Temkin Group Research
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2017|2016|2015|2014|2013|2012|2011|2010
2017 Research Reports
Humanizing Digital Interactions April 2017 ($195)
Emotions play an integral role in how customers make decisions and form judgments. This means that how a customer feels about an interaction with a company has an enormous impact on his or her loyalty to that company. However, companies tend to ignore customer emotions, especially during digital interactions, which is problematic as customers are increasingly interacting with companies online. This report focuses on humanizing digital interactions by replicating the elements of strong human conversations. Here are some highlights: 1) We developed The Human Conversational Model, which is made up of seven elements – Intent Decoding, Contextual Framing, Empathetic Agility, Supportive Feedback, Basic Manners, Self-Awareness, and Emotional Reflection; 2) We share over 35 examples of best practices from companies that are designing digital experiences across the seven elements of The Human Conversational Model; and 3) We demonstrate how you could apply The Human Conversational Model to three types of digital activities: opening a new bank account online, purchasing a pair of shoes through an app, and getting technical support online.
Dataset: 2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings (U.S.) April 2017 ($295)
The 2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings rates 294 companies across 20 industries based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers. This product is the dataset, in excel, for the 2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings (TFR). It includes the TFR for 329 companies and 20 industries, the changes in TFR between 2016 and 2017, and the difference in TFR across age groups for each industry.
Data Snapshot: Media Use Benchmark, 2017 March 2017 ($195)
In January 2017, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their media usage patterns and compared the results to similar data we collected in January 2016, January 2015, January 2014, January 2013, and January 2012. Our analysis examines the amount of time consumers spend every day watching television, browsing the Internet (for both work and leisure), reading books (both print and electronic), reading newspapers (both print and electronic), listening to the radio, reading a print magazine, and using a mobile phone. This data snapshot breaks down the results by income level, education level, and, most expansively, by age.
2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, U.S. March 2017 (FREE)
2017 is the seventh straight year that we’ve published the Temkin Experience Ratings, a cross-industry, open standard benchmark of customer experience. To generate these Ratings, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 331 companies across 20 industries and then evaluated their experiences across three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion.
State of the CX Profession, 2017 February 2017 ($195)
To understand the mindset and roles of customer experience professionals today, we surveyed 237 CX professionals and then compared their responses to similar studies we’ve conducted over the previous five years. We asked them how their CX efforts impacted their organization last year and about their plans for the coming year. This report also includes a compensation study, which is based on the 158 respondents who agreed to participate.
Data Snapshot: CX Expectations and Plans for 2017 February 2017 ($195)
In December 2016, Temkin Group surveyed 165 respondents – each from a company with $500 million or more in annual revenues – about their customer experience efforts over the past year and their plans for 2017 and beyond. We compared the results of this survey to the results of similar surveys we’ve conducted over the previous six years. This year’s results show that companies plan on dedicating more money and effort to improving a variety of customer experience activities.
Engaging A Tethered Workforce January 2017 ($195)
Companies across a number of industries create and deliver customer experiences (CX) through a combination of traditional employees and other workers who they do not directly control – such as contractors or employees of channel partners or outsourcing partners. Despite not being directly employed by the company, these other workers – who make up what Temkin Group calls a “tethered workforce” – still play a critical role in delivering experiences that represent the company’s brand. However, tethered workers differ from typical full-time, corporate employees in ways that pose challenges to brands’ efforts to align these workers with their customer experience goals and objectives. In this report, we examine how brands are tapping into these tethered employees.
Tech Vendors: Product and Relationship Satisfaction, 2017 January 2017 ($495)
During Q3 of 2016, we surveyed 800 IT decision-makers from companies with at least $250 million in annual revenues, asking them to rate both the products of and their relationships with 62 different tech vendors. HPE outsourcing, Google, and IBM SPSS earned the top overall scores, while Trend Micro, Infosys, and SunGard received the lowest overall scores. To determine their product rating, we evaluated tech vendors across four product/service criteria: features, quality, flexibility, and ease of use. And we calculated their relationship rating using four different criteria: technical support, support of the account team, cost of ownership, and innovation of company. We also looked at how the average product and relationship scores of tech vendors have changed over the previous three years.
Lessons in CX Excellence, 2017 January 2017 ($195)
This year, we named five organizations the winners of Temkin Group’s 2016 Customer Experience Excellence Award – Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Century Support Services, Crowe Horwath, Oxford Properties, and VCA. This report highlights specific examples of how these companies’ customer experience (CX) efforts have created value for both their customers and for their businesses, describes winners’ best practices across the four customer experience competencies: purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement, and customer connectedness. it includes all of the winners’ detailed nomination forms to help you collect examples and ideas to apply to your own CX efforts.
2017|2016|2015|2014|2013|2012|2011|2010
2016 Research Reports
The State of CX Metrics, 2016 December 2016 ($195)
Temkin Group surveyed 183 companies to learn about how they use customer experience (CX) metrics and then compared their answers with similar studies we’ve conducted every year since 2011. We found that the most commonly used metrics continue to be likelihood-to-recommend and satisfaction, while the most successful metric is transactional interaction satisfaction. Only 10% of companies regularly consider the effect of CX metrics when they make day-to-day decisions. The top two problems companies face are limited visibility of CX metrics and the lack of taking action on metrics. Companies are best at measuring customer service and phone-based experiences and are worst at measuring the experiences of prospects and customers who defect. We also had companies complete Temkin Group’s CX Metrics Program Assessment, which examines four characteristics of a metrics program: consistent (does the company use common CX metrics across the organization?), impactful (do the CX metrics inform important decisions?), integrated (are trade-offs made between CX and financial metrics?), and continuous (do leaders regularly examine the CX metrics?). Only 11% of respondents received at least a “good” overall rating in this assessment, and companies earned the lowest average rating in integrated. Companies with stronger CX metrics programs deliver better customer experience and use more effort and likelihood-to-repurchase metrics.
Capturing Insights from Online Customer Communities December 2016 ($195)
Companies across a range of industries use online customer communities to augment their customer support, marketing, and product innovation efforts. However, when used thoughtfully, these online communities can provide value far beyond their original purpose. Because these communities signify an ongoing relationship between the company and participating customers, customer insights teams will find that these forums contain a treasure trove of insights. As a result of these deeper relationships, online communities offer unique advantages to voice of the customer (VoC) programs, including Always-on Feedback, Broad and Diverse Insights, Continuous Dialogue, Peer-to-Peer Dynamics, and Employee-to-Community Interactivity. These unique advantages can help companies adapt to the five Customer Insight Trends that are changing the face of VoC programs: 1) Deep empathy, not stacks of metrics, 2) Continuous insights, not periodic studies, 3) Customer journeys, not isolated interactions, 4) Useful prescriptions, not past descriptions, and 5) Enterprise intelligence, not customer feedback. To help organizations get the most value from their communities, Temkin Group has highlighted best practices for capturing and using insights from customer communities across these five trends. Companies also must plan for the entire community lifecycle to be successful; this includes Determine Strategy, Structure Community, Recruit Members, Grow and Maintain, and Close Down.
Tech Vendor Client Success Ratings, 2016 November 2016 ($295)
Are tech vendors helpful in making their IT clients successful? To answer that question, we surveyed 800 IT decision makers from North American companies with at least $250 million in annual revenues. Temkin Group created the Client Success Ratings (CSR),.Which tech vendors are the best and the worst? We examined client responses for 62 tech vendors and found that IBM software, Google, IBM SPSS, VMware, and HPE outsourcing have the highest CSR. At the other end of the spectrum, Trend Micro, Accenture outsourcing, Sun Microsystems, and Satyam have the lowest CSR.
Temkin Loyalty Index, 2016 November 2016 ($295)
The 2016 Temkin Loyalty Index (TLi) evaluates how loyal 10,000 U.S. consumers feel towards 294 companies across 20 industries. To determine companies’ TLi, we asked respondents to rate how likely they are to exhibit five loyalty-related behaviors: repurchasing from the company, recommending the company to others, forgiving the company if it makes a mistake, trusting the company, and trying the company’s new offerings. Our research shows that, of all the companies we looked at, customers feel the most loyal towards Publix, USAA, and H-E-B, and feel the least loyal towards Comcast, Motel 6, and Anthem. At the industry level, we found that supermarkets, hotels, and retailers inspire the highest levels of loyalty, while TV service providers and Internet service providers trigger the lowest levels. Meanwhile, USAA, Mercedes-Benz, and Alabama Power Company enjoy the highest levels of customer loyalty compared with their industry peers, whereas Motel 6, Citibank, and Compaq fall the furthest behind their industry peers. We also compared the results of this year’s Index with those from last year and found that the average TLi declined across all 20 industries. TV service providers declined the most, while banks declined the least. And when we narrowed in on each of the five loyalty behaviors, we found that the Trust component scores dropped most significantly. And while the vast majority of individual companies’ TLi decreased over the past year, both Con Edison of NY and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney saw their scores improve by more than nine points.
2016 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors October 2016 ($695)
The 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates the customer experience of 62 large technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision-makers from large companies regarding three components – success, effort, and emotion – of their experiences with these IT providers. Out of all the vendors we looked at, HPE outsourcing, IBM SPSS, and Google earned the highest ratings, while Capgemini, Infosys, and Accenture received the lowest ratings. The average score for the Ratings dropped by one percentage-point over the past year, down from 59% in 2015 to 58% this year. Furthermore, our research shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are strongly correlated with multiple elements of loyalty behavior, including likelihood of repurchasing from the company, likelihood of recommending the company, likelihood of trying new products, and likelihood of forgiving the company if it makes a mistake.
ROI of Customer Experience, 2016 October 2016 ($295)
To understand the connection between customer experience (CX) and loyalty, we examined feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers that describes both their experiences with and their loyalty to different companies. To examine the CX component, we used the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings (TxR), which evaluated 294 companies. Our analysis shows that there’s a very large correlation between companies’ TxR and the willingness of customers to purchase more from them. This connection holds true for other areas of customer loyalty as well. We used this data to calculate the revenue impact of CX across 20 industries. We found that a moderate increase in CX generates an average revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues. Rental car agencies have the most to gain from improving CX ($967 million), while utilities have the least to gain ($645 million). While all three components of customer experience¬—success, effort, and emotion—have a strong effect on loyalty, our research shows that emotion is the most important element. When compared with companies with very poor CX, companies with very good CX have a 16.7 percentage-point advantage in customers who are willing to purchase more from them, 16.7 percentage-point advantage in customers who trust them, 10.3 percentage-point advantage in customers willing to forgive them if they make a mistake, and 7.1 percentage-point advantage in customers who are willing to try their new products. Additionally, companies with very good CX ratings have an average Net Promoter Score that is 22 points higher than the scores of companies with poor CX. We recommend that you build your own CX ROI models, using our five-step approach for guidance.
State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2016 October 2016 ($195)
For the sixth straight year, Temkin Group has benchmarked the competency and maturity levels of voice of the customer (VoC) programs within large organizations. We found that while most companies think that their VoC efforts are successful, less than one-third of companies actually consider themselves good at reviewing implications that cut across the organization. Respondents think that in the future, the most important source of insights will be customer interaction history and the least important source will be multiple-choice questions. And although respondents believe that technology will play an increasingly important role in their VoC efforts, they also cite “integration across systems” as the biggest obstacle to their VoC success, and this concern has only grown in the past year. In addition to asking questions about their VoC program, we also had respondents complete Temkin Group’s VoC Competency and Maturity Assessment, which examines capabilities across what we call the “Six Ds”: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. Only 16% of companies have reached the two highest levels of VoC maturity, while 43% remain in the bottom two levels. When we compared higher-scoring VoC programs with lower-scoring programs, we found that companies with mature programs are more successful, they focus more on analytics, and they have more full-time staff, more strongly coordinated efforts, and more involved senior executives.
Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2016 October 2016 ($495)
As many large companies use Net Promoter® Score (NPS) to evaluate their customer loyalty, Temkin Group measured the NPS of 315 companies across 20 industries. With an NPS of 68, USAA’s insurance business earned the highest score in the study for the fourth year in a row. Four other companies also earned an NPS of 60 or higher: Cadillac, USAA’s banking business, Apple, and USAA’s credit card business. In addition to earning some of the top scores, USAA’s banking, credit card, and insurance businesses also all outpaced their respective industries’ averages by more than any other company. Comcast, meanwhile, earned the lowest NPS for the second year in a row, coming in just below Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and McDonalds. And while all 20 industries increased their average NPS from last year, utilities enjoyed the biggest improvement in its score. Out of all the companies, US Airways’s and Advantage Rent-A-Car’s scores improved the most, whereas TriCare’s and Lexus’s scores declined the most. On average across the industries, the youngest consumers gave companies the lowest NPS, while 35- to 44-year-olds gave them the highest NPS.
Translating Brand Promises into Employee Behaviors October 2016 ($195)
Temkin Group has found that the companies that deliver great customer experience use their brand as a blueprint for how they treat customers, which is why Compelling Brand Values is one of our four customer experience core competencies. Too often organizations put a lot of energy into communicating the brand externally, only to fall short on connecting employees to their role in keeping brand promises. And when employees aren’t connected to these promises, they tend to be less proactive, to act inconsistently, and to care less about their work. In this report, we describe three steps that companies can use to translate their brand promises into employee behaviors: Make promises, Embrace promises, and Keep promises. To illustrate this approach, we share over 20 examples of best practices from companies including Anthem, A&W Food Services of Canada, the city of Centennial, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Quest Diagnostics. To evaluate how well your organization follows this approach, use Temkin Group’s Compelling Brand Promises Assessment.
Data Snapshot: Channel Preferences Benchmark, 2016 September 2016 ($195)
In Q3 2016, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their channel preferences for performing 11 different activities—such as selecting a life insurance policy or applying for a new credit card—and compared them to the results of a similar study conducted in 2015. This data snapshot examines how channel preferences vary across age groups, how these preferences have changed over the past year, and how channel preferences differ across multiple activities.
Tech Vendor NPS Benchmark, 2016 (B2B) September 2016 ($695)
For the fifth year in a row, we examined the link between Net Promoter Scores® (NPS®) and loyalty for technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision-makers from large North American firms to learn about their relationships with their technology providers. Of the 62 tech vendors we evaluated, IBM, HPE outsourcing, IBM SPSS, and VMware earned the highest NPS, while Cognizant, Capgemini, and Infosys received the lowest. Overall, the average NPS for the tech vendor industry decreased by almost 2 percentage points from last year. Our analysis shows that promoters are much more likely than detractors to increase their spending with tech vendors, try new products and services when they are announced, and forgive tech vendors after a bad experience. We also found that Software AG and HPE outsourcing are the top companies for purchase momentum, while IBM SPSS, IBM software, and IBM outsourcing have the highest Temkin Innovation Equity Quotient, and HPE outsourcing and IBM SPSS are at the top of the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.
