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.

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: 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

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 Forgiveness Ratings

Temkin Group has just released the 2012
Every company makes mistakes now and then, but how willing are customers to forgive the company when it happens? Forgiveness is a valuable asset that companies earn by consistently meeting customers’ needs.

We introduced the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings last year to gauge which companies are earning this important element of loyalty. The 2012 Temkin Forgiveness 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, Hyatt, credit unions, H.E.B., Hy-Vee, Dollar Rent A Car, Chick-fil-A, Publix, Costco, and Amazon.com. Of course, not every company enjoys such a high degree of forgiveness from their customers, especially the companies at the bottom of the 2012 ratings: Citigroup, Charter Communications, HSBC, Chrysler dealers, EarthLink, Bank of America, Comcast, Quest, and US Airways.

We also examined industry averages and found that grocery chains have earned the most forgiveness from consumers followed by retailers, appliance makers, and parcel delivery services. But consumers are not very likely to forgive mistakes by credit card issuers, Internet service providers, and TV service providers.

We examined how individual companies are rated relative to their industry peers. USAA holds the top two spots, outpacing its credit card and banking peers by more than 30 percentage points. USAA also outpaces the insurance industry by more than 20 percentage points. Credit unions, Hyatt, US Cellular, Dollar Rent A Car, Chick-fil-A, and Bright House Networks are also more than 15 percentage points above their industry averages. Five companies fall 15 or more percentage points below their industry’s average Temkin Forgiveness Ratings: Chrysler dealers, Citigroup, Travelers, Charter Communications, and RadioShack.

We also analyzed changes from the 2011 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. The research shows that consumers are more forgiving this year than they were last year. Led by banks and insurance carriers, all 12 industries that were in both the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings showed improvement.
Sixty-eight of the 139 companies that were in the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings earned double-digit improvements and four companies improved by more than 25 percentage points: TD Ameritrade, Lenovo, USAA, and credit unions. Ten companies lost ground over the last year with the biggest drops coming for Citigroup, Continental Airlines, Travelers, Sears, Holiday Inn Express, and The Hartford.

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: To err is possible, to earn forgiveness is divine

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

Which Companies Do Consumers Recommend The Most?

I recently published a research report called Consumers’ Likelihood To Recommend 133 Firms that examines how loyal consumers are to 133 firms across 14 industries (the same firms that are in the 2010 Customer Experience Index). Based on surveying more than 4,600 US consumers, I created a metric called Net Recommendations*.

Here are the top 10 firms and their Net Recommendations rates:

• Barnes & Noble (86%)
• Amazon (81%)
• eBay (81%)
• Vanguard (79%)
• Kohl’s (79%)
• USAA (78%)
• Apple (77%)
• BJs Wholesale Club (76%)
• Marriott Hotels & Resorts (75%)
• Costco (75%)

To get a more complete picture of which firms are generating loyal customers, I compared the Net Recommendations score for each company to its industry average. The top five on the list are credit unions, Sun Trust Bank, JetBlue, Vanguard, and Kaiser.  Here are the 25 firms that were 10 points or more above their peers:

 

 

*Net Recommendations: We asked consumers how likely they were to recommend firms to a friend or colleague on a 5-point scale from (1) not at all likely to (5) very likely. To create the Net Recommendations score, we took the percentage of consumers who gave the company a “4″ or “5″ and subtracted the percentage of consumers that gave the company a “1″ or “2.”

The bottom line: Does your business generate enough recommendations?

Credit Unions And SunTrust Lead Banks In Customer Experience

Forrester’s 2010 Customer Experience Index (CxPi) ranks 133 firms across 14 industries. I recently published the bank analysis which examines the 13 banks in the CxPi. Here are the overall results:

As a group, the banks were in the middle of the pack of industries with an “okay” average rating of 66%. But banks had the largest drop of any industry, down five percentage points from the 2008 CxPi. Here are some insights from looking at the banking results:

• The best bank customer experience. Credit unions and SunTrust Bank up well above the other 11 banks on the list.
• The worst bank customer experience. At the bottom of the list, three banks ended up with “very poor” ratings: Washington Mutual, Bank of America, and Capital One.
• Most banks declined. Of the 11 banks that were also ranked in 2008, only three of them improved: SunTrust Bank, Wachovia, and U.S. Bancorp. Going in the other direction, Bank of America, Washington Mutual, and Wells Fargo had double-digit declines.
• Capital One and Bank Of America and Citibank aren’t enjoyable. The CxPi has three underlying components: 1) meeting needs, 2) being easy to work with, and 3) enjoyability. Three banks tied for the bottom of the “enjoyability” ratings: Bank of America, Capital One, and Citibank.

