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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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: 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.

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(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

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

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

Off Topic: Who’s Watching Football Today?

It’s the most important day in U.S. sports, Superbowl Sunday. As you can see from my choice of graphics, I’m rooting for the Patriots. So let me say up front: Go Pats!

Given the importance of this day, I decided to do a bit of analysis on who actually watches football. In a recent Temkin Group survey, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their sports preferences. It turns out that football is the favorite sport by a wide margin. Fifty-seven percent of Americans like to watch football, which outpaces second place baseball by more than 20 percentage points.

I dug a bit deeper into the consumers that enjoy watching football. It’s not much of a surprise, but men are much more avid fans of football than females across all age groups. The largest gender gap is with males and females between 65 and 74 years old. It also turns out that older consumers are the most interested in football.

I also took a look at the customer bases of 249 large companies to see how many of them enjoy watching football. Led by Sheraton, Residence Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Infiniti, and Avis, 16 companies have at least 20% more than the national average of football enthusiasts. These companies should would probably do well taking out a Superbowl ad.

The bottom line: There will be a lot of people watching the Superbowl (and, go Pats!)

20 Companies Most Susceptible To Negative Comments Via Twitter

In my previous post, I listed companies that were susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook. Now it’s time to look at Twitter. 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 tweet about a very bad experience.

As you can see, Days Inn, Courtyard By Marriott, Hyatt, Continental Airlines, 21st Century, and Bright House are more than three times as susceptible to having a bad experience show up on Twitter.

The bottom line: These firms need to think a bit more about Twitter than the average company

 

Vanguard And Credit Unions Top Investment Experiences

In Forrester’s 2008 Customer Experience Index (CxPi), we ranked 113 companies across 12 industries. I recently published a snapshot of the investment industry looking at the results from the seven firms on the list (Charles Schwab, credit unions, Edward Jones, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Vanguard, and “other” full service brokers). Here’s some of what we found:

• Experiences are “okay.” As a group, the seven firms ended up with an “okay” rating of 69%; a drop of three percentage points from the 2007 CxPi results.
• Vanguard and credit unions lead the pack. With the only ”good” scores on the list, Vanguard and credit unions ended up with a rating of 77%. Not only were these the highest rated investment firms, but they were also the only ones to show an improvement from 2007.
• Merrill Lynch takes the bottom. With the only poor rating in the group, Merrill Lynch ended up with the lowest score. It also ended up with the largest drop from 2007, eight percentage points. Edward Jones’ decline wasn’t far behind, dropping seven points.
• Enjoyability took a hit. Three of the four double-digit declines in the underlying CxPi elements were in the enjoyability components for Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, and “other” full service brokers. The other large decline came in Merrill Lynch’s meeting needs score.

The bottom line: Investment firms should get bullish on customer experience

Gen Y Brands Gain, Financial Brands Lose

Interbrand just published its annual ranking of the 100 best global brands. Here are the top 10 brands on the list:

1. Coca Cola
2. IBM
3. Microsoft
4. GE
5. Nokia
6. Totota
7. Intel
8. McDonald’s
9. Disney
10. Google

Here’s some of the other interesting details from the rankings:

• Google is the only new entry to the top 10; it was 20th last year. Which company dropped out? Mercedes-Benz was 10th last year and is 11th this year.
• The listing also provides the change in value of the brands since last year. Here are the biggest changes in brand value:
  • Top gainers: Google (+43%), Apple (+24%), Amazon (+19%), ZARA (+15%), SAP (+13%), and Nintendo (+13%)
  • Top losers: Merrill Lynch (-21%), Gap (-20%), Morgan Stanley (-16%), Citi (-15%), Ford (-12%), and UBS (-11%).
  • The top gainers are what I call “Gen Y brands,” they came to age during the early adulthood of 20 year-olds, while the losers are dominated by large financial institutions.
• There were 7 new brands on the top 100 list this year: H&M (#22), Blackberry (#73), Ferrari (#93), Giorgio Armani (#94), Marriott (#96), FedEx (#99), and Visa (#100).
• The highest ranked company on last year’s list that did not make this year’s top 100 was Kodak (#82 in 2007).
• For fun, I went back and looked at the top 10 brands from 2001. Here they are:
  1. Coca Cola
  2. Microsoft
  3. IBM
  4. GE
  5. Nokia
  6. Intel
  7. Disney
  8. Ford
  9. McDonald’s
  10. AT&T

The bottom line: Just about everyone recognizes this: 

BofA + Merrill, The Customer Experience Angle

With Bank Of America buying Merrill Lynch, I thought I’d weigh in on the deal. Rather than joining the discussion about what it means to mega issues like the economy and financial markets,  I’ll talk about the impact on customer experience. Let me start with my overall assessment: it can’t hurt too much.

In Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CxPi) which ranked 112 US firms, Merrill Lynch came out 49th overall and next to last out of 10 investment firms; only beating out E*TRADE. It’s key problem: The investment firm is not easy to do business with.

Bank of America came out even lower, 91st overall, which was 10th out of 14 banks in the rankings. The bank’s problems spanned all areas of the CxPi.

My research has shown that there’s a high correlation between customer experience and customer loyalty in financial services. So there’s an enormous opportunity. But the questions is: Which firms will benefit?

If Bank Of America takes the opportunity to overhaul it’s customer experience as part of the integration, then it could mean a siginficant improvement in customer experience in a few years; good news for both its banking and investment clients. But the integration will likely take the financial giant’s focus away from customer experience in the short-run.

So there’s significant opportunity for other financial institutions to beef-up their customer experience and grab some market share. My guess at some of the winners in this battle: Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and some smaller banks. It might also be a good opportunity for TD Bank to expand its Commerce Bank footprint and for someone to buy Umpqua Bank. And, I’m adding Edward Jones to the list of firms that could be winners (see the comments on this post, thanks Eva).

The jury is still out on what this means to the behemoth Citibank, which was the worst ranked bank on the CxPi and near the bottom of the entire list of firms. My suggestion to Citi is the same as in my post from late last year: Two Words For Vikram Pandit (Citigroup CEO): “Customer Experience”

The bottom line: I’d make customer experience improvement a core tenet of the BofA/Merrill integration effort.