Advantage Rent A Car and USAA Lead in 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings

All companies, even customer experience leaders, make mistakes. But how much goodwill have companies built up for consumers to forgive them after those miscues? To answer this question, Temkin Group surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about companies with whom they’ve recently interacted. We used this data for the third annual Temkin Forgiveness Ratings of 246 companies across 19 industries.

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Company Results

Here are the highlights of the 246 companies in the 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings:

• Advantage earns top spot. With an excellent score of 61%, Advantage earned the highest rating.
• USAA dominates forgiveness. USAA grabbed the next three spots for its banking, insurance, and credit card businesses.
• The rest of the top 10. H.E.B., Blackboard, Aldi, Alaska Airlines, credit unions and Publix round out the top 10
• No industry owns the top. The top 25 companies in the ratings comes form a variety of industries: Four grocery chains, three airlines, three retailers, two banks, two hotel chains, two investment firms, two software firms, one appliance maker, one auto dealer, one credit card issuer, one fast food chain, one health plan, one insurance carrier, and one rental car agency.
• HSBC dominates the bottom. HSBC earned the bottom two spots in the ratings for its credit card and banking businesses.
• Many TV service providers are at the bottom. Six of the bottom 12 companies are TV service providers: Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Verizon, Charter Communications, and Optimum (iO)/Cablevision.
• USAA most outperforms its peers. We compared company ratings with their industry averages and USAA came in the top three spots, 36 points above in banking, 31 points ahead in credit cards, and 28 points ahead in insurance. Three other companies are more than 20 points above their industry averages: Advantage (car rentals), credit unions (banking), and TriCare (health plans).
• HSBC most underperforms. HSBC fell the farthest below its industry average in two areas, 23 points behind its peers in banking and credit cards. Five other companies had scores that were 15 points and more below their industry: US Airways (airlines), Motel 6 (hotels), McAfee (software), Kia (auto dealers), and Hertz (rental cars).

We also examined year-over-year results for 204 companies that were in both the 2012 and 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. Here are some highlights of that analysis:

• Chrysler improves the most. With a jump of 29 percentage points, Chrysler is the most improved company.  Six other companies gained 20 points or more: Continental Airlines, Citigroup, Avis, EarthLink, Ameriprise Financial, and Alaska Airlines.
• US Cellular declines the most. With a drop of nearly 20 percentage points, US Cellular dropped the most in 2013.  Nine other companies fell by more than 10 points: Bright House Networks, HSBC, Cox Communications, Hertz, PNC, SunTrust Bank, Dollar Rental Car, Hyatt, and TD Ameritrade.

Industry Results

Here are the highlights of the 19 industries in the 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings:

• TV service providers are unforgivable. TV service providers, as an industry, earned the lowest Temkin Forgiveness Rating of 12%. It was five points below Internet service providers and seven points below wireless carriers.
• Grocery chains are the most forgivable.  With an average rating of 39%, grocery chains are the highest scoring industry. Three industries are just four points behind: hotel chains, auto dealers, and rental car agencies.
• Credit cards make the most improvements. Credit cards made the largest improvement, nine percentage points, over the previous year.  Auto dealers, rental car agencies, and airlines also improved by more than five points.
• TV service providers head in the wrong direction. Led by TV service providers that dropped three points between 2012 and 2013, three industries earned lower scores in 2012. The other industries are retailers and appliance makers.

Calculating the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings

During January 2013, Temkin Group asked consumers to identify companies that they have interacted with during the previous 60 days.  For a random subset of those companies, consumers are asked to rate companies as follows:

How likely are you to forgive these companies if they deliver a bad experience?
Responses from 1= “extremely unlikely” to 7= “extremely likely”

For all companies with 100 or more consumer responses, we calculated the “net forgiveness” score. The Temkin Forgiveness Ratings are calculated by taking the percentage of consumers that selected either “6” or “7” and subtracting the percentage of consumers that selected either “1,” “2,” or “3.”

