Publix and H-E-B Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Supermarkets

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.

Publix and H-E-B deliver the best customer experience in the supermarket 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.

This year, supermarkets earned the two highest scores in the entire Ratings. With a score of 84%, Publix not only received the highest score in the supermarket industry, it received the highest score in the entire Ratings, ranking 1^st out of 331 companies across 20 industries. Likewise, H-E-B earned the second highest score for both the supermarket industry and the Ratings overall with a score of 83%. Hannaford followed close behind with a score of 82% and an overall rank of fourth.

Publix and H-E-B Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Supermarkets

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.

Publix and H-E-B deliver the best customer experience in the supermarket industry, according to the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

This year supermarkets earned the three highest scores in the entire Ratings. Publix took the top spot for the second year in a row with a rating of 81%, putting it in 1^st place out of the 294 companies across 20 industries. H-E-B came in second with a score of 79%, while Kroger and Save-a-Lot tied for third place, each with a score of 78% and a 3^rd overall ranking.

Of the 20 supermarkets included in the Ratings, two more—Wegmans and Aldi—also made it into the top ten, ranking 7^th and 9^th respectively. At the other end of the spectrum, Vons spent its first year in the Ratings at the bottom of the industry with a score of 63% and a rank of 125^th.

Overall, the supermarket industry averaged a 74% rating in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings and placed 1^st out of 20 industries.

Here are some additional findings from the supermarket industry:

Publix, Aldi, and H-E-B Lead Supermarkets in Customer Experience

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

here are some highlights from the supermarket chains in the ratings:

• Of the 20 industries we evaluated in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings, supermarket chains earned the highest overall score, with an average rating of 79% and took five of the top ten spots.
• The average industry score for the effort component dropped from 85% in 2014 to 84% in 2015, while the average score for the emotion component dropped from 69% to 68%. The average industry score for success remained steady at 84%, which it has stayed at since 2013. Overall, the industry average for supermarkets remained about the same between 2014 and 2015.
• With a rating of 85%, Publix was the highest-rated supermarket chain and the highest rated company overall, ranking 1^st out of the 293 companies we evaluated and improving its score by two percentage-points from last year. Next on the list are Aldi and H-E-B (84%) tied for second place overall, Trader Joe’s placing in 4^th with 82%, and Hannaford’s placing in 8^th with 81%.
• Bi-Lo was the lowest-rated supermarket, scoring 66% overall, and also received the lowest score for each of the three components. Bi-Lo scored 11.2 percentage-points below average for success, 14 points below for effort, and 12.1 points below for emotion.
• Of the 13 supermarket chains that we evaluated in both 2014 and 2015, seven of them improved their scores over the past year. Hy-Vee, Whole Foods, and Giant Eagle increased their scores the most, each going up by 3 percentage-points in the last year.
• H-E-B’s—last year’s overall winner in the Ratings—score decline the most in the industry, going down from 88% in 2014 to 84% in 2015.

Happy Employees Create Better Customer Experiences

As I discuss in my eBook The 6 Laws Of Customer Experience: Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers. If you want to differentiate your customer experience, then improve your relationship with employees.

That’s why I want to give a shout-out to these 100 companies (led by SAS, Edward Jones, Wegmans, Google, and Nugget Market) that Fortune Magazine ranked as the best companies to work for.

It’s no coincidence that I’ve written about customer experience best practices from many of these firms.

The bottom line: A good goal is to appear on, or move up on, this list.