Tag Archives: customer satisfaction

Rating the Customer Experience

shopcartHave you heard of “Customer Experience?” Also called CX, It’s a field of customer satisfaction measurement that studies the following aspects of your dealings with retailers and service providers:

  • Success: Did they have what you wanted?
  • Effort: How easy was it to get what you wanted?
  • Emotion: How did that make you feel?

Sounds kind of simple, but it’s a serious field of study. There’s a lot of math!

The gurus in this field do an annual survey that interviews 10,000 people about 250 companies across the consumer spectrum, such as retailers, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food, insurance companies, rental cars, and on and on. Then they release the results.

A few highlights…

  • People LOVE their grocery stores. The top 20 represents 25 companies (there are several tie scores), and includes 13 grocery chains. Publix is the number 1 grocer, as well as number 1 overall.
  • The rst of the top 5 are Fast Food, Other Retail, Package Delivery and Banks.
  • The bottom of the list: Health Insurance providers!
  • Finally, every major section, including the favorites on the list, has seen its ratings decline in the past year. Why do you think that is?

If you want more detail, check it out! Anyway, the big story here is overall satisfaction with supermarkets. How about you? Which grocer is your fave, and why? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great springtime weekend!

Customer Satisfaction: Who Stands Out?

shopcartA big study just came out. It interviewed “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.”

Who are the big winners? Grocery stores, as a whole, get the highest marks. Publix takes the top spot. I have to say, I do like the overall vibe of Publix, but MAN! That experience comes at a high price! Interestingly, the grocery store Aldi also placed highly. Um, has Aldi changed? I remember it as the bare-bones, no-frills store that carries all the foreign knock-offs of your favorite products, e.g., the detergent in the orange box is called “Surf” instead of “Tide.” Must be a price thing? I can see how that would score these days!

Other achievers, getting positive ratings, include fast food, retailers, parcel delivery services, and banks. Meanwhile, Internet service providers, TV service providers, and health plans received “poor” ratings.

As for “movers,” companies that have improved or gotten worse, Residence Inn, US Cellular, and JetBlue Airlines moved up, while Subaru dealers, TD Ameritrade, and Buick dealers went down.

How about you? What do you look for in a retailer? How do you define customer satisfaction? Who’s at the top of YOUR list? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!

Retail Customer Satisfaction Declines

shopgirlIf retailers could accurately, scientifically predict customer satisfaction…then every store would be a success! But there are so many variables. And new technologies keep changing the game every year. And, while the recent results aren’t HUGE declines,  customer satisfaction is down overall.

So, to hear that consumer retail satisfaction has declined for the first time in 4 years, is a bad sign. Basically, the old-school brick-and-mortar stores are down, and online stores are up.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index surveyed almost 9,000 consumers (and if you know anything about surveys, that’s a big sample!) Here’s what they learned about customer satisfaction. Do these percentages of LIKES sound familiar to you?

  • Department/Discount Store Scores: Nordstrom 86% LIKE, Dillard’s 81%, Kohl’s 80%, Target 80%
  • Supermarkets: Trader Joe’s 85%, Wegmans 85%, Publix 82%,
  • Drug Stores: Rite Aid 78%, Walgreens 77%. CVS 75%
  • Specialty Retail: Costco 84%, BJ’s Wholesale Club 81%, Sam’s Club 80%
  • Lowe’s beat Home Depot
  • Internet Retailers: Amazon, at 86% is the top of the heap

So, do these results match your shopping experience? Let us know over at the MindField Online Facebook page, and have a great weekend!