The bottom line: Banks headed in the wrong direction in 2009

Forrester’s 2010 Customer Experience Rankings

This is our third year publishing the CxPi. The 2007 CxPi and the 2008 CxPi rankings were published in Q4. We decided to publish this year’s CxPi in Q1 2010, so we don’t have a 2009 CxPi.

The 2010 CxPi ranks 133 organizations across 14 industries: Airlines, Banks, Credit Card Providers, Health Plans, Hotels, Insurance Firms, Internet Service Providers, Investment Firms, Parcel Shipping Services (new this year), PC Manufacturers, Retailers, TV Service Providers, Utilities (new this year), and Wireless Carriers.

The CxPi is based on consumer evaluations during November 2009 across three areas: 1) meeting needs; 2) being easy to work with; and 3) enjoyability (see the methodology section below).

Here are the full 2010 CxPi rankings…

Barnes & Noble took the top spot in the CxPi rankings for the second year in a row. Marriot Hotels, Hampton Inn, Amazon.com, and Holiday Inn Express round out the top 5. At the other end of the spectrum, Charter Communications landed at the bottom of the CxPi rankings for the third year in a row. Here are some additional insights about the overall results:

• Retailers take 12 out of the top 20 spots. Most of the top rated companies on the list are retailers. Hotels also grabbed three of the top 20 spots. Interestingly, three financial services firms also cracked the top 20: credit unions, SunTrust Bank, and Vanguard.
• Healthcare, Internet and TV services dominate the bottom. The bottom 11 companies on the list came from only four industries: five health insurance plans (United Healthcare, Medicaid, Anthem, and CIGNA), three ISPs (Charter Communications, Comcast, and Qwest), two TV service providers (Charter Communications and Comcast), and one credit card provider (HSBC).
• There was very little excellence. Only 13 firms ended up with an “excellent,” and 35 received a “good” rating. 40 companies fell in the middle with “okay” ratings. At the bottom of the list, 45 received either a “poor” or “very poor” rating.
• Liberty Mutual improved the most. When we compared firms’ 2010 CxPi with last year’s results, we found that 22 companies had improved by at least five percentage points. Led by Liberty Mutual’s 15 percentage point increase, five firms even had double-digit improvements (Comfort Inn, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable).

CxPi Results Across Industries

We also looked at the overall results for the 14 industries included in the CxPi.

Surprise! Banks Got Better At Customer Experience

In Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CxPi), we ranked 114 companies across 12 different industries. As part of that research stream, I am publishing reports on each of the industries. The first one published is a snapshot of the banking industry results. It turns out that banks, as a group, made the largest improvement of any of the 12 industries. And they needed it!

In June 2007, I write a report called Banks Prepare For Customer Experience Wars. After a decade of focusing on mergers and acquisition as their strategy for growth, big banks were beginning to concentrate on organic growth. To succeed, they needed to improve the experiences they deliver to existing customers. Why? My research uncovered a very strong correlation between customer experience and loyalty.

Here are some of the highlights of the banking results:

• Banks really improved. In last year’s CxPi, banks ended in 6th place out of nine industries. This year, banks had the highest increase in average score (+7%) and ended up in 4th place out of 12 industries — only falling behind retailers, hotels, and insurers.
• Credit unions lead. With the only overall “excellent” rating, credit unions easily topped the list of banks in the CxPi – taking the top spot for the second year in a row. Next in line was National City which was the only bank to receive a “good” rating.
• JPMorgan Chase lags. JP Morgan Chase ended at the bottom of the list with a rating of “poor” – taking over the bottom spot from last year’s cellar dweller Citibank.
• SunTrust and National City shine in some areas. Credit unions were at the top of the list for all three components  of the CxPi. For usefulness, SunTrust received the second highest score and Washington Mutual fell to the bottom. For ease of use, National City and Wells Fargo were ranked second and third, while JPMorgan was ranked last. For enjoyability, Citibank, Capital One, and JPMorgan Chase all received “very poor” ratings.
• U.S. Bancorp leads the improvement bandwagon. U.S. Bancorp made the most headway of any bank (+18%). SunTrust Bank and Citibank also had double-digit improvements in CxPi. Wachovia Bank, on the other hand, was the only bank with an overall decline in its CxPi.