Data Snapshot: Social Media Benchmark, 2016 August 2016 ($195)
In January 2016, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about how frequently they use social media on their computers and mobile phones, and we then compared these usage rates to analogous data we collected in January 2012, January 2013, January 2014, & January 2015. This analysis looks at the frequency with which consumers in different age groups use computers and mobile phones to access Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and third-party rating sites.
Five C’s of Mobile VoC Disruption July 2016 ($195)
As mobile continues to grow in importance, companies will need to renovate their voice of the customer (VoC) programs. Why? Because mobile is more than just another communications channel – it is transforming the way that companies and customers interact. To help companies modernize their VoC programs to account for this increase in mobile usage, we’ve identified the key areas in which mobile is different from other channels, what we call the “Five C’s of Mobile VoC Disruption: “Condensed, Comprehensive, Current, Conversational, and Contextual. These disruptive characteristics will force companies to redefine how they capture, share, and act on customer insights. We’ve identified more than 20 best practices that span all areas of a VoC program, including soliciting in-the-moment feedback for key interactions and accelerating the sharing of useful insights. In order to use mobile successfully, companies need to evolve through three stages of change: 1) Mobile-Enabled, 2) Mobile-Adjusted, and 3) Mobile-First.
State of Employee Engagement Maturity, 2016 July 2016 ($195)
Engaged employees are critical assets for any customer experience effort. As engaged employees are critical assets, it’s not surprising our data shows that customer experience leaders have more engaged employees than their peers. To understand what companies are doing to engage their employees, we surveyed more than 150 large companies and compared their responses with similar studies we’ve conducted in previous years. We found that two-thirds of companies survey their employees at least once a year, but that less than half of executives consider it a high priority to act on the results of that survey. We used Temkin Group’s Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity (EECM) Assessment to gauge the maturity levels and efforts of these companies across our five competencies, called the “Five I’s of Employee Engagement:” Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. We found that only 12% of companies have reached the top two levels of maturity, Enhancing and Maximizing, which is a drop from 2015. The lack of a clear employee engagement strategy remains the number one obstacle that companies face. We also compared companies with above average employee engagement maturity to those with lower maturity and found that employee engagement leaders enjoy better financial results than their counterparts with less engaged workforces.
Economics of Net Promoter Score, 2016 June 2016 ($195)
Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) is a popular metric that companies use to analyze their customer experience efforts, but how does it actually relate to loyalty? We asked thousands of consumers to give an NPS to 294 companies across 20 industries, and then we examined the connection between NPS and four key areas of loyalty. We found that compared to detractors, promoters are more than five times as likely to repurchase from companies, more than seven times as likely to forgive companies if they make a mistake, and almost nine times as likely to try new offerings from companies. Our research also shows that promoters recommend a company to an average of 3.5 people. The following analysis provides detailed loyalty data of promoters, passives, and detractors across 20 industries: airlines, auto dealers, banks, computer and tablet makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, major appliance makers, parcel delivery services, rental car agencies, retailers, software firms, supermarkets, TV service providers, utilities, and wireless carriers. Ultimately, if a company wants to benefit from using NPS as a key metric, it must focus on improving customer experience, not obsessing over the metric itself.
2016 Temkin Customer Service Ratings June 2016 ($295 for dataset)
USAA earned the highest score in the 2016 Temkin Customer Service Ratings for the fourth year in a row. These Ratings evaluate the customer service of 277 companies across 20 industries based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers. USAA earned the top spot this year for its banking business with a 74% rating, and Publix came in a close second with a rating of 73%. Comcast, meanwhile, earned the lowest score in the Temkin Customer Service Ratings for the third straight year. Once again, the company received the two lowest scores in the Ratings, one for its TV service business and one for its Internet service, business both of which received a score of 31%.
The State of the CX Management, 2016 June 2016 ($195)
For the seventh straight year, Temkin Group surveyed large companies to evaluate the state of their Customer Experience (CX) management. This year we found an abundance of CX ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, a central team coordinating significant CX activities, and a staff of six to 10 full-time CX professionals. Temkin Group has identified four CX core competencies that companies must master if they want to become customer-centric: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency and maturity assessment, we found that only 10% of companies have reached the highest two levels of customer experience, and companies are weakest in the Compelling Brand Values competency. We additionally compared CX laggards with CX leaders and discovered that the leaders have stronger financial results, have more senior executives leading the company-wide CX efforts, have more full-time CX employees, use more analytics, and have more support from senior leaders. This report also includes an assessment that companies can use to benchmark their CX efforts and capabilities.
Emotion-Infused Experience Design June 2016 ($195)
Emotions play an essential role in how people make decisions. Consequently, how a customer feels about their experience with a company has the most significant impact on their loyalty to that company. And yet despite their importance, both customers and companies agree that organizations do a poor job of engaging customers’ emotions. To help companies create a stronger emotional connection with customers, we’ve developed an approach called Emotion-Infused Experience Design (EIxD). To master EIxD, organizations must continuously focus on three questions: “Who exactly are these people (who happen to be our customers)?” “What is our organizational personality?” and “How do we want customers to feel?” This report offers both advice and examples about how to apply these three questions across four facets that affect emotion: senses, feelings, social, and values. And to help infuse these practices across the organization, we have also identified some strategies for how to turn employees into agents of EIxD.
2016 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings May 2016 ($295 for dataset)
The 2016 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings rates 294 companies across 20 industries based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers. USAA ‘s banking business and Publix took the top two spots in the 2016 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. USAA (credit cards), Amazon.com (for retail and computer & tablets), Food Lion, H-E-B, Wawa Food Markets, and Kroger fill out the top spots. Comcast (for both TV service and Internet service) earned the lowest Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. Other firms on the bottom of the ratings are Charter Communications (TV service and Internet service), Motel 6, Health Net, Time Warner Cable (TV service and Internet service), Cox Communications and Anthem.
Customer-Infused Process Improvement April 2016 ($195)
Process improvement and customer experience have traditionally served different roles in a company. However, these two disciplines are starting to intersect as customer experience looks to process improvement to operationalize key customer interactions and process improvement needs customer experience to provide customer-focused insights and continually monitor new processes. Temkin Group proposes that companies bring these two approaches together into Customer-Infused Process Change. This report highlights five strategies critical to driving this new approach: Prioritize Improvements Across Customer Journeys, Embrace Deep Customer Empathy, Involve Customers in Solution Development, Innovate to Meet Latent Needs, and Measure Success with Customer-Focused Metrics. To make process improvement efforts more customer-centric, organizations need to infuse these strategies across all aspects of process improvement.
USAA, Credit Unions and Publix Top 2016 Temkin Trust Ratings April 2016 ($295 for dataset)
Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the 2016 Temkin Trust Ratings is the sixth annual benchmark of consumer trust. For the second straight year, USAA (for banking and insurance) took the top two spots. The next highest scoring companies are credit unions, Publix, Mercedes-Benz, USAA (credit cards), Chick-fil-A, Amazon.com, Residence Inn, H-E-B, Lexus, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Also for the second year in a row, Comcast earned the lowest two spots in the Temkin Trust Ratings for its TV service and Internet service businesses. But many of its competitors also earn very poor ratings. The next lowest rated companies are Charter Communications (for Internet service and TV service), Time Warner (for Internet service and TV service), and Cox Communications.
What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2016 March 2016 ($195)
We asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their recent interactions with 315 companies across 20 industries, and compared results with similar studies over the previous five years. More than 20% of the customers of Internet service providers and TV service providers reported a bad experience, considerably above the rates for any other industry. Air Tran Airways, Time Warner Cable (TV service and Internet service), Comcast (TV service), and HSBC delivered bad experience to at least one-quarter of their customers. At the same time, less than 3% of Michael’s, Advance Auto Parts, Whole Foods, Publix, Subway, Vanguard, Trader Joe’s, and GameStop customers report having bad experiences. We examined the combination of the volume of bad experiences and the resulting revenue impact and created a Revenues at Risk Index for all 20 industries. At the top of the list, TV service providers and rental car agencies stand to lose at least 6.5% of their revenue from bad experiences. Conversely, less than 2% of the revenues for retailers and supermarket chains are at risk. The companies that recovered very poorly after a bad experience lost sales from 63% of their customers, more than 2.5 times as many as companies that recovered very well. Companies that do a very good job at recovering after a bad experience have more customers who increase spending than those who decrease spending. After a very bad or very good experience, consumers are more likely to give feedback directly to the company than they are to post on Facebook, Twitter, or third party rating sites. Regardless of the channel, consumers are more likely to discuss a very bad experience than a very good one. While the way that consumers give feedback has not changed much since last year, the volume of Twitter usage grew for both positive and negative experiences. Piggly Wiggly, US Cellular, Fifth Third, The Hartford, TriCare, and PSE&G face the potential for the most negatively biased feedback from customers.
The Federated Customer Experience Model March 2016 ($195)
When a company starts its customer experience (CX) journey, it often establishes a centralized team to build the necessary internal capabilities and catalyze change. However, that team’s effectiveness can be limited by a number of things, including divided attention within lines of business and a lack of resources to reach across the company. In its 2012 report, The Future of Customer Experience, Temkin Group identified the need for CX efforts to become more federated. To succeed in the long-run, companies need to focus more on embedding CX capabilities across departments and functions through a federated CX model. A federated model is a structure for enabling and coordinating a distributed set of customer experience capabilities, and it operates through centers of excellence—which spread specialized expertise beyond the boundaries of the centralized team—and enterprise CX coordination—which ensures that company-wide goals and standards are in place—and distributed CX skills and mindsets—which infuses customer-centric mindset throughout the company. These centers of excellence include deep analytics, reporting and data visualization, experience design, customer-driven process improvement, and culture change management. Enterprise CX coordination oversees enterprise CX strategy and governance, insights, metrics and reporting, standard methodologies and tools, central CX storylines, and portfolio management. And distributed CX skills and mindsets encompasses CX goal alignment, customer understanding, empathy orientation, improvement focus, and organizational awareness. The path companies take to federation can include multiple phases, such as centrally driven, cross-functional participation, distributed expertise, and federated. As their companies move down this path, successful CX professionals will be the ones who learn the business, coach and advise others, embrace empowerment, and keep learning; or, alternatively, they can choose to specialize and leave the central CX team to join one of the centers of excellence.
Data Snapshot: Media Use Benchmark, 2016 March 2016 ($195)
In January 2016, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their media usage patterns and compared the results to similar data we collected in January 2015, January 2014, January 2013, and January 2012. Our analysis examines the amount of time consumers spend every day watching television, browsing the Internet (for both work and leisure), reading books (both print and electronic), reading newspapers (both print and electronic), listening to the radio, reading a print magazine, and using a mobile phone. This data snapshot breaks down the results by income level, education level, and, most expansively, by age.
2016 Temkin Experience Ratings March 2016 (FREE)
2016 marks the sixth straight year that we’ve published the Temkin Experience Ratings, a cross-industry, open standard benchmark of customer experience. This year, Publix and H-E-B earned the top two spots, and supermarket chains overall took six of the top 11 spots. At the other end of the spectrum, Fujitsu received the lowest score of any company, closely followed by Health Net. Five other health plans joined them in the bottom 11. To generate these ratings, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 294 companies across 20 industries and then evaluated their experiences across three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion. Publix and H-E-B earned the highest ratings for success, while Publix, O’Reilly Auto Parts, True Value, and Save-a Lot earned the highest for effort, and Publix, Chick-fil-A, and Residence Inn earned the highest for emotion. And when we looked at who had the best and the worst ratings for each industry, we found that USAA actually earned the highest ratings in two industries, while Comcast received the lowest ratings in two industries. Amazon.com, USAA, Holiday Inn Express, and Residence Inn outperformed their industry averages by the most points, while Fujitsu, Motel 6, and HSBC fell behind by the most points. Although all industries declined between 2015 and 2016, rental car agencies and health plans experienced the most dramatic drops. Meanwhile, Coventry Health Care, Con Edison of New York, and True Value improved the most over the last year, and Volkswagen dealers, Fairfield Inn, and Fujitsu dropped the most. To improve customer experience, companies need to master four competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness.
Mobile Experience Review: Purchasing an eGift Card March 2016 ($195)
As more customers use smartphones, companies need to adjust their websites and processes for the smaller screens. To evaluate the customer experience of mobile websites, we used Temkin Group’s SLICE-B experience review methodology to assess the experience of purchasing an eGift Card from ten large retailers: Macy’s, Kohl’s, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Petco, Petsmart, Kroger, Safeway, Michaels, and Jo-Ann. Macy’s earned the highest score for its simple yet engaging process, while the user was unable to complete the full purchasing goal at Barnes & Noble, Petco, Petsmart, Kroger, Safeway, and Kohl’s.
State of the CX Profession, 2016 February 2016 ($195)
To better understand the mindset and roles of CX professionals today, we surveyed 208 CX professionals and then compared their responses to similar studies we’ve conducted over the previous four years. Eighty-six percent of respondents reported that their CX efforts positively impacted their organization’s business results in 2015, while 96% believe that customer experience is a great profession to work. About nine out of 10 respondents feel satisfied with the people they work with, the content of their jobs, and the company they work for; however only 61% are satisfied with their opportunities for professional advancement. Both web interactions and voice of the customer programs continue to be key areas of responsibility for these professionals, and respondents expect spending on CX activities to grow in 2016, with text analytics and predictive analytics showing the most positive momentum. On this year’s survey, we included our third annual compensation study. We looked at 105CX professionals from large organizations and found that their average compensation (salary plus bonus) ranged from $135,000 for mid-level individual contributors to $260,000 for CX executives.
Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, 2016 February 2016 ($195)
We used the Temkin Employee Engagement Index to analyze the engagement levels of more than 5,000 U.S. employees. We found that employee engagement has stayed relatively flat since last year, but engagement levels still vary by organization, industry, and individual. Companies with stronger financial performances and better customer experience have employees who are considerably more engaged than their peers. Our research also shows that out of all the industries, the construction sector has the highest percentage of engaged employees, while the retail sector increased the most since last year. We additionally found that companies with 501 to 1,000 employees have the highest percentage of engaged employees and companies with 10,000 or more employees have the lowest level of engagement. On an individual level, our research shows that employees who are highly educated, high-income earners, executives, male, and have very good bosses tend to be the most highly engaged. Given the significant value of engaged employees, we recommend that companies improve engagement levels by mastering our Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent.