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To see all of the companies in the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings as ell as all of our other Temkin Ratings and sort through the results, visit the Temkin Ratings website

The bottom line: Forgiveness is an asset that you accumulate by consistently meeting customer needs.

Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments Lead Investment Industry in 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings

We recently released the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 246 companies across 19 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers. Here are highlights from the investment industry:

• The investment industry is tied for sixth place out of 19 industries. On average the industry has improved slightly: the average rating for 2013 was 65%. In 2012 and 2013, it was 63%. Eight of the twelve investment firms that were in the ratings last year and this year showed some improvement.
• For the second year in a row, Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments earned the top two spots in the industry.
• Fidelity Investments earned the highest functional rating and Charles Schwab earned the highest accessible and emotional scores.
• The investment firms in the ratings cover a 20 percentage point range, with the top firm, Charles Schwab, receiving a rating of 74%, and the lowest-ranked firm, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, receiving a rating of 54%. It also earned the lowest rating across all three underlying components: functional, accessible, and emotional.
• TD Ameritrade, at 69%, made up a lot of ground this year with an increase of 12 points between the 2012 and 2103 ratings. Wells Fargo Advisors had the next largest increase, six points.
• Morgan Stanley Smith Barney had the largest decline, three points.
• Here’s a link to industry results from the 2012 ratings.

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Credit Unions and USAA Lead Banks in 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings

We recently released the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 246 companies across 19 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers. Here are highlights from the banking industry:

• The banking industry has been steadily improving over the last three years, from an average Temkin Experience Rating of 62.0% in 2011 to 68.6% this year. Banks also made the largest improvement of any industry between 2012 and 2013, gaining 3.4 percentage points.
• Credit unions take first place in the industry for the second straight year with a rating of 79%. USAA earned the second spot with a rating of 78% followed by ING Direct and TD Bank that tied for third place with ratings of 74%.
• The lowest-ranked bank is HSBC, earning a score of 57%. It also earned the lowest functional, accessible, and emotional ratings. The two next lowest banks are Capital One (62%) and Bank of America (63%).
• Credit unions lead in the functional and accessible components while USAA leads in the emotional component.
• Citibank improved by 15 percentage points between 2012 and 2013. This gain represents the largest improvement by any company across all industries.
• Regions also had a significant improvement of 10 percentage points over the last year.
• PNC had the worst decline from 2012 to 2013, experiencing a loss of six percentage points. HSBC was the only other bank with a ratings drop since last year.
• Here’s a link to industry results from the 2012 ratings.

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Report: 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings

We published the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings. The report analyzes feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate 246 organizations across 19 industries. Congratulations to the top firms in this year’s ratings: Publix, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Chick-fil-A, Amazon.com, and Sam’s Club.

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You can also download the data for $395.

The Temkin Experience Ratings are based on evaluating three elements of experience:

1. Functional: How well do experiences meet customers’ needs?
2. Accessible: How easy is it for customers to do what they want to do?
3. Emotional: How do customers feel about the experiences?

Here are the top and bottom companies in the ratings:

Here’s how the industries compare with each other:

(NOTE: We have published posts on the detailed results for all 19 industries)

Here are the companies that are leaders and laggards across the 19 industries:

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.

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Get the Data

Do you want to see all of the data? You can purchase an excel spreadsheet for $395…

To view all of our ratings (experience, loyalty, trust, forgiveness, customer service, and web experience), visit the Temkin Ratings website…

The bottom line: Customer experience is improving, but there’s still a long way to go

Report: What Happens After A Good or Bad Experience?