The bottom line: Kudos to banks for improving; hopefull they’ll keep it up.

Forrester’s 2008 Customer Experience Rankings

This is our second year publishing the CxPi. The 2008 CxPi ranks 114 firms across 12 industries: Airlines, Banks, Credit Card Providers, Health Plans, Hotels, Insurance Firms, Internet Service Providers, Investment Firms, PC Manufacturers, Retailers, TV Service Providers, and Wireless Phone Carriers.

The CxPi is based on consumer evaluations during October 2008 across three areas: 1) usefulness; 2) ease of use; and 3) enjoyability (see the methodology section below).

Here are the full 2008 CxPi rankings…

Forrester's 2008 Customer Experience Rankings

Barnes & Noble took the top spot in the CxPi rankings, just barely beating out USAA’s credit card business. Borders, Amazon, and last year’s leader Costco round out the top five. At the other end of the spectrum, Charter Communications landed at the bottom of the CxPi rankings for the second year in a row. Here are some additional insights about the overall results:

• Retailers take seven out of the top 10 spots. Last year, nine out of the top 10 firms were retailers. While retailers still dominate the top of the CxPi, three non retailers have cracked the top 10: USAA, Hampton Inn, and credit unions.
• Healthcare and TVs dominate the bottom. The bottom 10 companies came from only four industries: four medical insurers (Medicaid, Blue Shield of California, Aetna, and Cigna), three TV service providers (Charter Communications, Time Warner, and Comcast), two ISPs (Charter Communications and Comcast), and one wireless carrier (Sprint). Charter Communications, Medicaid, Aetna, and Sprint were also on last year’s bottom 10 list.
• Several banks made significant improvements. When we compared firms’ 2008 CxPi with last year’s results, we found that a number of companies that had improved. The three firms with double digit improvements were all banks (US Bancorp, SunTrust Bank, and Citibank) and six out of the top seven improvements were made by banks as well.

CxPi Results Across Industries

We also looked at the overall results for the 12 industries included in the CxPi.

Forrester's 2008 Customer Experience Index Results

The industry CxPi data shows that:

• Retailers and hotels dominate. Two industries at the top of this year’s ratings, retailers and hotels, were the only industries to receive “good” average ratings. The two industries at the bottom of the list ended up with “very poor” CxPi ratings: health insurance plans and TV service providers.
• Banks improved and TV service providers got worse. Comparing this year’s data with last year’s results, we found that four industries have improved while five had gotten worse. Banks made the largest improvement; increasing their average CxPi scores by 7%. The average CxPi scores for TV service providers, on the other hand, dropped by 7%.

The CxPi Methodology

This analysis was based on responses from 4,564 US consumers during October 2008. The Customer Experience Index (CxPi) was calculated as an average of the indices that came from consumer responses to the following three questions from an online survey:

1. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how effective were they at meeting your needs? (“Usefulness” rating)
2. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how easy was it to work with these firms? (“Ease Of Use” rating)
3. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how enjoyable were the interactions? (“Enjoyability” rating)

Consumers selected responses along a five-point scale – ranging from a very negative experience (1) to a very positive one (5). The individual indexes were calculated by taking the percentage of consumers who selected one of the top two boxes (4 or 5) and subtracting the percentage of consumers who selected the bottom two boxes (1 or 2).

In order to limit consumer feedback to organizations that consumers are familiar with, we only asked consumers about organizations that they’ve interacted with during the previous 90 days.

While we received feedback on many firms, the CxPi  only includes the 114 organizations that had at least 100 consumer responses.

The bottom line: There’s plenty of room to improve customer experience which will increase customer loyalty.