Benchmarking HR’s Support of CX and Employee Engagement February 2016 ($195)
Employee engagement is a critical component of customer experience (CX). To determine how effectively human resource (HR) departments support these engagement efforts, we surveyed 300 HR professionals from large companies and compared the results to a similar study we conducted in 2012. Seventy-three percent of HR professionals believe that it’s very important for their organization to become more customer-centric, but only 31% believe that HR professionals are significantly helping these efforts. The good news? That’s more than twice the level of HR support we found in 2012. Compared with 2012, companies are both measuring and acting on employee feedback more frequently, and HR professionals have more bandwidth to work on employee engagement. When we compared the companies that deliver outstanding customer experience with the companies that don’t, we found that the CX leaders have better financial performance, enjoy higher levels of engaged employees, are more customer- and mission-centric, have HR groups that are more actively involved in CX and employee engagement activities, and more frequently measure employee feedback. To improve employee engagement, companies must master the Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve and Incent.
Data Snapshot: CX Expectations and Plans for 2016 February 2016 ($195)
In December 2015, Temkin Group surveyed 160 respondents, each from a company with $500 million or more in annual revenues, about their customer experience efforts over the past year and their plans for 2016 and beyond. We compared the results of this survey to the results of similar surveys that we completed in Q4 of 2010, Q4 of 2011, Q4 of 2012, Q4 of 2013, and Q1 of 2015. This year’s results show that companies are planning on dedicating more money and effort to improve a variety of customer experience activities.
Lessons in CX Excellence, 2016 January 2016 ($195)
This year, we chose eight organizations as finalists for Temkin Group’s 2015 Customer Experience Excellence Award. The finalists for 2015 are EMC Global Services, Hagerty, InMoment, Safelite AutoGlass, SunPower, The Results Companies, Verint, and Wheaton | Bekins. This report provides specific examples describing how these companies’ CX efforts have created value for both their customers and for their businesses. We also highlight best practices across the four customer experience competencies—purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement, and customer connectedness. We have included all of the finalists’ detailed nomination forms at the end of this report to help you compile examples and ideas to apply to your own CX efforts.
Tech Vendors: Product and Relationship Satisfaction, 2016 January 2016 ($495)
During Q3, 2015, 800 IT professionals from companies with at least $250 million in annual revenues rated both the products of and their relationships with 62 tech vendors. The research examines satisfaction with eight areas: product/service features, product/service quality, product/service flexibility, product/service ease of use, technical support, support of the account team, cost of ownership, and innovation of company. Some of the findings include that Intel, Google, and HP outsourcing earned the highest overall satisfaction ratings, while Unisys, Sage, and Cognizant IT services earned the lowest. When it comes to product satisfaction, Intel leads in product features, Apple and IBM IT services lead in product quality, Google leads in product flexibility, and NetApp leads in product ease of use. When it comes to relationship satisfaction, HP outsourcing leads in tech support and in cost of ownership, Intel leads in account team support, and Google leads in innovation.
2017|2016|2015|2014|2013|2012|2011|2010
2015 Research Reports
Make Your VoC Action-Oriented, December 2015 ($195)
Companies recognize that customer feedback and insights are critical for understanding customers, so they often create Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs as one of their first customer experience priorities. While most respondents within large organizations believe that these efforts have been successful, Temkin Group has found that an overwhelming number of VoC programs are still in very early stages of maturity. These immature programs overly focus on collecting feedback and don’t focus enough on driving action based on insights from the feedback. Our research shows that simplification is a key path to VoC maturity. This report identifies five strategies for simplifying VoC programs: Stakeholder Empathy, Tailored Insights, Feedback Rationalization, Loop-Closing, and Customer Journey Alignment. As companies adopt these five strategies, VoC teams must learn new skills and become research generalists, business consultants, compelling communicators, portfolio managers, and value creators.
Dataset: Tech Vendor Client Success Ratings, December 2015 ($295)
This product is an Excel worksheet with detailed 2015 Tech Vendor Client Success Ratings for 62 tech vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision makers from large companies and asked them “How helpful are these IT vendors in making sure that your organization successfully achieves your desired value from the products and services that you have purchased from them?” Responses are on a scale from 1 (not at all helpful) to 7 (extremely helpful).
The State of CX Metrics, 2015, December 2015 ($195)
Temkin Group surveyed nearly 200 large companies to learn about how they use customer experience (CX) metrics, and we then compared their answers with similar studies we’ve conducted every year since 2011. The most commonly used metrics continue to be likelihood-to-recommend and satisfaction, while the most successful metric is interaction satisfaction. And although the percentage of companies where senior leaders regularly refer to CX metrics has increased significantly from last year, fewer companies are making explicit trade-offs between CX metrics and financial metrics. Companies are best at measuring customer service and phone-based experiences and are worst at measuring the experiences of prospects and customers who defect. In addition to answering survey questions, we also had companies complete Temkin Group’s CX Metrics Competency and Maturity Assessment, which examines four areas of a metrics program: consistent (does the company use common CX metrics across the organization?), impactful (do the CX metrics inform important decisions?), integrated (are trade-offs made between CX and financial metrics?), and continuous (do leaders regularly examine the CX metrics?). Only 14% of respondents received at least a “good” overall rating, and companies earned the lowest rating in integrated. Ultimately, companies with stronger CX metrics programs deliver better customer experience, have stronger business results, more frequently measure ease of doing business, and compensate more employees based on CX metrics.
B2B Customer Experience Best Practices, November 2015 ($195)
Temkin Group research shows that although business-to-business (B2B) organizations are raising their customer experience (CX) ambitions, they still have a way to go before achieving their goals. Despite the fact that most large B2Bs have a low level of CX maturity, our research shows that 57% of them aspire to deliver industry-leading customer experience within three years. However, to improve their CX, B2Bs must master Temkin Group’s four customer experience core competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness. Our research uncovered 20 practices that B2Bs can emulate when applying those competencies across these five key business processes: sales and account management, implementation/project execution, support and issue resolution, partner alignment, and product management and innovation. To assess your organization’s CX maturity, use Temkin Group’s Customer Experience Competency Assessment and compare the results to data from other large B2B firms to chart your path to improvement.
2015 Temkin Loyalty Index, November 2015 ($395)
The 2015 Temkin Loyalty Index evaluates the loyalty of 10,000 U.S. consumers to 293 companies across 20 industries. The Index is based on evaluating consumers’ likelihood to do five things: repurchase from the company, recommend the company to others, forgive the company if it makes a mistake, trust the company, and try the company’s new offerings. Our research shows that USAA, H-E-B, Publix, and Trader Joe’s are at the top of the list when it comes to consumer loyalty, while Con Edison of NY, Coventry Health Care, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable are at the bottom. At an industry level, supermarkets, fast food chains, and retailers inspire the highest loyalty levels. At the other end of the spectrum, TV service providers and Internet service providers have the lowest levels of loyalty. USAA, JetBlue Airways, TriCare, credit unions, ACE Rent A Car, Apple, and Georgia Power have loyalty levels that most outperform their industry averages. Conversely, Con Edison of NY, RadioShack, Blackboard, Coventry Health Care, Citibank, Jeep, Bi-Lo, and McDonalds fall farthest behind their peers.
2015 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors, November 2015 ($695)
The 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors evaluates the customer experience of 62 large technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT decision makers from large companies on the success, effort, and emotion components of their experiences with these IT providers. IBM SPSS and Intel earned the top ratings, while Cognizant and BMC were at the other end of the spectrum with the lowest ratings. The average score this year, 59%, represents a six percentage-point increase over last year and is the highest score achieved since the ratings’ inception in 2012. Our research also shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are strongly correlated with elements of loyalty, such as repurchasing, Net Promoter Score, innovation success, and forgiveness.
State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2015, October 2015 ($195)
For the fifth year, Temkin Group has benchmarked the voice of the customer (VoC) programs within large organizations. We found that while most organizations consider their VoC efforts to be successful, less than one-third of organizations actually believe they are good at making changes to the business based on these insights. Respondents think that the most important source of insights in the future will be customer interaction history, and they think that going forward, multiple-choice questions will be the least important. Respondents believe that technology will play an increasingly important role in their efforts, but the largest obstacle to VoC success remains integration across systems. In addition to asking questions about their VoC program, we also had respondents complete Temkin Group’s VoC Competency and Maturity Assessment, which examines capabilities across what we call the “Six Ds”: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. Although only 16% of companies have reached the two highest levels of VoC maturity, this is still an improvement from the 11% last year. When we compared high-scoring VoC programs with lower-scoring programs, we found that companies with mature programs are more successful, focus more on analytics, have more full-time staff, have more strongly coordinated efforts, and have more involved senior executives.
ROI of Customer Experience, 2015, October 2015 ($295)
To understand the connection between customer experience (CX) and loyalty, we examined feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers that describes both their experiences with and their loyalty to 293 companies across 20 industries. Our analysis shows a strong correlation between customer experience and loyalty factors such as repurchasing, trying new offerings, forgiving mistakes, and recommending the company to friends and colleagues. While all three components of customer experience—success, effort, and emotion—have a strong effect on loyalty, our research shows that emotion is the most important element. When we compared the consumers who gave companies a very good customer experience rating to those who gave companies a very bad customer experience rating, we found that at companies with high customer experience ratings, the percentage of customers who plan on purchasing more is 18 points higher, the percentage who will forgive the company if it makes a mistakes is 12 points higher, the percentage who will try a new offering is 10 points higher, and the percentage who trust the company is 19 points higher. Additionally, companies with very good CX ratings have an average Net Promoter® Score that is 24 points higher than the scores of companies with poor CX. We built a model to evaluate how, over a three-year period, customer experience impacts the revenue of a $1 billion business within each of the 20 industries. This model shows that CX has the largest impact on the revenue of hotels ($823 million) and rental cars ($755 million) over three years. This report also includes a five-step approach for building a model that estimates the value of CX for your organization.
Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2015, October 2015 ($495)
Many companies use Net Promoter® Score (NPS) to evaluate their customer loyalty, so we measured the NPS of 291 companies across 20 industries. The three companies with the highest scores are USAA, with an NPS of 70, and Lexus and Mercedes-Benz, each with an NPS of 62. Additionally, USAA’s banking, credit card, and insurance businesses all outpaced their respective industries’ averages by more than any other company. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the list, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and McDonalds received the three lowest scores, and RadioShack, McDonalds, and eMachines fell the farthest below their respective industries’ averages. On an industry level, auto dealers earned the highest average NPS, while Internet service providers and TV service providers earned the lowest. Thirteen of the 20 industries increased their average NPS from last year, with banks enjoying the biggest jump in scores. Out of all the companies, HSBC’s and AirTran Airways’ scores improved the most, whereas Fujitsu’s and Highmark’s scores declined the most. For most industries, older consumers gave companies a higher NPS, while younger consumers gave companies a lower NPS. Investment firms have the largest generation gap.
eBook: 15 Tips for Engaging Employees, October 2015 (FREE)
It is impossible for an organization to deliver a great customer experience without an engaged workforce. To help you engage your employees in your customer experience journey, we have compiled a list of 15 examples of how leading-edge companies are practicing what Temkin Group calls the “Five I’s of Employee Engagement”—Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent—which you can modify and emulate at your own firm.
Maximizing Value From Customer Journey Mapping, September 2015 ($195)
Customer Journey Maps (CJMs) are a valuable tool for understanding how customers truly interact across an entire organization, but companies aren’t capturing enough value from their CJM efforts. Creating a CJM is only the first step in the process for change; the real benefit comes from using the insights from CJMs to drive action. In this report, we identify 23 best practices for using CJMs, and these practices cut across five areas: 1) Find and Fix Problems, 2) Build a Customer-centric Mindset, 3) Design Innovative Experiences, 4) Create Strategic Alignment, and 5) Refine Customer Measurement. To truly maximize value from customer journey maps, companies need to set themselves up for success by establishing organizational alignment, determining if outside help is needed, training key stakeholders in customer journey mapping, and scaling customer journey mapping techniques across the organization by employing Customer Journey Thinking.
Tech Vendor NPS Benchmark, 2015 (B2B), September 2015 ($695)
To examine the link between Net Promoter Scores® (NPS®) and loyalty, we surveyed 800 IT decision-makers from large North American firms to learn about their relationships with their technology providers. Of the 62 tech vendors we evaluated, SAS Institute, HP outsourcing, and Intel earned the highest NPS, while Accenture, CA Technologies, and Hitachi received the lowest. Overall, the tech vendor industry’s average NPS jumped to 31.8 in 2015—an increase of more than eight points—after two straight years of declining scores. Our analysis shows that promoters are much more likely than detractors to spend more money with tech vendors, try new products and services when they are announced, and forgive their tech vendors after a bad experience. Our results also revealed that SAS Institute and Cognizant outsourcing were the top companies for purchase momentum, IBM SPSS and Intel have the highest Temkin Innovation Equity Quotient, and HP outsourcing and Intel scored the highest in the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.
Creating and Sustaining a Customer-Centric Culture, September 2015 ($195)
Temkin Group defines culture as how employees think, believe, and act, and if an organization wants to differentiate its customer experience, it must address each one of these areas. However culture change is not easy. Culture change efforts are often impeded by common pitfalls, such as ignoring the existing culture or becoming impatient at the pace of change. To make this effort smoother, Temkin Group recommends adopting an approach we call Employee-Engaging Transformation (EET), which consists of five practices: Vision Translation, Persistent Leadership, Middle Management Activation, Grassroots Mobilization, and Captivating Communications. In this report, we’ve compiled case studies of how five organizations—Hagerty, Hilton Garden Inn, Oxford Properties, Safelite AutoGlass, and Transamerica—apply these EET practices to create and sustain their customer-centric cultures. To help your company discuss its goals around culture, use Temkin Group’s Cultural Planning Map.
Data Snapshot: Channel Preferences Benchmark, 2015, August 2015 ($195)
In Q3 2015, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their channel preferences for performing 11 different activities—such as selecting a life insurance policy or applying for a new credit card—and compared them to the results of a similar study conducted in 2014. This data snapshot examines how channel preferences vary across age groups, how these preferences have changed over the past year, and how channel preferences differ across multiple activities.
Behavioral Guide to Customer Experience Design, August 2015 ($195)
According to recent scientific research, customers make most of their decisions using intuitive thinking instead of rational thinking. Intuitive thinking relies on unconscious heuristics and biases to make decisions efficiently, and as a result, people tend to be more affected by losses than by gains, to prefer simplicity over complexity, to be affected by their current emotional and visceral states, to be heavily influenced by those around them, to make decisions based on context, and to misjudge their past and future experiences. In this report, we identify best practices for tapping into these heuristics and biases across three areas of experience design; companies can Nudge customers in the right direction, Assist them in accomplishing their goals, and Enhance their overall experience. To incorporate intuitive thinking into experience design, companies need to follow four steps: define target customers, identify relevant heuristics and biases, select design strategies, and then test, test, test.
Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity, 2015, July 2015 ($195)
Engaged employees are critical assets for any customer experience effort. Our research of more than 200 large companies shows that front-line employees are the most engaged, while back office employees are often neglected in employee engagement efforts. We also found that two-thirds of companies survey their employees at least once a year, but less than half of executives consider acting on the results as a high priority. We used Temkin Group’s Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity Assessment to gauge the maturity levels and efforts of these companies across our five competencies, called the Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. We found that less than one out of five companies have reached the top two levels of maturity, Enhancing and Maximizing. This percentage of very mature companies is about the same as in 2014, but the percentage of companies in the lowest two levels of maturity has dropped from 67% to 56% since last year. We also found that many companies face challenges when trying to make improvements. The lack of a clear employee engagement strategy remains the number one obstacle that’s been cited by respondents over the previous three years. We compared companies with above average employee engagement maturity with those with lower maturity and found that the leaders deliver better customer experience and also have better financial results than their counterparts.
Unlocking Customer Insights From the Contact Center, July 2015 ($295)
Companies have traditionally viewed their contact centers as cost centers and have consequently focused most of their energy on making agents as efficient as possible. However, companies are now beginning to realize that contact centers actually contain a wealth of deep, untapped information about customers. Temkin Group recommends that companies tap into this rich vein of information by shifting their focus away from agent productivity and towards enterprise intelligence. To construct a more holistic picture of their customers’ experiences, companies should take the unsolicited, unstructured voice of the customer (VoC) feedback they capture in the contact center and combine it with data they collect from other sources, such as CRM and digital analytics. In this report, we outline how companies’ efforts should shift across each of the Six D’s of a VOC program: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. To start the transformation away from agent productivity and towards enterprise intelligence, companies need to focus on data integration, analyzing the entire customer journey, forming a cohesive governance structure, and developing new roles and skills for employees.
Economics of Net Promoter, 2015, June 2015 ($295)
Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) is a popular metric that companies use to analyze their customer experience efforts, but how does it actually relate to loyalty? We asked thousands of consumers to give an NPS to 293 companies across 20 industries, and then we examined the connection between NPS and four key areas of loyalty. We found that compared to detractors, promoters are more than five times as likely to repurchase from a company, more than five times as likely to forgive a company if it makes a mistake, more than seven times as likely to try a new offering shortly after its introduction, and that they recommend the company to about four times as many people. This analysis examines the loyalty behaviors of promoters, passives, and detractors across 20 industries: airlines, appliance makers, auto dealers, banks, rental car agencies, computer and tablet makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, retailers, software firms, supermarkets, TV service providers, utilities, and wireless carriers. The percentage of promoters who are likely to repurchase ranges from 96% for retailers, fast food chains, and supermarkets down to 77% for airlines, while the percentage of those who are likely to forgive ranges from 72% for computers & tablets, utilities, and supermarkets down to 51% for airlines. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who are likely to try new offerings ranges from 70% for major appliances and software firms down to 52% for banks. Ultimately, if a company wants to benefit from using NPS as a key metric, it must focus on improving customer experience, not obsessing over the metric itself.
Activating Middle Managers to Drive CX Change, June 2015 ($195)
It’s hard to get any group of employees to change their behavior when their managers are still reinforcing old processes, measurements, and beliefs. Middle managers show up in organizations under a variety of titles, but regardless of the descriptor, they are the ones who execute plans, lead teams, and direct collective efforts to produce results. Because of the importance of these responsibilities, Temkin Group made “Activating Middle Managers” a key strategy in its change model, Employee-Engaging Transformation. In this report, we examine five categories of best practices for successfully activating middle managers in organizational change efforts: Involve Middle Managers in Shaping the Change, Engage Middle Managers in Goal Setting, Train Middle Managers on Key Skills, Provide Middle Managers Tools to Engage their Teams, and Connect Middle Managers with Customers. In this report, we also describe the critical role that senior leaders must play across all of these strategies.
The State of the CX Management, 2015, May 2015 ($195)
For the sixth straight year, Temkin Group surveyed nearly 200 large companies to evaluate the state of their Customer Experience (CX) management. This year we found an abundance of CX ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, a central team coordinating significant CX activities, and a staff of six to 10 full-time CX professionals. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency and maturity assessment, we found that 32% of companies have reached the highest three levels of customer experience, and while this isn’t very high, it’s still a significant increase from last year. Companies have also achieved the best scores we’ve seen for two of our four core competencies, Employee Engagement and Customer Connectedness. We additionally compared CX laggards with CX leaders and discovered that the leaders have stronger financial results, have more customer-centric cultures, focus more on internal communications, are stronger at customer insights and change management, and are better at digital interactions. Executives in companies with stronger CX competencies also tend to focus more on building a customer-centric culture and less on cutting costs. This report also includes an assessment that companies can use to benchmark their CX efforts and capabilities.
Data Snapshot: Social Media Benchmark, 2015, May 2015 ($195)
In January 2015, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about how frequently they use social media on their computers and mobile phones, and we then compared these usage rates to analogous data we collected in January 2012, January 2013, and January 2014. This analysis looks at the frequency with which consumers in different age groups use computers and mobile phones to access Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and third-party rating sites. We also examine how usage rates vary by mobile phone type.
Data Snapshot: Media Use Benchmark, 2015, April 2015 ($195)
In January 2015, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their media usage patterns and compared the results to similar data we collected in January 2014, January 2013, and January 2012. Our analysis examines the amount of time consumers spend every day watching television, browsing the Internet (for both work and leisure), reading books (both print and electronic), reading newspapers (both print and electronic), listening to the radio, reading a print magazine, and using a mobile phone. This data snapshot breaks down the results by income level, education level, and, most expansively, by age.
State of the CX Profession, 2015, March 2015 ($195)
To better understand the mindset and roles of CX professionals today, we surveyed 270 CX professionals and then compared their responses to similar studies we conducted over the previous four years. Although 98% of respondents believe that customer experience is a great profession to work in, these professionals feel less appreciated than they did last year. Web interactions and voice of the customer programs continue to be key areas of responsibility for these professionals, and respondents expect spending on and hiring for CX activities to grow in 2015, with voice of the customer software vendors enjoying the most positive momentum. On this year’s survey we included our second annual compensation study. We examined 126 CX professionals from large organizations and found that their average compensation (salary plus bonus) ranged from $92,000 for mid-level individual contributors to $344,000 for CX executives.
Data Snapshot: Customer Experience Expectations and Plans for 2015, March 2015 ($195)
This is our annual analysis of CX priorities and spending within large organizations. In the first quarter of 2015, Temkin Group surveyed 207 respondents, each from a company with $500 million or more in annual revenues, about their customer experience efforts over the past year and their plans for 2015 and beyond. We compared the results of this survey to the results of similar surveys that we completed in Q4 of 2010, Q4 of 2011, Q4 of 2012, and Q4 of 2013. This year’s results show that companies are planning on dedicating more money and effort to improving a variety of customer experience activities in 2015.
Engaging Millennials in the Workplace, March 2015 ($195)
Common estimates predict that the Millennial generation—those born between 1980 and 2000—will make up 60% of the workforce by 2020. As with each previous generation, this group of employees brings its own set of expectations, attitudes, and approaches to the job, which creates both challenges and opportunities for the organizations that employ them. Temkin Group research found that compared to other generations, Millennials desire opportunities to learn and advance their careers as well as opportunities that allow them to be creative and work flexible hours. To engage Millennials more effectively in the workplace, companies should deploy five strategies across Temkin Group’s Five I’s of Employee Engagement. These five strategies are: Expand Job Descriptions, Create Connections, Make Work Matter, Allow For Flexibility, and Develop Millennial Leaders. We also added a checklist to help HR departments drive these five strategies across their core processes.
2015 Temkin Experience Ratings, March 2015 (FREE)
2015 marks the fifth year of the Temkin Experience Ratings, and this year, supermarkets dominated the ratings. Publix earned the top spot, closely followed by Aldi and H-E-B. In addition to earning the top three positions, supermarkets also took five of the top 12 spots. Retailers also performed well, with both PetSmart and Amazon.com making it into the top seven. At the other end of the spectrum, Coventry Health Care, Fox Rent A Car, Comcast, and Fujitsu earned the lowest ratings. To generate the Temkin Experience Ratings, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 293 companies across 20 industries and then evaluated their experiences across three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion. On an industry level, supermarket chains, fast food chains, retailers, parcel delivery services, and banks all earned “good” ratings on average, whereas Internet service providers, TV service providers, and health plans received “poor” ratings on average. We also compared individual companies to their industry averages and found that TriCare and Amazon outperformed their industry peers by the highest margin, while Fox Rent A Car and Ramada Inn fell the furthest below their industry average. Between 2014 and 2015, only five industries improved and 14 declined. Residence Inn, US Cellular, and JetBlue Airlines improved the most over the previous year, while Subaru dealers, TD Ameritrade, and Buick dealers declined the most.
What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2015, February 2015 ($195)
To understand the effect of good and bad experiences, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their recent interactions with 283 companies across 20 industries. Internet service providers and TV service providers deliver bad experiences more frequently than any other industries, as exemplified by Comcast and Charter Communications, each of which delivers a bad experience to about one in four customers, the most of any companies. Retailers, on the other hand, are least likely to deliver a negative experience. Out of all the industries, customers are most likely to stop spending completely after a bad experience with a computer and tablet maker, and they are most likely to reduce spending after a bad experience with a fast food chain. The economics of service recovery are compelling. Compared with companies that deliver a very poor response after a bad experience, companies that deliver a very good response have 41% fewer consumers cutting back on their spending and 31% more increasing their spending. Led by investment firms and major appliance makers, all industries improved or maintained their service recovery performance from last year. After a very bad or very good experience, consumers are more likely to give feedback back directly to the company than they are to post on Facebook, Twitter, or third party rating sites. These social sites, however, are still an important channel for consumers under the age of 45. When it comes to sharing bad experiences on social media, customers of Advantage Rent A Car and Alabama Power Company are the most likely to post about it on Facebook, while customers of Ameren Missouri Company and Fujitsu are the most likely to post about it on Twitter. The companies most likely to receive negatively biased feedback from their customers are Consolidated Edison of NY and Southern California Edison.
Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, 2015, February 2015 ($195)
We used the Temkin Employee Engagement Index to analyze the engagement levels of more than 5,000 U.S. employees. We found that although employee engagement overall has increased over the past year, engagement levels still vary by organization, industry, and individual. Companies with stronger financial performances and better customer experience have employees who are considerably more engaged than their peers. Our research also shows that out of all the industries, the construction sector has the highest percentage of engaged employees, while the transportation and warehousing sector has the lowest. We additionally found that large companies have a lower percentage of engaged employees than smaller companies do. On an individual level, our research shows that frontline employees, high-income earners, and males tend to be more highly engaged. Given the significant value of engaged employees, we recommend that companies improve engagement levels by mastering our Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent.
Lessons in CX Excellence, 2015, January 2015 ($195)
The report provides insights from 8 finalists in the Temkin Group’s 2014 CX Excellence Awards. The report, which is 98 pages long, includes an appendix with the finalists’ nomination forms. This report has rich insights about both B2B and B2C customer experience. This year, we chose eight organizations as finalists for Temkin Group’s 2014 Customer Experience Excellence Award. Finalists are Activision Customer Care, Aetna, Crowe Horwath LLP, Dell Inc., EMC Corporation, Texas NICUSA, The Results Companies, and TouchPoint Support Services. This report provides specific examples of how these companies’ CX efforts have created value for both their customers and for their businesses. We also highlight their best practices across the four customer experience competencies—purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement, and customer connectedness. At the end of this report, we have included all of the finalists’ detailed nomination forms to help you collect examples and ideas to apply to your own CX efforts.
2017|2016|2015|2014|2013|2012|2011|2010
2014 Research Reports
The State of Customer Experience Metrics, 2014, December 2014 ($195)
We asked over 200 large companies about how they use customer experience (CX) metrics, and then we compared their answers with similar studies we conducted in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The most commonly used metric is likelihood-to-recommend, which has been steadily rising in popularity over the past few years. While more than half of the respondents described themselves as “good” at collecting CX metrics, less than 20% described themselves as “good” at making trade-offs between financial metrics and CX metrics. Companies are best at measuring customer service and phone-based experiences and worst at measuring the experiences of prospects and customers who defect. In addition to answering survey questions, we had companies complete Temkin Group’s CX metrics competency assessment, which examines four areas: consistent (does the company use common CX metrics across the organization?), impactful (do the CX metrics inform important decisions?), integrated (are trade-offs made between CX and financial metrics?), and continuous (do leaders regularly examine the CX metrics?). Only 11% of respondents received at least a “good” overall rating, and companies earned the lowest rating in impactful. Companies with stronger CX metrics programs are more likely to outperform other companies in both CX efforts and overall business results.
The Future of Customer Experience Insights, December 2014 ($195)
Although most organizations describe their voice of the customer program as a success, we’ve found that companies do not get nearly the value they should out of these efforts. VoC programs currently suffer from bloated surveys, isolated datasets, and outdated technology. Our research into leading practices uncovered five trends that will redefine how customer insights teams operate: 1) Deep empathy, not stacks of metrics, 2) Continuous insights, not periodic studies, 3) Customer journeys, not isolated interactions, 4) Useful prescriptions, not past descriptions, and 5) Enterprise intelligence, not customer feedback. As companies embrace these new capabilities, insights teams will need to build new skills. The report includes a readiness checklist for companies to assess their current customer insights efforts.
2014 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors, December 2014 ($695)
The 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors evaluates the customer experience of 62 large technology vendors. We surveyed 800 IT professionals from large companies on the success, effort, and emotion components of their experiences with these IT providers. VMware and Microsoft (for both its servers and business applications divisions) earned the top ratings, but still only ended up on the high end of our “okay” range. At the other end of the spectrum, Wipro and Cognizant were at the bottom of the list, joined by 19 other vendors that also received “very poor” ratings. Our research also shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are correlated with elements of loyalty, such as repurchasing, forgiveness, trust, and recommendations.
The Secret to B2B2C Customer Experience Success, December 2014 ($195)
Many companies reach their end customers through a variety of channel partners—from independent agents and dealerships, to resellers and distributors. Temkin Group defines B2B2C customer experience as enhancing the end customer experience in a way that satisfies the needs of channel partners. The B2B2C environment is complex and full of challenges that hamper companies’ ability to deliver great customer experience to their end customers, such as a lack of alignment with partners or a limited understanding of customers. Our research uncovered five B2B2C CX capabilities that companies require to succeed in delivering a great experience to end customers: Voice of the Partner, Customer Insights Cooperation, CX Capabilities Development, Partner Engagement, and Channel Management Collaboration. We also identified three prototypical B2B2C structures that impact how companies should apply the B2B2C CX capabilities for the most effective outcome. Use Temkin Group’s assessment to identify your company’s B2B2C structure.