We just published a Temkin Group report, What Happens After A Good or Bad Experience? This large-scale consumer study uncovers negatively biased feedback and significant upside from good service recovery. Here’s the executive summary:

We asked 5,000 U.S. consumers about their experiences with 179 companies across 19 industries. More than 60% who had a bad experience with a fast food chain, credit card issuer, rental car agency, or hotel cut back on their spending, and many stopped completely. But service recovery helps. For every level of improvement in how they responded to a bad experience, companies were rewarded with more sales. Unfortunately, firms aren’t very good at service recovery, especially banks and credit card issuers. TV service providers delivered the greatest number of bad experiences while grocery chains had the fewest. At a company level, ING Direct and Holiday Inn had the lowest number of bad experiences, while QVC and Best Buy had the highest. We also examined how consumers share their good and bad experiences, across age groups and income levels, and compared results from last year. This analysis uncovered a negative bias in how consumers give feedback. Motel 6, ING Direct, Albertsons, and RadioShack have the most negative bias in the feedback they get directly from customers; Cox Communications and Symantec have the most negative bias in feedback on Facebook; and Verizon and GE face the most negative bias on Twitter.

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The report has 20 graphics full of data on consumer behavior and company ratings. It starts by looking at the prevalence of bad experiences. It turns out that 20% of consumers have had a bad experience with a TV service provider while only 5% have had a bad experience with a grocery store.

One of the streams of analysis looks at how consumers give feedback. As you can see, companies are more likely to hear about bad experiences than good experiences.

Here are some of the other findings in the research:

• ING Direct (2%), Holiday Inn Express (2%) Whole Foods (3%) and Holiday Inn (3%) had the fewest occurrences of bad experience, while Best Buy (29%), QVC (29%), Gap (28%), and eBay (26%) had the most.
• After a bad experience consumers were most likely to completely stop spending with rental car agencies (40%), credit card issuers (39%), computer makers (35%), and auto dealers (35%), but least likely to stop spending with retailers (9%) and Internet service providers (10%).
• When companies responded very poorly after a bad experience, 47% of consumers stopped spending completely with the company. When they had a very good response, only 6% stopped spending and 37% increased their spending.
• Retailers (46%) most often recovered well from a bad experience while Internet service providers (15%) and health plans (15%) were the worst at recovering.
• 38% of consumers gave feedback directly to the company after a very bad experience, but only 31% gave feedback after a very good experience.
• 14% of consumers gave feedback on a rating site like Yelp after both a very good or a very bad experience.
• The use of twitter to communicate about a very bad experience has grown from 4% to 9% of consumers over the last year.
• 33% of 18- to 24-year-olds have posted about a good experience on Facebook, compared with only 5% of those who are 65 and older.
• 18% of 18- to 24-year-olds have tweeted about a good experience, compared with only about 1% of those who are 55 and older.
• 17% of consumers who earn $100K or more have tweeted about a bad experience, compared with only 7% of those who earn less than $50K.
• Given their customer demographics, Motel 6, ING Direct, Albertsons, and RadioShack are the most likely to receive direct customer feedback that is negatively biased while Cablevision, Avis, Nissan dealers, and Dodge dealers are the most likely to receive positively biased feedback.
• Given their customer demographics, Cox Communications, Symantec, ING Direct, and TracFone are the most likely to have negatively biased comments on Facebook, while Cablevision, AOL, Kaiser Permanente, and Holiday Inn are the most likely to have positively biased comments.
• Given their customer demographics, Verizon and GE are the most likely to have negatively biased comments on Twitter, while Avis and Edward Jones are most likely to have positively biased tweets.

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The bottom line: Customer feedback is an under utilized asset.

Capital One Rebrands ING Direct, Puts Brand Equity At Risk

Capital One announced that it will drop the ING Direct brand (along with its highly recognizable orange ball logo) and rename the unit Capital One 360. While it may make sense to reinforce the Capital One brand across its operating units, this move comes with some risk.

