The fourth annual “Temkin Experience Ratings” reveals grocery and fast food chains dominate the top spots among evaluation of 268 companies across 19 industries. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, H-E-B, Trader Joe’s, Chick-fil-A, and Publix earned the highest scores in the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, ranking 268 companies across 19 industries. Joining those firms in the top 14 spots are Aldi, Food Lion, Sonic Drive-In, credit unions, Dairy Queen, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Regions, Sam’s Club and Starbucks.
While grocery chains and fast food chains dominate the top of the Temkin Experience Ratings, TV service providers, health plans and internet service providers earn the dubious distinction of defining poor performance, taking eight of the 11 lowest spots. The five lowest scoring organizations are: Coventry Health Care, Empire (BCBS), Highmark (BCBS), Medicaid and U.S. Cellular.
In this year’s ratings, 37 percent of companies earned “good” or “excellent” scores, while 25 percent are rated as “poor” or “very poor.” Companies with at least a “good” rating stayed flat over 2013, but have grown by 21 percentage points since 2011. Led by credit card issuers with an average increase of 4.1 points, 15 of the 19 industries earned a higher rating in 2014 than they did in 2013. Only four industries declined over the previous year: Parcel delivery services, retailers, rental car agencies and hotel chains.
“Customer experience is improving overall, but we still see some pockets of chronically poor experience, especially with TV service, internet service and health plans,” says Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.
Of the 243 companies that are included in both the 2013 and 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings, 48 percent of the firms increased by one point or more while 32 percent declined by at least one point. EarthLink, Regions, Humana, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Capital One improved the most. Coventry Health Care, U.S. Cellular, Marriott, Fifth Third and Chrysler declined the most.