Evaluating Mobile eGift Card Purchasing Experiences, November 2014 ($195)
Although smartphones are a convenient interaction channel, their small screens pose serious design challenges for companies. To evaluate the customer experience of mobile websites, we used Temkin Group’s SLICE-B experience review methodology to assess the experience of buying an eGift Card from ten large retailers: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Best Buy, and RadioShack. Home Depot earned the top score for its functionality and minimalist processes, while the user could not complete the full purchasing goal at Lowe’s, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, or RadioShack.
Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2014, October 2014 ($495)
We measured the Net Promoter Score of 283 companies across 20 industries. USAA and JetBlue took the top two spots, each with an NPS of more than 60. USAA’s banking, credit card, and insurance businesses outpaced their industries’ averages by more than any other company. At the bottom of the list, HSBC and Citibank received the two lowest scores, and Super 8 and Motel 6 fell the farthest below their industry averages. On an industry level, auto dealers earned the highest average NPS, while TV service providers earned the lowest. Eleven of the 19 industries increased their average NPS from last year, with car rentals and credit cards enjoying the biggest score boosts. Out of all the companies, US Airways and Highmark BCBS improved the most, while Quality Inn and Baskin-Robbins declined the most. For most industries, the average NPS is highest with older consumers and is lowest with younger consumers. Investment firms have the largest generation gap.
State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2014, October 2014 ($195)
For the fourth straight year, Temkin Group has benchmarked the maturity of voice of the customer (VoC) programs within large organizations. Despite a slight drop in staffing numbers and executive involvement, companies’ VoC efforts continue to deliver successful results. While companies today are investing more money into most VoC solutions, spending on text analytics and predictive analytics has increased the most dramatically over the past year. Looking ahead, companies plan on focusing less on multiple-choice surveys and more on interaction history and predictive analytics. In terms of metrics, our analysis shows that satisfaction and Net Promoter Score work most successfully at the relationship level, whereas Customer Effort Score works most successfully at the transactional level. Respondents also completed Temkin Group’s VoC Competency and Maturity Assessment, which examines capabilities across what we call the “6 Ds”: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. Only 11% of companies have reached the two highest levels of VoC maturity, a drop-off from last year. When we compared high scoring VoC programs with lower scoring programs, we found that companies with more mature programs have better overall business performance, spend more on analytics, are more active on mobile, employ more full-time employees, take more action with the insights, and enjoy more executive support.
Case Studies in Text Analytics, September 2014 ($195)
To help organizations understand how to use text analytics to transform their VoC programs, we have compiled five case studies from companies that have successfully utilized this capability. This report offers insights into their efforts, describing how Safelite drives value with a small team, how Firstsource ventures beyond service quality and training, how American Express built a custom solution in-house, how ADP scaled with a distributed model, and how Verizon scaled with a centralized model. Each of these case studies follows a company’s journey as it built out its text analytics capabilities and also shows how each one organized its efforts. In addition to the case studies, we also outline five key decisions that every text analytics program must make.
ROI of Customer Experience, 2014, September 2014 ($395)
To understand how customer experience corresponds to loyalty, we examined feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers describing their experiences with and their loyalty to 268 companies. Our analysis shows a strong correlation between customer experience and loyalty factors such as repurchasing, trying new offerings, forgiving mistakes, and recommending the company to friends and colleagues. We compared the consumers who gave companies a very good customer experience rating to those who gave companies a very bad customer experience rating, and we found that the percentage of customers who plan on repurchasing products is 18 percentage-points higher at organizations with excellent CX ratings. Additionally, the Net Promoter Scores of companies with very good CX ratings average 22 points higher than the scores of companies with poor CX. We built a model to evaluate how customer experience impacts a $1 billion business’s revenue over three years in each of the 19 industries, and this model shows that CX has the largest impact on hotels ($461 million), fast food chains ($437 million), and retailers ($428 million). This report also includes a five-step approach for building a model that estimates the value of CX for your organization.
Social Employee Engagement, August 2014 ($195)
Temkin Group research shows that engaged employees are valuable assets. They try harder at work, are less likely to look for a new job, and feel more committed to helping the company succeed. We found that companies with stronger employee engagement competencies are more likely to use social tools as part of their internal efforts than other companies. For best results, companies should introduce these social capabilities into their employee engagement plans to enhance what we call the “Five I’s of Employee Engagement”: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. We interviewed 17 companies for this report, including EMC, Fidelity Investments, Houlihan’s, Humana, Oracle, SunTrust Bank, TELUS, and USAA, and identified more than 20 best practices enabled by social tools. We also added a checklist to help organizations introduce social tools to employees.
Tech Vendor NPS Benchmark, 2014, July 2014 ($695)
We surveyed IT decision-makers from more than 800 large North American firms to learn about their relationships with their tech vendors. We asked them a series of questions regarding their experiences as the clients of different tech vendors, and one of the questions we posed generated Net Promoter Scores® (NPS®) for the companies. Of the 63 companies we looked at, EDS and VMware earned the highest NPS, while Autodesk and Cognizant received the lowest. The overall industry average NPS dropped for the second year in a row. Our analysis also delved into the correlation between NPS and loyalty, revealing that, compared to severe detractors, promoters are much more likely to spend more money with their tech vendors in 2014, try new products and services when they are announced, and forgive the vendor for a mistake. We compared the loyalty levels for each vendor, and we found that SunGard and IBM software have the most customers planning on increasing their purchases in 2014, while Satyam and EDS customers are the most willing to try new offerings, and Satyam has the most forgiving customers. Our research also shows that promoters are more concerned than detractors about getting lower prices.
State of Employee Engagement Activities, 2014, July 2014 ($195)
Although engaged employees are a vital component of any successful organization, we have found that only 50% of employees at large organizations feel engaged. To understand how companies are working to improve these engagement levels, we surveyed executives from more than 200 large organizations. We found that frontline employees are the most engaged, and that while most firms do measure employee engagement, less than half prioritize taking actions based on the results. The lack of a clear employee engagement strategy contributes to the fact that only 19% of companies earned a strong or very strong score on the Temkin Group Employee Engagement Competency Assessment. Employee engagement leaders enjoy stronger financial results and deliver better customer experience than employee engagement laggards, and they also have more coordinated engagement activities, more empowered CX teams, and more committed executives. Compared to 2013, this year more companies have significant employee engagement activities, but overall these activities are performed less frequently. Use our assessment and data to benchmark your employee engagement competencies and maturity.
Raising Customer-Centricity Across the B2B Enterprise, June 2014 ($195)
Temkin Group research shows that good customer experience (CX) drives loyalty with business customers. These same business customers, influenced by their personal experiences as consumers, have raised their expectations in their business-to-business (B2B) relationships. While most large B2B organizations have a low level of CX maturity, our research shows that 56% of them have the goal of delivering industry-leading customer experience within three years. To understand how B2B organizations are improving their customer-centricity, we compiled case studies of five organizations that are raising the bar in CX: Ciena, Crowe Horwath, Fiserv, Genworth Financial, and Oracle. To assess your organization’s CX maturity, use Temkin Group’s Customer Experience Competency Assessment, and compare the results to data from other large B2B firms.
Data Snapshot: Social Media Benchmark, 2014, June 2014 ($195)
In January 2014, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about how frequently they use social media on their computers and mobile phones, and we then compared these usage rates to analogous data we collected in January 2012 and January 2013. This analysis looks at the frequency with which consumers in different age groups use computers and mobile phones to access Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and third-party rating sites. We also examine how usage rates vary by mobile phone type.
Dataset: 2014 Temkin Web Experience Ratings, June 2014 ($295)
The Temkin Web Experience Ratings are based on consumer feedback of their recent interactions with companies. The dataset, which is in Excel, includes the Temkin Web Experience Ratings for the 222 companies in the 2014 ratings. The ratings are based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers in January 2014. In addition, it shows changes from last year’s ratings and provides average industry ratings across age groups of consumers. You can purchase access to this data for a specific number of users. The data is licensed for internal use only and does not allow for the redistribution of any part of the dataset.
Dataset: 2014 Temkin Customer Service Ratings, May 2014 ($295)
The Temkin Customer Service Ratings are based on consumer feedback of their recent interactions with companies. The dataset, which is in Excel, includes the Temkin Customer Service Ratings for the 233 companies in the 2014 ratings. The ratings are based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers in January 2014. In addition, it shows changes from last year’s ratings and provides average industry ratings across age groups of consumers. You can purchase access to this data for a specific number of users. The data is licensed for internal use only and does not allow for the redistribution of any part of the dataset.
Text Analytics Reshapes VoC Programs, May 2014 ($195)
Although companies today are investing more resources in their voice of the customer (VoC) programs, a majority of these efforts continue to linger in the early stages of maturity. Unlike many of the less mature VoC programs, which primarily concentrate on reporting metrics from multiple-choice surveys, the more advanced VoC programs focus instead on finding valuable insights to drive business improvements. To get these valuable insights, our research shows that mature VoC programs are actively using text analytics to efficiently process their massive volumes of customer feedback. As its use becomes more widespread, we expect to see companies infuse text analytics across what we call the 6 Ds of VoC Programs: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. This report identifies 33 best practices enabled by text analytics tools. And as companies can’t revamp their VoC programs with text analytics overnight, we outline the four stages of text analytics evolution: Deploy, Explore, Explain, and Predict.
Dataset: 2014 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, April 2014 ($295)
The Temkin Forgiveness Ratings are based on consumer feedback of their recent interactions with companies. The dataset, which is in Excel, includes the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings for the 268 companies in the 2014 ratings. In addition, it shows changes from last year’s ratings and provides average industry ratings across age groups of consumers. You can purchase access to this data for a specific number of users. The data is licensed for internal use only and does not allow for the redistribution of any part of the dataset.
The State of Customer Experience Management, 2014, April 2014 ($195)
We surveyed more than 200 large companies and found an abundance of Customer Experience (CX) ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, a central team coordinating significant CX activities, and a staff of six to 10 full-time CX professionals. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency assessment, we found that only 10% of companies have reached the highest two levels of customer experience, although this does represent a slight increase from last year. Most firms struggle most to master Employee Engagement and Compelling Brand Values. When compared with CX laggards, CX leaders have stronger financial results, enjoy better CX leadership, and implement more successful employee engagement efforts. Executives in companies with stronger CX competencies also tend to focus more on delighting customers and less on cutting costs.
Data Snapshot: Channel Preferences and Cross-Channel Activity Benchmark, 2014, April 2014 ($195)
In January 2014, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their channel preferences for performing 11 different activities—such as opening an investment account or applying for a new credit card—and the frequency with which they perform common cross-channel activities. This data snapshot breaks down the results by age, examining how channel preferences and cross-channel activity levels vary across age groups. It also analyzes how cross-channel activity levels differ by mobile phone types.
2014 Temkin Trust Ratings, April 2014 ($195)
We just published the 2014 Temkin Trust Ratings, the fourth year of the ratings. It uses feedback from 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate 268 organizations across 19 industries. Congratulations to USAA, which earned the top three ratings for its banking, insurance, and credit card businesses. The bottom of the ratings are dominated by TV service providers and Internet service providers. Overall, most companies and industries improved since last year.
Data Snapshot: Media Use Benchmark, 2014, March 2014 ($195)
In January 2014, we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their media usage patters and compared the results to similar data we collected in January 2013 and January 2012. Our analysis examines the amount of time consumers spend every day watching television, browsing the Internet (for both work and leisure), reading books (both print and electronic), reading newspapers (both print and electronic), listening to the radio, and using a mobile phone. This data snapshot breaks down the results by income level, education level, and age, paying particular attention to how media usage varies across age groups.
Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, 2014, March 2014 ($195)
We used the Temkin Employee Engagement Index to analyze the engagement levels of more than 5,000 U.S. employees, and we found that employee engagement has decreased over last year. As highly engaged employees try harder, recommend the company, help others, and take less sick time, this trend should be troubling for companies. However, employee engagement levels vary across different organizations, industries, and individuals. Companies that outperform their peers in financial performance and customer experience enjoy a considerably more engaged work force. Our research also shows that the real estate sector has the most engaged employees of any industry, while public administration has the fewest. Additionally, we found that highly engaged employees tend to be frontline employees, high-income earners, and male. Given the significant value of engaged employees, we recommend that companies improve this area by using our Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent.
2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, March 2014 (FREE)
In our 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, H.E.B. earned the top spot, followed by Trader Joe’s, Chick-fil-A, and Publix. This cluster of grocers and fast food chains at the top of the list exemplifies the dominance of these two industries in our ratings; they together claim 15 of the top 21 spots. We asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 268 companies across 19 industries. Consumers evaluated their experiences with these firms across three dimensions: functional, accessible, and emotional. On an industry level, grocery chains, fast food chains, parcel delivery services, retailers, and banks all earned “good” ratings on average, whereas TV service providers, health plans, Internet service providers, and rental car companies received “poor” ratings on average. We also compared individual companies to their industry averages and found that Kaiser Permanente, USAA (insurance), A credit union, Southwest Airlines, and Regions all outperformed their peers by more than 10 percentage points. Meanwhile, DHL, HSBC (credit cards), Chrysler, US Cellular, Coventry Health Care, and HSBC (bank) each fell 15 percentage points or more below their competitors. Between 2013 and 2014, credit card issuers increased their rating the most dramatically, while hotel chains decreased their ratings most steeply. Of all companies, EarthLink, Regions, and Humana improved the most over the past year.
What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2014, February 2014 ($195)
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.
State of the CX Profession, 2014, February 2014 ($195)
To better understand the mindset and roles of CX professionals, we surveyed 293 of them and then compared their responses to similar studies we conducted in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Customer experience flourished in 2013, as this year respondents reported an uptick in positive results from their CX efforts, and an overwhelming number of them (98%) believe that customer experience is a great profession to work in. Nearly nine out of ten respondents are actively working on voice of the customer programs, which is a significant increase from last year. In seven out of the 10 CX activities we examined, levels of active involvement by CX professionals have reached an all-time high. Meanwhile, customer service remains the highest focus for interactions. Respondents expect spending and hiring for CX activities to reach an record high in the coming year. On this year’s survey we included our first compensation study. We examined 131 CX professionals from large organizations and found that their medium compensation (salary plus bonus) ranged from $90,000 for mid-level individual contributors to $260,000 for CX executives.
Introducing Employee-Engaging Transformation,February 2014 ($195)
Organizations have ambitious goals for improving their customer experience (CX). But CX change isn’t easy; it requires significant transformation across almost every aspect of operations. Therefore, given the effort required, it’s no surprise that Temkin Group research shows that less than half of large organizations rate their CX improvement efforts as effective. Our research into how large organizations successfully change uncovered a core insight: CX change must be focused on changing the way employees do their every-day jobs. We have developed an approach to CX change that we call Employee-Engaging Transformation (EET), which we define as, “Aligning employee attitudes and behaviors with the organization’s desire to change.” There are five practices required to succeed at EET: Vision Translation, Persistent Leadership, Activated Middle Management, Grassroots Mobilization, and Captivating Communications. This research shares examples of these practices in action from over a dozen large organizations, including Adobe, MetLife, Oklahoma City Thunder, Oracle, Prime Therapeutics, and Rackspace. To assess your own organization’s effectiveness in these five practices, use Temkin Group’s Employee-Engaging Transformation Assessment.