It turns out that ING Direct has considerably more positive brand equity than Capital One. Take a look at banking results across many of our 2012 Temkin Ratings:

• Temkin Experience Ratings: ING Direct (72%) vs. Capital One (60%)
• Temkin Loyalty Ratings: ING Direct (44%) vs. Capital One (27%)
• Temkin Trust Ratings: ING Direct (59%) vs. Capital One (31%)
• Temkin Forgiveness Ratings: ING Direct (27%) vs. Capital One (14%)

The bottom line: Hopefully a lot of ING Direct rubs off on Capital One

Report: Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012

We just published a Temkin Group report, Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012. It provides NPS data on 180 U.S. companies across 19 industries. Here’s the executive summary:

USAA took the top two spots for its banking and insurance businesses while HSBC came in at the bottom for banking and credit cards. Our analysis of differences across consumer demographic segments showed that NPS tends to go up with age, doesn’t vary much by income levels, and is often highest with Asians. We also asked consumers what would make them more likely to recommend the companies and found that promoters are more likely to select lower prices and detractors are more likely to select better customer service. While there is some debate about the efficacy of NPS, our analysis shows that promoters are much more likely than detractors to purchase more in the future across all industries. To help you implement a successful NPS program, we’ve included eight tips such as don’t believe in an “ultimate question” and use control charts, not pinpointed goals.

Download report for $295
(includes the data)

The industries included in this report are airlines, auto dealers, banks, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, grocery chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, major appliance makers, parcel delivery services, rental car agencies, retailers, software firms, TV service providers, and wireless carriers.

The report contains the following components:

• NPS for 180 companies across 19 industries
• NPS differences based on age, income, and ethnicity of consumers
• Improvement areas selected by promoters and detractors by industry
• Connection between NPS and future purchases by industry
• Eight tips for implementing a successful NPS program

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(Includes the data)

The bottom line:  Companies need to give customers a reason to recommend them

Customer Experience Isn’t Enough in Banking

I read an interesting article in the New York Times: Bank Analyst Sees No Payoff in a Customer-Friendly Focus. It discusses how bank industry analyst Richard X. Bove believes that focussing on customers may be harmful for banks because it distracts them from making money. Here’s a bit of what he said:

Spending time solving problems with people is not selling products. It’s wasting time.

My take: First of all, I think that Bove is partially right. If you don’t have good products or if you don’t have solid sales processes, then you probably won’t have good business results; customer experience is not good enough on its own. As I’ve said for many years, customer experience is not a standalone activity, it needs to support your brand and business strategy.

Having said that, our research shows that companies with better customer experience have a better opportunity to improve their business results. That relationship holds up in our research across many industries.

I decided to take a look at one dimension of the Temkin Experience Ratings (easiness of doing business) and one dimension from the Temkin Loyalty Ratings (willingness to consider for another purchase) in banking. Here’s how those CX and loyalty items line up for 16 banks.

As you can see, there’s a high correlation between CX and potential loyalty. Just because 74% of USAA’s members are likely to consider the financial institution for another purchase, they aren’t going to do it unless USAA offers them an appropriate and competitive product.

The bottom line: CX is valuable, but not enough on its own

2012 Temkin Web Experience Ratings

Temkin Group has just released the 2012
We introduced the Temkin Web Experience Ratings last year. The 2012 Web Experience Ratings include 159 companies from 18 industries and is based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Congratulations to the top firms in this year’s ratings: Amazon, credit unions, USAA, PNC, Southwest Airlines, eBay, Sam’s Club, ShopRite, JCPenney, and ING Direct. Of course, not every company has earned good web experience, especially the companies at the bottom of the 2012 ratings:  Charter Communications, Humana, Qwest, Cigna, Time Warner Cable, Anthem, Road Runner, Medicare, Blue Shield of CA, and TracFone.

We also  examined industry averages and found that banks and investment firms have earned the highest Temkin Web Experience Ratings followed by hotel chains and retailers. But consumers gave very low ratings to Internet service providers, health plans, and TV service providers.

The research also examines how individual companies are rated relative to their industry peers. The following 11 firms outscored their industry average Temkin Web Experience Ratings by 10 percentage points or more: Kaiser Permanente, Amazon, ShopRite, Southwest Airlines, USAA, Starbucks, H.E.B., Publix, credit unions, Marriott, and Apple.

