Zogby International recently conducted a survey for MSN Money among 3,022 randomly chosen respondents to ask them about customer service at 150 companies in 15 industries.
After looking at the ten worst customer service companies it’s only fair to look at the 10 best. These are the companies that are taking care of their employees because they know it’s the employees that are taking care of customers.
Every one of the companies on the list below had a combined “excellent” or “good” customer service score of 80% while none of the companies got more than 7.2% poor in contrast to the 10 worst where 30% “poor” was above average.
Also, this wouldn’t be a bad list to build your long-term stock portfolio around. In fact there was a book written about that very subject called “Firms of Endearment.”
Here are the 2011 Customer Service Hall of Fame top 10 (http://on-msn.com/mG7xSU):
10. UPS — 35.9% “excellent;” 6.5% “poor”
9. Costco — 37.2% “excellent;” 3.6% “poor”
8. FedEx — 40.2% “excellent;” 3.9% “poor,” with tight attention to detail that enables them to maintain a lead over UPS.
7. Apple — 40.8% “excellent” the employees embrace the brand to ensure a positive customer experience is delivered.
6. Southwest Airlines — doesn’t charge you for your first two bags and calls to apologize after a delay or mishap. Ultimately empowered employees positively differentiate Southwest from any other airline.
5. Publix Super Markets — 45% “excellent,” employee owned and managers’ average tenure is 25 years.
4. Nordstrom — 45.2% “excellent,” with employees empowered to do what’s in the customer’s best interest.
3. Netflix — 48% “excellent” with a user-friendly website and great technology to recommend movies you’ll like. I’ve never had the pleasure to use them but have friends that swear by them.
2. Trader Joe’s — 48.9% “excellent,” privately held and buying power that allows them to pass along savings to customers rather than shareholders.
1. Amazon.com — 50.4% “excellent” because the website is intuitive, simple, easy to shop, they have everything you need and it’s easy to return items that don’t work for you.
I found this somewhat surprising as I’ve written posts and exchanged email with Amazon about their marketing whereby they send you promotional emails about products you’ve already purchased and most likely don’t need more of at this time (e.g., outdoor furniture). See http://wp.me/pYHt6-6R.
I personally think Amazon can learn a lot from a company it purchased — Zappo’s. They’re by far and away the leader in customer service in my experience.
What are your thoughts?
Chipotle For Life 