Benchmarking Your CX Organization, January 2014 ($195)
In a recent report, we introduced an assessment for CX organizations that examines three characteristics: Make-up of CX Core Team, Executive Commitment to CX, and Organizational Readiness for Change. To understand how companies stack up, we had 115 large companies complete the assessment. The results show that 41% of CX organizations are strong or very strong. Companies are weakest in Organizational Readiness for Change, which includes the lowest scoring individual criteria: Key stakeholders are actively involved in CX efforts. This report includes data charts to help you identify your percentile scores for the overall results as well as for each of the three characteristics.
Data Snapshot: CX Expectations and Plans for 2014, January 2014 ($195)
In the fourth quarter of 2013, Temkin Group surveyed 152 respondents from companies with $500 million or more in annual revenues about their customer experience results in the past year and their plans for 2014 and beyond. The results from that survey are compared with results of a similar survey we completed in the same timeframe in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The results highlight a resurgent dedication to customer experience and an increase in customer experience management activities and efforts in 2014.
Lessons in CX Excellence, 2014, January 2014 ($195)
The following 11 organizations are finalists in Temkin Group’s 2013 Customer Experience Excellence Awards: Adobe, AIG Asia Pacific, Cisco, Cox Communications, EMC, Findel Education Resources, Fiserv, Intuit ProTax Group, Oracle, Rackspace, and UMB Bank. This report highlights their customer experience efforts and describes their best practices across the four customer experience competencies: purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement, and customer connectedness. Additionally, this report includes an appendix with the finalists’ detailed nomination forms to help you gather ideas and examples to improve your own CX efforts.
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2013 Research Reports
The State of CX Metrics, 2013, December 2013 ($195)
Companies with stronger CX metrics programs are more likely to be customer experience leaders. We asked over 170 large companies about their use of customer experience (CX) metrics and compared their answers with similar studies from 2011 and 2012. We found that although companies view CX metrics as important, only 12% of respondents received at least “good” ratings in Temkin Group’s assessment. Our self-test examines four areas: consistency (does the company use common CX metrics across the organization?), impact (do the CX metrics inform important decisions?), integration (are trade-offs made between CX and financial metrics?), and continuity (do leaders regularly examine the CX metrics?). The analysis shows that while interaction-satisfaction and likelihood-to-recommend metrics are on the rise, companies do a particularly poor job of measuring non-customers (non-buyers and defectors), the emotional response of customers, and mobile and cross-channel interactions. Customer service remains the best-measured portion of the lifecycle, and it has consistently improved over all three years. Companies rate themselves the lowest in making trade-offs between CX and financial metrics, but this area has still improved since last year. Our research also uncovered that more than eight out of ten NPS users report positive results. Ultimately, to fully measure customer experience, companies need to develop measurements that link behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, and interactions.
Blueprint for a Successful CX Organization, November 2013 ($195)
Organizations need both formal and informal structures to drive change and improve customer experience (CX). In this report, we begin by identifying the five elements of a customer experience management group operating inside an organization: a CX core team, a reporting executive, a steering committee, a working group, and CX ambassadors. We describe how five organizations—Arizona Public Service, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Cornerstone OnDemand, Hagerty, and Safeco Insurance—combine these essential elements to create effective CX management groups. Our research also found that CX groups come in all shapes and sizes, and that the needs of these structures vary according to the maturity level of a company’s CX efforts. Across all different structures, the success of a CX organization is based on three characteristics: make-up of the CX core team, executive commitment to CX, and organizational readiness for CX. To evaluate your CX organization against these characteristics, use Temkin Group’s CX Organization Assessment.
Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2013, November 2013 ($395)
We measured the Net Promoter Score for 269 companies across 19 industries. USAA took the top three spots with NPS of 60 or more for its credit card, banking, and insurance businesses. At the other end of the list, HSBC earned the two lowest scores, with NPS below -20 for its banking and credit card units. Auto dealers (38) and groceries (30) have the highest average NPS, while TV service providers, Internet service providers, and health plans are below 10. In 18 of the 19 industries, consumers who are under 25 represent the lowest (or tied for lowest) NPS scores. Compared with detractors, promoters are more likely to want lower prices and less likely to want customer service improvements. 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. 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.
Best and Worst of Online Gift Card Purchasing Experiences, November 2013 ($195)
Gift cards are an important component of a retailer’s offering, but how effectively do their websites support the sale of these items? To evaluate the user-friendliness of the online gift card purchasing process, we used Temkin Group’s SLICE-B experience review methodology to asses the user experience at eight large retailers: CVS, Walgreens, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Starbucks, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Walmart earned the top score for its exceptional functionality, while the user could not complete the purchasing goal at either Target or Walgreens. The positive and negative elements of the experience varied across companies, but many failed to provide a printable order summary, a recognizable starting point, or a confirmation that the gift card had been received.
State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2013, October 2013 ($195)
For the third year, Temkin Group benchmarked the voice of customer (VoC) programs within large organizations. These efforts continue to deliver successful results as companies have increased staffing and plan to spend more in areas such as customer insight and action platforms and text mining. We also found that executives are taking a more active role in VoC programs. When it comes to sources of insight, the use of mobile feedback has more than doubled since last year. Looking ahead, companies plan to focus less on multiple-choice surveys and more on interaction history and predictive analytics. Respondents also completed Temkin Group’s VoC Competency and Maturity Assessment, which examines capabilities across what we call the 6 Ds: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. While only twenty percent of companies have reached the two highest levels of VoC maturity, this level represents a significant increase from last year. When we compared high scoring VoC programs with others, we found that they spend more on analytics, use more data sources, and employ more full time employees.
Tech Vendors: Benchmarking Product and Relationship Satisfaction of IT Clients, 2013, August 2013 ($495)
During Q1, 802 IT professionals from companies with at least $500 million in annual revenues rated both the products of and their relationships with 54 tech vendors. Some of the findings include: VMware leads in six of the eight satisfaction categories—product quality, product flexibility, technical support, account team support, cost of ownership, and innovation—while Microsoft servers and IBM SPSS score highest in product features, and Apple and Microsoft desktop software lead in ease of use. Deloitte Consulting on the other hand scores last in every satisfaction category except ease of use, which Computer Sciences Corporation IT services received bottom marks in.
Best Practices for Actively Listening to Employees, August 2013 ($195)
Employees are a valuable asset, not only for what they do but also for what they know. Unfortunately, companies regularly underuse or outright ignore their insights. To understand what it takes to tap into employee knowledge, we researched best practices in employee listening. Our analysis uncovered four key areas of listening: employee satisfaction and engagement, customer experience engagement, customer experience improvement, and employee experience improvement. This report outlines case studies from five companies with robust employee listening programs: Adobe, Fidelity, Microsoft, TELUS, and USAA. These firms shared many strong practices, from structured listening programs—like Adobe’s annual employee engagement survey and USAA’s pulse polls—to interactive and adaptive efforts like TELUS’s Habitat Social online platform, Fidelity’s Voice of Customer Ambassador program, and Microsoft’s Last Mile Excellence process. We recommend implementing an employee listening blueprint that includes annual surveys, pulse surveys, and online forums.
State of Employee Engagement Activities, 2013, July 2013 ($195)
Only 25 percent of employees at large organizations are highly engaged. To understand what efforts are underway to improve employee engagement, we surveyed 221 CX professionals from large organizations. While most firms measure employee engagement, less than half place a high priority on taking action based on employee feedback. A lack of a clear employee engagement strategy and the narrow reach of employee engagement activities contribute to less than one in four organizations earning strong or very strong scores on Temkin Group’s employee engagement competency assessment. When we compared companies with stronger employee experience scores to the other companies, we found that these leading firms have better financial and customer experience results. They also have more coordinated employee engagement efforts, more involvement by the CX team in these efforts, and are five times more likely to place a high priority on taking action on employee feedback.
2013 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors, July 2013 ($495)
The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors rates 54 large IT suppliers. We surveyed 800 IT professionals from large companies on the functional, accessible, and emotional components of their experiences with the IT providers. VMware, SAP analytics, and Microsoft (for servers, business applications, and desktop software) were at the top of the list with “excellent” ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, Hitachi, Tata, and Trend Micro were at the bottom of the list with “very poor” ratings. Our research also shows that the Temkin Experience Ratings are highly correlated with purchase momentum and innovation equity for these 54 firms. We show that Oracle outsourcing, VMware, NetApp, and SAP analytics have the most purchase momentum while Pitney Bowes, Trend Micro, and Deloitte consulting have the least. When it comes to innovation equity (the willingness of customers to try new offerings), VMware, SAP analytics, IBM SPSS, and Apple are at the top of the list and Accenture consulting, Intuit, and Deloitte consulting are at the bottom.
Tech Vendor NPS Benchmark, 2013, May 2013 ($495)
We surveyed IT decision makers from more than 800 large North American firms to understand how they view their tech vendors. One of the questions we asked provides Net Promoter Scores® (NPS®) for 54 of those companies. VMWare and SAP analytics earned the highest NPS while CSC IT services and Infosys IT services earned the lowest. The overall industry average NPS dropped nine points from last year. Our analysis also examined the link between NPS and loyalty, finding that compared with detractors, promoters are more than six times as likely to forgive a tech vendor if they deliver a bad experience, almost six times as likely to try a new offering from the vendor, and more than three times as likely to purchase more from them this year. When examining the loyalty levels for each vendor, we found that Oracle consulting and VMWare clients have the strongest purchase intentions, SAP analytics and Sybase have earned the most forgiveness, and VMWare and SAP analytics have the most innovation equity.
The Economics of Net Promoter, May 2013 ($295)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a popular metric, but how does it relate to loyalty? We analyzed responses from thousands of consumers and examined the connection between NPS and three areas of loyalty: likelihood to repurchase, likelihood to forgive, and the actual number of times they recommend a company. Compared to detractors, promoters are almost six times as likely to forgive, are more than five times as likely to repurchase, and are more than twice as likely as detractors to actually recommend a company. Examining the data, we also found that consumers who gave a score between 0 and 4 have particularly low levels of loyalty. The analysis examines 19 industries: airlines, appliance makers, auto dealers, banks, car rental agencies, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, grocery chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, retailers, software firms, TV service providers, and wireless carriers. Promoters who are likely to repurchase range from 87% for grocery chains to 73% for TV service providers, those who are likely to forgive range from 72% for rental car agencies to 59% for TV service providers, and those who actually recommended a company range from 80% for retailers to 47% for parcel delivery services.
The State of Customer Experience Management, 2013, May 2013 ($195)
We surveyed more than 200 large companies and found an abundance of Customer Experience (CX) ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, significant CX activities being coordinated by a central team, and a staff of six to 10 full-time CX professionals. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency assessment, we found that only six percent of companies have reached the highest two levels of customer experience maturity as firms struggle the most to master Employee Engagement and Compelling Brand Values. When compared with CX Laggards, CX Leaders have stronger financial results, more CX ambition, more CX leadership, and they are more successful with their employee engagement efforts. Executives in companies with stronger CX competencies also focus more on delighting customers and less on cutting costs.
Employee Engagement Case Studies: Five I’s in Practice, May 2013 ($195)
Engaged employees create engaged customers, kicking off what Temkin Group describes as a virtuous cycle. More and more organizations are paying attention to the connection between employee engagement and customer experience through a variety of efforts spanning five areas that we call that Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve and Incent. We’ve compiled case studies of three organizations that are engaging employees and driving results: BMO Financial, Hampton brand, and Safelite AutoGlass.
Best Practices in B2B Customer Experience. April 2013 ($195)
Customer experience is gaining more attention within business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Rightfully so—customer experience drives loyalty with business customers. At the same time, clients and prospects, who increasingly compare business interactions with their personal consumer experiences, are raising the expectations of B2B relationships. While our research has shown that most B2Bs are still mastering the basics, our interviews with 28 companies uncovered best practices for building a more client-oriented mindset through closed-loop voice of the customer programs, customer journey maps, and virtual client advisory boards. Using the customer insights they collect, forward-thinking B2B organizations are becoming more client-centric in how they develop new business, create account plans, and proactively provide support (or intervene when service breakdowns occur). To sustain superior customer experience, B2B firms must master four competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness.
Social Media Benchmark, 2013. April 2013 ($195)
In January 2013 we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their social media use patterns and compared the results to data that we collected in January 2012. This analysis examines the use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and third-party rating sites. This report also examines how the data varies by type of mobile phone and identifies consumers’ preferred communication channels. The analysis breaks down the data by age group.
Media Use Benchmark, 2013. March 2013 ($195)
In January 2013 we surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers about their media use patterns and compared the results to data that we collected in January 2012. The analysis examines internet usage (at home and at work), reading of books and news (online and offline), TV watching, radio listening, and mobile activity. The data snapshot breaks down the data by age, ethnicity, income, and geographic region.
2013 Temkin Experience Ratings. February 2013 ($195)
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.
CX Plans and Expectations for 2013. February 2013 ($195)
In the fourth quarter of 2012, Temkin Group surveyed 178 respondents from companies with $500 million or more in annual revenues about their customer experience results in the past year and their plans for 2013 and beyond. The results from that survey are compared with results of a similar survey we completed in the same timeframe in 2010 and 2011. The results highlight a continued strong ambition and commitment to customer experience and an increase in customer experience management activities in 2013.
The State of the CX Profession, 2013. February 2013 ($195)
We surveyed 283 customer experience professionals and compared their answers to our data from last year. The vast majority of respondents believe that CX is a great profession to be in, and most remain satisfied with their individual roles. As a result, fewer of them plan to look for a new job this year. Most respondents believe that their efforts have had a positive impact and say that their organization expects to increase CX spending and headcount in 2013. The top areas of focus for interactions are web experience and mobile experience while CX measurements and metrics customer insights, and customer-centric culture are the CX efforts that are gaining the most momentum. We examined the difference in responses between CX professionals at larger and smaller companies and found that large companies are more interested in cross-channel interactions and text analytics. We also compared responses from executives and non-executives which shows that executives see more importance in culture, and that non-executives are more likely to look for new job.
Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, 2013. January 2013 ($195)
Using the Temkin Employee Engagement Index, we analyzed employee engagement across more than 2,400 U.S. employees. Employee engagement has increased over last year. Companies that outperform their peers in financial performance and customer experience have considerably more engaged workforces. Why does that matter? Because highly engaged employees try harder, recommend the company, help others, and take less sick time. It turns out that services industries have the most engaged employees while the retail sector has the fewest. We also found that highly engaged employees tend to be: front-line employees, high-income earners, male, African-American, and happy. Since engaged employees are such a valuable asset, we recommend that companies focus on this area using our Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent.