The following 15 companies fell 10 percentage points or more below their industry averages: Wells Fargo Advisors, AAA, Charter Communications, Delta Airlines, Citibank, Bank of America, Humana, TracFone, Qwest, Old Navy, U.S. Airways, Rite Aid, Kohl’s, Kmart, and Charter Communications.

Temkin Group also analyzed changes from the 2011 Temkin Web Experience Ratings. Led by TV service providers and insurance carriers 11 of the 12 industries that were in both the 2011 and 2012 ratings improved since last year.

Seventy-two percent of companies that were in the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Web Experience Ratings showed improvement. Led by Comcast (Internet and TV service), Allstate, AOL, Charter Communications, Toshiba, and Sam’s Club, 20 companies improved by 10 percentage points or more between 2011 and 2012. Only three companies­— Kohl’s, TracFone, and Rite Aid—declined by 10 percentage points or more during that timeframe.

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: Web experience is not good enough for how important it is

2012 Temkin Trust Ratings

Temkin Group has just released the 2012

We introduced the Temkin Trust Ratings last year to gauge which companies are earning this important element of loyalty. The 2012 Temkin Trust Ratings include 206 companies from 18 industries and is based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Congratulations to the top firms in this year’s ratings: USAA, credit unions, H.E.B., Publix, Chick-fil-A, Sam’s Club, Hy-Vee and BMW. Of course, not every company has earned such a high degree of trust with their customers, especially the companies at the bottom of the 2012 ratings: Charter Communications, Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Qwest.

We also examined industry averages and found that grocery chains have earned the most trust from consumers followed by investment firms, retailers, and parcel delivery services. But consumers do not trust TV service providers, Internet service providers, or credit card issuers.

We examined how individual companies are rated relative to their industry peers. Twenty-one companies are 10 or more percentage points above their industry averages. The ones that are farthest out in front: USAA (34 above credit cards), credit unions (30 above banks), USAA (28 above banks), USAA (22 above insurers), and PNC (21 above banks).

Twenty-nine companies are at least 10 percentage points behind their industry averages. Here are the ones that fall the farthest behind: Bank of America (23 behind banks), Citibank (22 behind banks), Super 8 (19 behind hotels), Charter Communications (18 behind TV service providers),  Days Inn (18 behind hotels), and Citigroup (18 behind credit card issuers).

We also analyzed changes from the 2011 Temkin Trust Ratings. The research shows that consumers are more trusting this year than they were last year. Led by computer makers and insurance carriers, all 12 industries that were in both the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Trust Ratings showed improvement.

Fifty-two of the 139 companies that were in the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Trust Ratings earned double-digit improvements and six companies improved by more than 20 percentage points: USAA, PNC, Lenovo, credit unions, U.S. Bank, and HSBC. Seventeen companies lost ground over the last year with the biggest drops coming for Cox Communications, Bank of America, Citigroup, Edward Jones, TriCare, and Costco.

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: It’s hard to succeed without your customers’ trust

Schwab and Fidelity Top Customer Experience Ratings for Investments

This post examines the 12 investment firms included in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings.

Charles Schwab is the top rated investment firm and the only firm in the industry to receive a “good” rating. Fidelity Investments was close behind and leads six investment firms with “okay” ratings. The bottom five investment firms have “poor” customer experience ratings: Wells Fargo Advisors, TD Ameritrade, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and E*TRADE.

The average ratings for the investment industry placed it 10th out of 18 industries in the study. Temkin Group also analyzed the changes between 2011 and 2012 and found that the investment industry has seen the sharpest decline in its customer experience ratings over the previous year.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and TD Ameritrade had the largest decline from last year’s Temkin Experience Ratings and five other investment firms also received lower ratings this year. Charles Schwab had the largest improvement in its customer experience score 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: The investment industry is heading in the wrong CX direction

Credit Unions and PNC Deliver Best Customer Experience in Banking

This post examines the 16 banks included in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings.

