stayed steady at 53%.
• Alamo, Enterprise, and National were the only companies to score above the industry averages in all three TxR component categories. Alamo recorded the highest scores for success with 74% (11 points above the industry average) and emotion with 61% (eight points above the industry average), while Enterprise scored highest for effort with 72% (eight points above the industry average).

Virgin Mobile Leads Wireless Carriers in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

The average rating for the wireless carrier industry dropped from 62% in 2014 to 61% in 2015—the first times in the history of the ratings that the industry’s average declined.

Here are some highlights from the wireless carriers’ results:

• Virgin Mobile earned the highest rating in the industry with a score of 67%, which put it in 128^th place overall. Virgin Mobile has been steadily improving its ratings over the past five years. In 2011, it was the lowest-rated wireless carrier, with a score of 29%, in 2012 it increased its score to 59%, and then to 61% in 2013, 64% in 2014, and then this year, it became the top-rated wireless carrier, with 67%.
• With a score of 55%, Sprint is the lowest-rated wireless carrier for the first time since we began evaluating this industry in 2011. Sprint scored the furthest below the industry average for each of the three components: 8.7 percentage-points below the success average, 4.3 points below the effort average, and 5.5 points below the emotion average.
• Of the eight wireless carriers that we looked at last year and this year, four of them increased their rating and four of them decreased their rating. U.S. Cellular (+16 points), Virgin Mobile (+3 points), MetroPCS (+2 points), and T-Mobile (+1 point) improved their scores, while TracFone (-4 points), AT&T (-4 points), Sprint (-2 points), and Verizon Wireless (-1 point) received lower scores in 2015 than in 2014.
• U.S. Cellular experienced one of the most dramatic improvements in the Ratings, going up 16 percentage-points over the last year. This is following a 14-point decline between 2013 and 2014. In 2014, U.S. Cellular was the lowest-rated wireless carrier, with a rating of 46% and a rank of 264^th out of 268 companies. This year it scored the industry average—62%—and placed 187^th out of 293 companies.
• U.S. Cellular increased each of its component scores more than any other wireless carrier, going up by 12 percentage-points for success, 16 points for effort, and an astounding 19 points for emotion.

TV Service Providers Deliver Very Poor Customer Experience

We recently released the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 293 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

The average rating for the TV service providers industry dropped from 54% in 2014 to 52% in 2015—the first time in the history of the Ratings that this industry has declined. As an industry, TV service providers ranked 19^th out of 20 industries.

Here are some highlights from the TV service providers’ results:

• Cablevision Optimum earned the highest rating the TV service provider industry, with a score of 61% and an overall rank of 199^th place.
• Comcast was the lowest-rated TV service provider for the second year in a row, scoring 43% and ranking 291^st out of 293 companies. Comcast also scored the furthest below the industry average for each of the three components, falling 6.7 percentage-points below the success average, 9.3 points below the effort average, and 11.6 points below average for the emotion average.
• Of the nine TV service providers that we evaluated both last year and this year, only two of them increased their scores between 2014 and 2015. Verizon improved by three percentage-points, while AT&T improved by one point.
• Bright House Networks—last year’s top-rated TV service provider—dropped eight percentage-points since 2014, while Cox Communications dropped seven percentage points over the last year.
• Dish Network’s success score declined more than any other TV service provider’s, dropping by 10 percentage-points between 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, Cox Communication’s effort and emotion score declined the most in the industry; its effort scored dropped by 12 points over the last year, and its emotion score dropped by 8 points over the last year.
• Despite scoring above average for both the emotion and effort component—4.4 and 4.1 percentage-points above average respectively—DirecTV scored 3.1 points below average for the success component.