The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies. January 2013 (FREE)
Research shows that customer experience is highly correlated with loyalty. While any company can improve portions of its customer experience, it takes more than a few superficial changes to create lasting differentiation. Organizations that want to become customer experience leaders need to master four customer experience competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. To gauge your progress, actively use Temkin Group’s Customer Experience Competency and Maturity Assessment. This assessment will identify areas of strength and weakness in your CX efforts as well as identify your progress along six stages of CX maturity: Ignore Explore, Mobilize, Operationalize, Align, and Embed.
Lessons in CX Excellence. January 2013 ($195)
The following 11 organizations are finalists in Temkin Group’s 2012 Customer Experience Excellence Awards: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Bombardier Aerospace, Citrix, EMC, Fidelity Investments, JetBlue Airways, Microsoft, Oklahoma City Thunder, Oracle, Safelite AutoGlass, and Sovereign Assurance NZ. This document provides highlights of their customer experience efforts and best practices across the four customer experience competencies: Purposeful leadership, compelling brand values, employee engagement, and customer connectedness. The 127 page report also includes the finalists’ detailed nomination forms.
2013 Temkin Ratings Datasets
Dataset: 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings ($395)
Excel dataset with Temkin Experience Ratings of 246 U.S. companies across 19 industries.
Dataset: 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings ($295)
Excel dataset with Temkin Experience Ratings of 246 U.S. companies across 19 industries.
Dataset: 2013 Temkin Trust Ratings ($295)
Excel dataset with Temkin Experience Ratings of 246 U.S. companies across 19 industries.
Dataset: 2013 Temkin Web Experience Ratings ($295)
Excel dataset with Temkin Experience Ratings of 211 U.S. companies across 19 industries.
Dataset: 2013 Temkin Customer Service Ratings ($295)
Excel dataset with Temkin Experience Ratings of 235 U.S. companies across 19 industries.
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2012 Research Reports
What Happens After A Good or Bad Experience? December 2012 ($195)
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.
The State of CX Metrics, 2012 December 2012 ($195)
Companies with stronger CX metrics programs are more likely to be customer experience leaders and to outperform the business results of their competitors. We asked over 200 large companies about their use of customer experience (CX) metrics and found that while these efforts are seen as important, only 11% of respondents received “good” ratings. Temkin Group’s assessment of CX metrics examines four areas: consistent (does the company use common CX metrics across the organization), impactful (do important decisions consider the CX metrics), integrated (are trade-offs made between CX and financial metrics), and continuous (do leaders regularly examine the CX metrics). Unfortunately, companies have not shown an improvement in our assessment since last year. The research also shows that the likelihood to recommend and ease of doing business metrics are on the rise, but companies do a particularly poor job of measuring non-customers (non-buyers and defectors), emotional response of customers, and mobile and cross-channel interactions. To fully measure customer experience, companies need to develop measurements that link behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, and interactions.
The Five I’s of Employee Engagement November 2012 ($195)
Despite the compelling upside to employee engagement, many companies neglect this key area, leaving employees much less than fully engaged. Our research uncovered 25 best practices across what we call the Five I’s of Employee Engagement: Inform, Inspire, Instruct, Involve, and Incent. Among these practices are Symantec’s Customer First News, an online customer experience update “broadcast” for employees, Sprint’s “day in the life of the frontline” experience bringing senior leaders together with call center and retail employees in their locations, Disney Store’s e-learning modules that develop both retail and entertainment skills in cast members, Fidelity Investments’ Voice of the Customer Ambassador program, and BKD’s Hi5 peer recognition campaign. CX professionals cannot drive employee engagement on their own; it requires support from across the organization. We’ve identified some areas for CX to start collaborating with HR.
What Influences Consumer Purchases? October 2012 ($195)
This data snapshot shows that social media has gained ground since last year, but is still not a top influencer. We surveyed 10,000 U.S. consumers to find out what information sources they use to purchase autos, cell phones, computers, credit cards, health plans, insurance policies, and televisions. The analysis looks at sources such as Facebook and Twitter, discussions with friends and employees, discussions with company employees, and information on various websites. Our analysis examines differences across age groups and analyzes changes over the last year.
Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012, October 2012 ($295)
We measured the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for 175 companies across 19 industries. 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. 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.
CX Needs More HR Focus on Employee Engagement, September 2012 ($195)
Employee engagement is a critical component of customer experience (CX). But how effectively are human resource (HR) departments supporting these efforts? To help answer this question, we surveyed 302 HR professionals from large companies. Most HR professionals understand the importance of creating a customer-centric culture, but only 15% of them are significantly helping in those efforts and only 12% of HR orgs earned good or very good scores on Temkin Group’s assessment of HR support for CX. When we compared companies that are delivering outstanding customer experience compared to the rest of their industry, we found that that these CX Leaders have much stronger business results, higher levels of employee engagement, and much stronger support for CX and employee engagement from their HR organizations.
Prepare for Next Generation Voice of the Customer Programs, August 2012 ($195)
Most voice of the customer (VoC) programs are underachieving, being weighed down by historical practices. The next wave of VoC programs will be based on more action-orientation, unstructured data sources, integration, and predictive modeling. We surveyed more than 200 large companies about their voice of the customer programs and compared the results from last year’s research. The typical VoC program has three to five full-time employees and does not measure the ROI of these efforts. Shifts in VoC programs include more use of text mining, predictive analytics, social media, customer interaction history, and mobile feedback while relying less on multiple-choice surveys. We examined six areas of competency for VoC programs: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. While companies have made the largest improvement in their Detect skills, this remains one of the lowest scoring areas. Using our VoC maturity model, we found that only 16% of companies have reached the two highest levels of maturity—Collaborators and Transformers—while 46% remain in the two lowest levels, Novices and Collectors. We also found that high-performing companies have more VoC employees, act more on feedback, and use more analytics. The report includes a self-assessment and data for benchmarking a company’s VoC competencies and maturity level. As VoC programs mature, companies will increasingly need to invest in Customer Insight and Action platforms.
The Future of Customer Experience. August 2012 ($195)
Companies are increasing their focus on customer experience (CX) as they discover its link to loyalty and overall business results. This growing discipline around CX management is creating different stages of evolution. We’ve passed through the initial phases of CX Intrigue and CX Exuberance and have entered into the era of CX Professionalism. As firms build more CX capabilities, they evolve through six stages of CX maturity: Ignore, Explore, Mobilize, Operationalize, Align, and Embed. Over the next few years, companies will need to adopt a new set of CX skills that include journey-centric alignment, mobile-infused experiences, and predictive personalization.
Data Snapshot: How Consumers Give Feedback, 2012. June 2012 ($195)
Many companies rely in part on “word of mouth” to help publicize their brands and their offerings. This Data Snapshot explores forms of “word of mouth.” Using an online survey, we gathered responses from 10,000 U.S. consumers regarding their behavior after a recent good or bad experience with a company. We’ve analyzed the data across channels, including social media, customer review websites, and company feedback channels, and compared responses among age groups and across gender.
The State of CX Management, 2012. May 2012 ($195)
The report examines where large companies are on their CX journeys based on a survey of 255 companies. Here is the executive summary: We surveyed more than 200 large companies and found an abundance of Customer Experience (CX) ambition and activity. Most companies have a CX executive leading the charge, significant CX activities being coordinated by a central team, and a staff of six to eight full-time CX professionals. Using Temkin Group’s CX competency assessment, we found that only seven percent of companies are truly customer-centric as firms struggle the most to master Employee Engagement and Compelling Brand Values. When compared with CX Laggards, CX Leaders have more ambition, more CX leadership, are better at using VoC programs and NPS, and they focus more on employees and less on cutting costs. Comparing results over the previous three years we found more analysis of email and chat conversations, improvements in VoC governance, and a wider gap between companies that are good at CX versus those that are not.
Data Snapshot: Communications and Media Benchmark. April 2012 ($195)
This report examines the media consumption and communications patterns of 10,000 U.S. consumers.it contains 23 data charts that cover topics such as the hours per day consumers spend on TV, radio, and the Internet, their use of social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, their use of mobile websites and mobile apps, and their preferred ways to contact friends. This data snapshot also examines the differences in these media and communications patterns across age groups of consumers.
The ROI of Customer Experience. March 2012 ($195)
An analysis of US and UK consumers shows that customer experience is highly correlated to loyalty. Customer experience leaders have more than a 16 percentage point advantage over customer experience laggards in consumers’ willingness to buy more, their reluctance to switch business away, and their likelihood to recommend. A modest increase in customer experience can result in a gain over three years of up to $382 million for US companies and up to £263 million for UK firms, depending on the industry. While the case for loyalty is compelling, companies should determine the business impact that customer experience has on their specific business by following our five step process. To achieve these results, however, companies must create customer experience metrics programs that embed these measurments into how they run their business.
2012 Temkin Loyalty Ratings. March 2012 ($195)
Sam’s Club, Aldi, and USAA earned the top spots in the 2012 Temkin Loyalty Ratings while Citigroup (banking and credit cards) and Charter Communications (TV service and Internet service) each show up twice in the bottom four. We asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their loyalty to companies across three dimensions: likely to recommend, reluctant to switch, and willing to repurchase. Their responses allowed us to rate the loyalty of customers to 206 companies across 18 industries. One-quarter of companies have “strong” or “very strong” ratings while 50% have “weak” or “very weak” ratings. At an industry level, grocery chains and retailers have the most loyal customers while internet service providers and TV service providers have the least loyal customers. USAA has the most loyal customers across three industries, banking, insurance, and credit cards. When comparing the results from the 2011 and 2012 Temkin Loyalty Ratings, we find that PNC and USAA improved the most and Kohl’s and Hyatt declined the most.
Data Snapshot: Tech Vendors: Benchmarking Product and Relationship Satisfaction of IT Clients. March 2012 ($295)
During January 2012, 800 IT professionals from companies with at least $500 million in annual revenues rated the products of and their relationships with 60 tech vendors. Some of the findings include: Intel dominates in product flexibility, Cisco leads in product features, Compuware’s product features are severely lacking, Google has a big lead in cost of ownership, Intel dominates in product flexibility, Apple leads in innovation, and Wipro is far behind in technical support.
Data Snapshot: Customer Experience Expectations and Plans For 2012. February 2012 ($195)
In November and December of 2011, Temkin Group surveyed 210 respondents from companies with $500 million or more in annual revenues about their customer experience results in 2011 and their plans for 2012 and beyond. The results from that survey are compared with results to a similar survey we completed in the same timeframe in 2010. The results highlight a continued strong ambition and commitment to customer experience and an increase in customer experience management activities in 2012.
Data Snapshot: Consumer Channel Preferences. February 2012 ($195)
As part of Temkin Group’s Q4 2011 Consumer Benchmark Survey, we asked 5,000 U.S. consumers about their contact preferences regarding 11 common interactions such as updating one’s address or resolving technical problems with electronics. This data snapshot looks at how many consumers prefer to contact companies by phone, self-service, online chat, or by visiting a brick-and-mortar store. The data also compare differences across seven age groups of consumers.
2012 Temkin Experience Ratings. February 2012 (FREE)
Sam’s Club and Publix earned the top two spots in the 2012 Temkin Experience Rankings, with three fast food chains rounding out the top five. We asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with companies across three dimensions of their experience: functional, accessible, and emotional. Their responses allowed us to rate 206 companies across 18 industries. Only 28% of those companies received at least a “good” rating. Grocery chains earned the highest average scores and health plans dominated the bottom of the ratings. Kaiser Permanente and credit unions most outperformed their industries while DHL and RadioShack fell the farthest behind their peers. None of the companies earned an “excellent” rating for the emotional component, while Charter Communications and Earthlink lead 10 companies falling below the “very poor” threshold in that area. Compared with last year’s ratings, most industries improved, led by a 5.3 point average increase by insurance carriers. When it comes to changes over the past year by individual firms, PNC and Lenovo improved the most while Regions Bank had the sharpest decline.
The State of the Customer Experience Profession, 2012. February 2012 ($195)
We surveyed 327 customer experience (CX) professionals and compared their responses to a survey from last year. It turns out that CX professionals are happy with their profession and remain satisfied with their jobs. A larger percentage of CX professionals think that their management team is committed to CX. The largest area of focus for these professionals is customer service and voice of the customer programs. Eighty percent of respondents think that CX will be even more important for their firm this year, although that’s slightly down from last year. We also compared responses between CX executives and other CX professionals. The executives feel more appreciated, are less likely to look for a new job, and see more changes coming in the future.
2012 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors January 2012 ($295)
To understand the customer experience delivered by IT vendors, we surveyed 800 IT professionals from large companies. Using their feedback on the functional, accessible, and emotional components of experiences with vendors, we created the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors which rates 60 large IT suppliers by their customers. Microsoft business applications, Cisco, IBM SPSS, and Microsoft servers were at the top of the list with “excellent” ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, Compuware, Capgemini, and Fujitsu were at the bottom of nine companies with “very poor” ratings. Our research also looked at the 2012 purchase plans for these IT buyers. When we chart the Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors with the purchase momentum for these 60 firms, it shows the clear connection between customer experience and revenues.
Employee Engagement Benchmark Study January 2012 ($195)
Employee engagement is one of the four customer experience core competencies and it’s the one that companies tend to struggle with the most. To examine this critical area, we surveyed more than 2,400 U.S. employees. Here are some highlights of the findings: only 40% of employees are fully committed to helping their companies succeed, 54% will do something good for the company even if it’s not expected, and 26% are likely to look for a new job within six months. We also introduced the Temkin Employee Engagement Index (TEEI) based on how employees feel about three areas: understanding the company mission, feeling that their feedback is valued, and having the required training and tools. Using the TEEI, we found that only 31% of employees are highly engaged. These highly engaged employees are a real asset; they’re 5.8 times more committed to helping their companies succeed and 4.7 times more likely to recommend that someone apply for a job at their company. It turns out that companies with good customer experience have 2.5 times more engaged employees than companies with poor customer experience.
Data Snapshot: Social Media And Mobile Adoption January 2012 ($195)
As part of Temkin Group’s Q4 2011 Consumer Benchmark Survey, we asked 5,000 U.S. consumers about their social media and mobile activities. This data snapshot looks at how many consumers perform activities such as update their status on Facebook, send a tweet, read an online product review, or invite someone to join their LinkedIn network. The data also shows how frequently they do these activities and the differences across seven age groups of consumers.
2012 Temkin Experience Ratings UK January 2012 (FREE)
John Lewis and Waitrose tied for first in the 2012 Temkin Experience Rankings UK, with several other grocery stores and Amazon.com rounding out the top ten. We asked 3,000 British consumers to rate their recent interactions with companies across three dimensions of their experience: functional, accessible, and emotional. These data allowed us to rate 66 companies across seven industries. Only two of those companies received an “excellent” rating, while 26% fell in the “good” category. The results show that retailers and grocery stores deliver the best experience while personal computer manufacturers and insurance companies provide the worst.
