TV Service Providers & ISPs Earn The Lowest Customer Experience Ratings

We recently released the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 331 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

AOL earned the highest customer experience score in the TV/Internet Service Providers industry, according to the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Overall, however, the TV/Internet Service Provider industry averaged a 54% rating and come in last place out of 20 industries despite the average rating of the industry improving by seven percentage-points between 2016 and 2017.

US Cellular Earns Top Customer Experience Ratings for Wireless Carriers

We recently released the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 331 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

US Cellular delivers the best customer experience in the wireless industry, according to the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

US Cellular took the top spot out of the nine wireless carriers included in this year’s ratings, earning a score of 71% and coming in 137^th place overall out of 331 companies across 20 industries. TracFone and Verizon Wireless tied for second place, each earning a score of 67% and an overall rank of 206^th.

Residence Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Hilton Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Hotels

We recently released the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 294 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Residence Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Hilton deliver the best customer experience in the hotel industry, according to the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Residence Inn and Holiday Inn Express tied for the top spot out of 21 hotels in this year’s ratings. Each earned a score of 71% and came in 42^nd place overall out of 294 companies across 20 industries. Residence Inn and Holiday Inn Express were the only two hotels to improve their scores this year which, coupled with the significant decline in the other hotels’ scores, gave them the boost they needed to reach the top. Hilton, meanwhile, came in second place with a rating of 69% and an overall rank of 60^th.

At the other end of the spectrum, Motel 6 received the lowest score of any hotel, earning a rating of 41% and an overall rank of 283^rd. Fairfield Inn and Days Inn also received “very poor” ratings (below 50%).

MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, and TracFone Lead Wireless Carriers in Customer Experience

We recently released the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 294 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, and TracFone tied for the top spot out of seven wireless carriers in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings. They each earned a score of 63%, which put them all in 125^th place overall out of 294 companies across 20 industries. MetroPCS shot to the top of the rankings by virtue of being the only wireless carrier out of the seven we looked at to improve its rating over the past year. Virgin Mobile maintained its top spot from the previous year, despite dropping five percentage-points, while TracFone’s rating stayed steady from 2015.

At the other end of the spectrum, Sprint was the lowest-ranked wireless company for the second year in a row, receiving a rating of 54% and an overall ranking of 211^th.

Overall, the wireless industry averaged a 58% rating in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 10^th place out of 20 industries. Although every industry’s average dropped between 2015 and 2016, the wireless industry decreased the least, only going down 3 percentage-points.

Here are some additional findings from the wireless industry:

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.

TracFone Leads Wireless Industry in 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings

We recently released the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 268 companies across 19 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

TracFone continues its reign as the highest-rated wireless carrier for the fourth year in a row, earning a rating of 67% and placing 119^th overall out of 268 companies across 19 industries. At the other end of the spectrum, US Cellular plunged down the ratings this year, descending from the middle of the pack in 2013 to the lowest-rated wireless carrier in 2014. US Cellular ultimately landed in 251^st place overall with a 46% rating.

Download entire dataset for $395

Here are some additional findings from the airline industry:

Report: What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2014

We just published a Temkin Group report, What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2014. The report, which includes 19 data charts, examines which companies and industries provide the most bad experiences, what impact those experiences have on spending, and how the negative impacts of bad experiences can be mitigated by good service recovery. The report also examines how consumers share their good and bad experiences with companies as well as with other people. Here’s the executive summary:

To understand the effect of good and bad experiences, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their recent interactions with 268 companies across 19 industries. Results show that Internet services and TV services are the industries most likely to deliver a bad experience to their customers, while grocery chains are the least likely to. At the company level, Scottrade had the smallest percentage of customers reporting a recent bad experience with the company and Time Warner Cable had the highest. More than half of the customers who encountered a bad experience at a fast food chain, credit card issuer, grocery store, or hotel either decreased their spending with the company or stopped altogether. However, our data shows that a good service recovery effort can help mitigate a bad experience. Unfortunately, many firms—especially in the banking, Internet services, and TV services sectors—aren’t very good at service recovery. In addition to the consequences of bad interactions, we also examined which channels customers use to share their good and bad experiences and how these changed across age groups. We then compared these results to survey responses from the past two years. We also uncovered a negative bias inherent in how customers provide feedback. ING Direct, Residence Inn, and Fairfield Inn have the most negative bias in the feedback they receive directly from customers, while Hy-Vee and Hyundai have the most negative bias on Facebook. 

Click link to see full list of industries and companies covered in this report (.pdf).

Download report for $195

One of the most interesting analyses in the report is the look at how service recovery after a bad experience affects the spending pattern of consumers. Here’s a summary of one of the charts showing just how important it is for a company to recover well after making a mistake:

Here are some other insights from the research:

• Sixteen percent of consumers who have interacted with TV service and Internet service providers report having a bad experience over the previous six months. Next on the list are wireless carriers, with 12% of their customers reporting a bad experience. At the other end of the spectrum, only 3% of consumers report a bad experience with grocery chains and 4% report having a bad experience with fast food chains.
• The five companies with the most customers reporting bad experiences are Time Warner Cable (25%), Motel 6 (22%), Coventry Health Care (21%), and Comcast (21%). There were 10 companies with only 1% or less of their customers reporting bad experiences: Scottrade, Chick-fil-A, H.E.B., Whole Foods, ShopRite, ING Direct, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, Vanguard, and True Value.
• More than one-quarter of consumers who have a bad experience stop spending with computer makers, car rental agencies, credit card issuers, hotel chains, and software companies. The impact of bad experiences is less costly for parcel delivery services, wireless carriers, health plans, TV service providers, Internet service providers, and grocery chains, as less than 15% of their customers with bad experience stopped spending.
• The industries that are the best at responding to a bad experience are investment firms, major appliances, retailers, and car rental agencies. The industries that are the worst at responding to a bad experience are TV service providers, wireless carriers, Internet service providers, parcel delivery services, and health plans.
• Thirty-two percent of consumers give feedback directly to companies after a very bad experience and 23% give feedback after a very good experience.
• Overall, 25- to 34-year-olds are the most likely to share feedback about their experiences. After a good experience 57% tell a friend directly, 28% share on Facebook, and 18% put a comment or rating on a review site. After a bad experience, 60% tell a friend directly, 31% share on Facebook, and 20% write a review.

Download report for $195

The bottom line: Make sure to recover quickly after a bad experience

TracFone Tops Customer Experience Ratings of Wireless Carriers

This post examines the seven wireless carriers included in the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings.

TracFone was the top rated carrier, but only received an “okay” rating. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint also earned “okay” ratings while the remaining carriers were rated “poor.”

The average ratings for the wireless carriers placed it 13th out of 18 industries in the study. Temkin Group also analyzed the changes between 2011 and 2012 and found that customer experience in the wireless industry improved over the previous year. Led by Virgin Mobile and TracFone, all six carriers that were in both the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings had improved ratings. Sprint fell behind the other carriers with only a very slight improvement since last year.

Other highlights from the research include:

• TracFone and Verizon Wireless received the highest Functional ratings, while T-Mobile received the lowest. Virgin Mobile had the largest increase in this area while Sprint had the largest decline.
• TracFone and Verizon Wireless received the highest Accessible ratings, while Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile received the lowest. TracFone had the largest increase in this area while T-Mobile had the largest decline.
• TracFone received the highest Emotional ratings, while T-Mobile and US Cellular received the lowest. Virgin Mobile had the largest increase in this area while T-Mobile had the smallest.

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: Wireless carriers have improved, but they have a long way to go in CX