Credit unions, which are ranked third across all industries, as a group were the only bank to receive an excellent rating. Four banks earned “good” ratings: PNC, TD Bank, USAA, and ING Direct. Eight banks received “okay” ratings while three banks received “poor” ratings: Citibank, Bank of America, and HSBC.

The banking industry received the fifth highest average customer experience rating, falling behind grocery chains, fast food restaurants, retailers, and parcel delivery services. Compared with 2011, banks increased their ratings by three percentage points, an improvement that was only outdone by insurance carriers and personal computer makers. Thirteen of the 16 banks improved their customer experience ratings between 2011 and 2012.

Credit unions and PNC experienced double-digit increases in their ratings between 2011 and 2012 while ING Direct, TD Bank, and Fifth Third improved by more than five percentage points. Only Regions experienced a double-digit decline in its ratings between 2011 and 2012 and Citibank is the only other bank that declined by more than five percentage points.

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: Some big banks are heading in the wrong direction

Regions Delivers Top Banking Experience

In The 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings, we examined the customer experience across 12 industries. For this post, we will take a closer look at the 16 banks in the ratings.

Banks, as a group, had an average rating of “Okay” and ended up in the middle of the pack; the 5th ranked industry out of 12…

Let’s take closer look at the results for all of the individual banks…

As you can see, Regions is the only bank with a “Good” customer experience rating, but is closely followed by USAA, credit unions (as a group), and TD. At the other end of the spectrum, five banks ended up with “Poor” overall customer experience ratings: HSBC, Citibank, Capital One, Bank Of America, and Citizens.

Let’s take a look at the three components of the Temkin Experience Ratings…

While 10 of the 16 banks crossed the “Good” line for the Functional component of their experience, only the top three made it to that level for the Accessible component.

For more access to the data, visit the Temkin Ratings website.

The bottom line: Banks need to make it easier for customers

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20 Companies Most Susceptible To Negative Comments Via 3rd Party Ratings Sites

In my previous two posts, I listed companies that were susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook and Twitter. Now it’s time to look at 3rd party ratings sites like TripAdviosr and Yelp.. In the report How Consumers Give Feedback, we analyzed what US consumers did after they had a very bad or a very good experience.

As a part of the analysis, we examined the difference in social media use across 141 companies. Our analysis looked at how often people that had interacted with those companies had also used social media to talk about a very bad experience in the previous 60 days. We then compared that data to the overall US average.

This chart shows the 20 companies that interact with consumers who are most likely to post a comment or rating about a very bad experience on a 3rd party site.

As you can see, Days Inn, Super 8, TD Ameritrade, United Airlines, Hyatt, Hilton, and AirTram Airways are more than the most susceptible to having a bad comment or rating show up on these sites.

The bottom line: These firms need to track third party rating sites more than their peers

Customer Service Is The Worst Touchpoint

I recently published a report called Experiences Across the Customer Lifecycle that examines how satisfied US consumers are with four interactions (researching a product/service, purchasing a product/service, using a product/service, getting customer service) across 14 industries.

In 12 of the 14 industries, customer service was the lowest (or tied for lowest) rated interaction. Across all four touchpoints, hotels are at the top and health plans are at the bottom. Here are some of the highlights from the analysis:

I also examined how consumers rated individual companies. Here’s a shout-out to the companies that outperformed their industry averages by more than 10 percentage points:

• Researching a product/service: Credit unions, American Express, AT&T, DirecTV, USAA, Amazon.com, Verizon, and Barnes & Noble.
• Purchasing a product/service: Credit unions, American Express, Medicare, Vanguard, Visa, Apple, Aol, Southwest Airlines, and ING Direct.
• Using a product/service: Credit unions, Apple, Medicare, USAA, and Toshiba.
• Getting customer service: Credit unions, Kaiser, Apple, Cox Communications, American Express, Visa, USAA, Barnes & Noble, Marriott, Kohl’s, Southwest Airlines, and Verizon.

The bottom line: The entire customer lifecycle needs and upgrade, especially customer service.