Third Annual Temkin Experience Ratings Evaluates 246 Companies Across 19 Industries

Waban, MA (February 27, 2013) – Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, Publix and Trader Joe’s earned the highest scores in the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings, ranking 246 companies across 19 industries. Joining those firms in the top 12 spots are Aldi, Chick-fil-A,Amazon.com, Sam’s Club, H.E.B., Dunkin’ Donuts, Save-a-Lot, Sonic Drive-In, Little Caeser’s, and Ace Hardware.

While grocery chains, fast food chains, and retailers dominate the top of the 2013 Temkin Rating, health plans earn the dubious distinction of defining poor performance, taking seven of the 15 lowest spots. The five lowest scoring organizations are: US Airways, Time Warner Cable, Days Inn, Empire BCBS, and 21st Century.

In this year’s ratings, 37% of companies earned “good” or “excellent” scores, while 28% are rated as “poor” or ”very poor.” Companies with at least a “good” rating grew by nine-percentage points since 2012 and by 21-points since 2011. Of the 203 companies included in both the 2012 and 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings, 57% firms had at least a modest increase. The companies that made the largest improvement over 2012 are Citibank, TriCare, TD Ameritrade, Office Depot, EarthLink, Hardees, and Regions Bank.

"It's wonderful to see that customer experience is improving, although many companies still have a long way to go" states Bruce Temkin, author of the report and managing partner of Temkin Group.

In it’s third year of publication, the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings examines customer experience across 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. 

Key findings from the research:

• The companies with ratings that most outperform their industry averages are TriCare (health plans), USAA (insurance), credit unions (banks), Kaiser Permanente (health plans), Advantage (rental cars), AOL (Internet services), USAA (banks), Marriott (hotels), Charles Schwab (investment firms), and Alaska Airlines (airlines).

• The companies with ratings that most under perform their industry averages are Days Inn (hotels), RadioShack (retailers), 21st Century (insurance carriers), US Airways (airlines), Motel 6 (hotels), HSBC (banks), Morgan Stanley (investment firms), Apple Store(retailers), and HSBC (credit cards).

• Of the 18 industries that were in both this year’s and last year’s ratings, 11 earned higher scores in 2013. Wireless carriers improved the most, while appliances declined the most.

The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings along with other ratings can be accessed at the Temkin Ratings website, www.TemkinRatings.com

The report “2013 Temkin Experience Ratings” can be downloaded for free from the Customer Experience Matters blog, atExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, www.TemkinGroup.com.

About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is a leading customer experience research and consulting firm with one simple goal for its clients: increase customer loyalty by becoming more customer-centric. The company combines customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of large organizations to help senior executives accelerate their results. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email to info@temkingroup.com.

About Bruce Temkin: Bruce Temkin is widely recognized as a customer experience thought leader and is Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is also the author of a very popular blog, Customer Experience Matters® (ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com). Prior to forming Temkin Group, he was a VP at Forrester Research for 12 years. Bruce is a highly demanded speaker who consistently receives high marks for his content-rich, entertaining keynote addresses. He is also the co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management.