Data Snapshot: Who Prefers Service Over Price? January 2012 (FREE)
We asked 5,000 U.S. consumers whether they would prefer low prices or good service when doing business with 14 types of companies. It turns out that consumers prefer low prices in every industry except for banks and computers. Our analysis looked at differences across age, income, ethnic, and educational levels of consumers. Some of our findings: life insurance is the most age-dependent, low income leads to price preference, blacks have the most preference for good service, and higher education leads to a preference for service.
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2011 Research Reports
State of CX Metrics, 2011, November 2011 ($195)
Companies know that it’s important to use customer experience (CX) metrics and many are already getting value from those efforts. To understand what companies are doing in this area, we surveyed more than 200 large organizations. Companies use a wide range of different metrics with varied results. They track customer service, satisfaction, and phone experiences fairly well. On the other hand, they’re not very effective at measuring customers across the lifecycle, the emotional response of customers, or cross-channel interactions. When it comes to how they run their businesses, companies haven’t integrated CX metrics into their decision making or operational processes. In only 41% of firms, for instance, do execs look at CX metrics more frequently than once per quarter. Using Temkin Group’s four-question assessment, we found that only 10% of firms have good CX metrics programs, and they deliver better customer experience.
Innovation Equity Quotient, November 2011 ($195)
Companies focus on innovating new products and services, but how willing are consumers to accept these offerings? The Innovation Equity Quotient measures the readiness of consumers to try something new from a company. Led by Hershey and Kraft Foods, six consumer packaged goods (CPG) firms came out at the top of the ratings. In some head-to-head comparisons, Google leads technology companies, Coke beats Pepsi, and Walgreen’s beats CVS. We also examined the data across age, income, gender, and ethnic groups. Income levels appear to have the least impact on the Innovation Equity Quotient, but there were considerable gaps in the other areas. Nintendo and Google have the largest age gaps, Revlon and L’Oreal have the largest gender gaps, Apple has the largest income gap, and Nike has the largest ethnicity gap.
2011 Temkin Trust Ratings, October 2011 ($195)
We asked 6,000 U.S. consumers how much they trust different companies. The data allowed us to rate 143 companies across 12 industries. USAA and Amazon.com earned the top spots in the 2011 Temkin Trust Ratings while Comcast and Charter Communications dominate the bottom of the list. Only eight companies earned a “very strong” rating. Retailers, investment firms, and hotel chains have the highest average rating, while Internet service provider and TV service providers have the lowest.
The State Of Voice Of The Customer Programs, 2011, September 2011 ($195)
Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are a popular customer experience management tool. We surveyed 192 large companies about their VoC programs and found that most of these efforts are successful. Typical programs employ three to five full-time employees and are not yet using social media or mobile channels. The respondents completed Temkin Group’s VoC Maturity Assessment, which gauges the effectiveness of these programs in six areas: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. The results show that only 2% of companies have reached the highest level of maturity. We recommend that companies use the assessment tool and data included in the report to benchmark their own maturity level and identify areas for improvement.
2011 Temkin Customer Service Ratings, August 2011 ($195)
USAA and Edward Jones took the top spots in the 2011 Temkin Customer Service Ratings. We asked 6,000 US consumers to rate their recent customer service experience. This data allowed us to rate 129 companies across 12 industries. Only 12 of those companies received a “strong” customer service rating. Retailers, hotel chains, and investment firms have the highest average rating, while Internet and TV Service Providers are squarely at the bottom of the ratings. To improve customer service, companies should look at the experience holistically, using Temkin Group’s SLICE-B methodology.
The PC Buying Experience, 2011, July 2011 ($195)
Computers have become a standard appliance in most households, but why aren’t they easy to buy? This report analyzes the buying process of 842 US consumers that have recently purchased a computer. Apple is the leader across the buying experience but Dell and HP are not far behind. This report compares the customer satisfaction of the leading computer suppliers in five stages of the consumers buying process. It also examines influences and decision factors on the consumer buying decision by major PC manufacturer. Key findings are that Apple consumers care more about customer service than PC buyers, consumers that buy PCs directly from the manufacturer are more satisfied than those that buy at a retailer and Best Buy employees are more helpful than those at other retailers.
2011 Temkin Web Experience Ratings, June 2011 ($195)
Amazon.com, Regions, and USAA took the top spots in the 2011 Temkin Web Experience Ratings. We asked 6,000 US consumers to rate their recent online experience. This data allowed us to rate 119 companies across 12 industries. Only 7% of those companies received a “good” or “very good” Web Experience rating. While there is some diversity at the top of the ratings, TV service providers, Internet service providers, and health plans dominate the bottom of the list. To improve the online experience, companies need to master the entire experience, examining what Temkin Group calls SLICE-B.
Social Media’s Limited Affect On Purchase Decisions, June 2011 ($195)
What affect does social media have on purchase decisions? We examined this question using a survey of 6,000 US consumers. Based on their responses, we calculated the Temkin Purchase Influence Index (TPII) to gauges the level of influence that these channels have on the purchase and selection decisions of computers, cell phones, TVs, insurance, health plans, and credit cards. While the overall results show very few areas where social media has a strong influence on these purchases, a deeper analysis of consumers by age, income, ethnicity, and education uncovers pockets of stronger (and weaker) social media influence.
2011 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, May 2011 ($195)
USAA, Costco, and Amazon.com took the top spots in the 2011 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. We asked 6,000 US consumers how likely they were to forgive companies if they made a mistake. This data allowed us to rate 143 companies across 12 industries. Only 18% of those companies received a “strong” or “very strong” forgiveness rating. The results show that retailers have the highest level of goodwill while credit card issuers and TV service providers have the lowest. While all companies make mistakes, customers are more willing to give Forgiveness Ratings leaders a second chance.
The State Of Customer Experience Management, 2011, May 2011 ($195)
Temkin Group surveyed more than 200 large companies about their customer experience efforts. While 7% of respondents think that their company is a customer experience leader today, 61% want to be their industry leader within three years. More than half of these companies have an executive in charge of their customer experience activities. A big component of those efforts include voice of the (VoC) programs that overwhelmingly deliver positive business results. We also asked companies to complete Temkin Group’s customer experience competency assessment. Only 3% of firms have reached the highest level of maturity. But there’s good news. Over the last year, companies have improved in all four areas of customer experience competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness.
The Customer Experience-Loyalty Connection, May 2011 ($195)
Temkin Group analyzed the correlation between customer experience and loyalty across 12 industries: airlines, banks, credit card issuers, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, computer makers, retailers, TV service providers, and wireless carriers. Customer experience leaders enjoy a double-digit advantage in customers willing to buy more from them, reluctant to switch business away from them, and likely to recommend them. A modest improvement in customer experience can drive between $179 million (for health plans) and $308 million (for hotel chains) of incremental revenue over three years for every $1 billion in annual sales.
2011 Temkin Loyalty Ratings, April 2011 ($195)
Amazon.com, Kohl’s, and Costco took the top spots in the 2011 Temkin Loyalty Ratings. We asked 6,000 US consumers to rate their level of loyalty to companies across three components: purchasing additional products and services, reluctance to switch business away, and likelihood to recommend the company to friends and relatives. This data allowed us to rate 143 companies across 12 industries. Only 17% of those companies received a “strong” or “very strong” loyalty rating. The results show that retailers have the highest level of loyalty while TV service providers and health plans have the lowest.
Voice Of The Customer Programs Grow Up, April 2011 ($195)
Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are critical components of customer experience initiatives. And they should be; they work. Most companies report solid business results from these efforts. Temkin Group’s research shows, however, that most VoC programs are in the very early stages of maturity. To reach the next level of evolution, these programs must improve across what we call the Six Ds of closed-loop VoC programs: Detect, Disseminate, Diagnose, Discuss, Design, and Deploy. As large companies gain VoC maturity, they will increasingly require higher levels of automation found in Customer Insight and Action (CIA) platforms. To remain relevant in this changing environment, market research organizations will need to change how they operate.
2011 Temkin Experience Ratings, March 2011 (FREE)
Amazon.com, Kohl’s, Costco, Lowe’s, and Sam’s Club took the top five spots in the 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings. We asked 6,000 US consumers to rate their recent interactions with companies across three dimensions of their experience: functional, accessible, and emotional. This data allowed us to rate 143 companies across 12 industries. Only 16% of those companies received an “excellent” or “good” rating. The results show that retailers deliver the best experience while TV service providers and health plans deliver the worst.
How Consumers Give Feedback, March 2011 ($195)
Companies often discuss “word of mouth,” but how often and in what ways do consumers discuss their experiences? We surveyed 6,000 US consumers to find out. It turns out that the most common communication about good and bad experiences occurs between friends via email, phone, or in person. While few consumers share their experiences directly with the companies that pleased or displeased them, far fewer shared those experiences via social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and 3rd party ratings sites. Our analysis also uncovered differences by age, income, ethnicity, and educational levels. We analyzed the customer bases of more than 140 companies and discovered that Days Inn, E*Trade, and Apple were the most susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook. Days Inn, Courtyard By Marriott, and Hyatt are the most susceptible via Twitter.
Locating A Store On The Phone Is Not Always Easy, February 2011 ($195)
When traveling in an unfamiliar area, calling a store’s toll-free number can be a convenient way to locate the closest branch or store location. How user-friendly are these phone-based store locators? We used Temkin Group’s SLICE-B methodology to evaluate the experiences at five large banks (Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, USBank, and Wells Fargo) and five large retailers (Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart). Target was the only store to receive an “Excellent” overall rating, with 23 out of a possible 24 points. Citibank and Walgreens, on the other hand, scored in the “Poor” range. Stores lost points for offering voice-activated search without touch-tone support and for accepting only one criteria to search by, usually a zip code.
Online Experiences For Buying Gift Cards Need Work, January 2011 ($195)
Gift cards are a popular choice for consumers, especially around the holidays. Almost all major stores and restaurants sell them online. How user-friendly are those online purchasing processes? To answer this question, we used Temkin Group’s SLICE-B methodology to evaluate the experience of 12 large companies: three grocers (Kroger, Publix, and Safeway), three electronics retailers (Apple, Best Buy, and Radio Shack), three department stores (J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, and Macy’s), and three restaurant chains (Applebee’s, Chili’s, and Outback Steakhouse). Outback Steakhouse and Radio Shack were the only sites to receive an “excellent” rating. At the other end of the spectrum, Safeway, Chili’s, Kroger, and Best Buy were at the bottom with “mediocre” ratings. Many of the sites lacked key functionality such as free shipping, sending the cards at a later date, and sending multiple cards in a single order.
Customer Experience Accelerates In 2011, January 2011 ($195)
To understand what’s on the plate for customer experience in 2011, we surveyed more than 170 large organizations about their 2010 activities and 2011 plans. Most respondents are satisfied with their customer experience roles and have a strong outlook for improvements at their company. More than eight out of 10 respondents think that customer experience will be more important in 2011 than it was in 2010. Social media, the Web, and customer-centric culture are set to receive the most increased attention this year. We also examined the anatomy of successful customer experience programs and found that they plan more and use customer feedback and insight more effectively than other firms.
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2010 Research Reports
Eight Customer Experience Megatrends, Updated on December 2010 (FREE)
Customer experience management is still in its early stages of evolution. As people, processes, and technologies evolve, they will alter the way that companies deal with customers. This paper identifies eight of those trends that will reshape customer experience management over the next three to five years. It also provides specific observations about hw these multi-year trends will play out in 2011.
Online Store Locators Miss A Key Part Of The Experience, December 2010 ($195)
Just about every bank and retailer provides a store or branch locator on its site. But how user-friendly are the experiences? Mostly mediocre. Temkin Group evaluated 10 large retailers and banks using its SLICE-B experience review methodology. Wells Fargo ended with the only “excellent” rating and Target was alone at the bottom with a “poor” rating. All of the sites struggle to support user’s goals after they find the nearby stores.
The State Of Voice Of The Customer (VoC) Programs, October 2010 ($195)
This report looks at the make-up of 119 VoC programs at large companies across geographic regions, feedback channels, executive involvement, effectiveness of different activities, obstacles to success, and plans for 2011. We also examine results from the Temkin Group’s VoC Program Maturity Assessment that was completed by 105 of these firms. It turns out that only 1% of the firms reached our highest maturity level, “Transformers.” To understand how VoC programs differ by size of an organization, we compared survey responses between large and small companies. The number of companies planning to increase spending dwarfs those that are planning to cut back, so 2011 should be an active year for VoC programs.
Assessing The Maturity of Voice Of The Customer Programs, October 2010 (FREE)
This report is not longer available. Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are becoming a common element of customer experience programs. But how effective are they? To address this question, Temkin Group developed an assessment tool to identify the level of maturity of VoC programs. In a recent Temkin Group study, almost 200 companies completed this assessment. The findings: two-thirds of programs are in the earliest stages of development, while only 5% have reached the highest maturity level. Temkin Group recommends that companies take the self-test and discuss the results with their management teams.
Profiling Customer Experience Leaders, September 2010 ($195)
Using the Temkin Group (TG) customer experience competency model, we found that only 3% of large North American firms were what we call “Customer-Centric Organizations.” We used the TG competency model to break respondents into two groups, 60 leaders and 80 laggards, and examined the differences in their responses across various dimensions. Some of the areas with striking gaps between the two groups: focus on creating a customer-centric culture, priority for cost-cutting, ability to delight customers across all channels, success with Net Promoter Scores, use of text analytics, and obstacles they run into.
The Evolution Of Voice Of The Customer Programs, September 2010 ($195)
Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are often key components of customer experience efforts and most companies report positive results from these efforts. To thrive, these programs need closed-loop processes in four areas: Listen, Interpret, Respond, and Monitor. As VoC programs evolve, they often outgrow manual processes and existing market research programs. Companies should consider deploying what Temkin Group calls Customer Insight and Action (CIA) platforms that automate the collection, analysis, and workflow associated with closed-loop VoC programs across multiple channels. To aid in that effort, Temkin Group has assembled information on 11 vendors that provide CIA platforms.
The Current State Of Customer Experience, June 2010 ($195)
Using the Temkin Group customer experience competency model, we found that only 3% of firms were “Customer-Centric Organizations” while 33% of firms were “Customer-Oblivious Organizations.” While companies rated highest in the area of Purposeful Leadership, only 16% received “very good” ratings in that competency area. This data highlights that companies are still in very early stages of customer experience maturity. We expect the results to improve over time; as 65% of respondents want to be customer experience leaders within three years.
The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies, June 2010 (FREE)
Organizations that want to become customer experience leaders need to master four customer experience competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. Gauge how close your company is to being a Customer-Centric Organization using Temkin Group’s competency model to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Customer Experience Matters® 