The Temkin Group is a customer experience research and consulting firm. We have one goal for our clients: increase customer loyalty by becoming more customer-centric.
We just published a new Temkin Group report, 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings. Yesterday, we went over the U.S.-based companies providing the best customer experience. Today, we will focus on the U.S.-based companies that have inspired the most customer loyalty.
We asked 6,000 U.S. 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.
Here’s a list of the top 20 companies in the ratings. Click on the graphic below or click right here if you want to see the results for all 143 companies.
The Temkin Loyalty Ratings are calculated by examining three levels of loyalty that companies have earned from consumers: willingness to buy more products, reluctance to switch business away from, and likelihood to recommend those companies.
Overall, consumers don’t have a strong degree of loyalty across many industries. Retailers, by far, earn the highest levels of loyalty. TV Service providers and Internet Service providers, on the other hand, have earned woefully little loyalty with consumers.
Here are some of the other findings from the research:
- Results versus industry averages. Led by USAA (insurance and credit cards), TriCare (health plans), credit unions (banks), and Southwest Airlines, 12 companies had double-digit advantages in loyalty over their industry. At the other end of the spectrum, Radio Shack (retailers), Super 8 (hotel chains), and Gap (retailers) led 18 companies with loyalty scores at least 10 points below their industry averages.
- "Recommending" leaders and laggards. Led by Costco and Amazon.com, 36 companies have "very strong" ratings for consumers that are likely to recommend them to friends and colleagues. At the other end of the spectrum, Charter Communications, Anthem, and Comcast are the only firms with a "very weak" rating in this area.
- "Switching" leaders and laggards. While no companies have very strong ratings for customers that are reluctant to switch, TriCare and USAA lead the five companies that have a "strong" rating in this area. Blue Shield Of California and Lenovo are at the low-end of the spectrum along with 12 other companies that have negative ratings in this area.
- "Repurchasing" leaders and laggards. When it comes to having customers who are likely to purchase something else from them, Amazon.com and Old Navy lead 21 companies with "very strong" loyalty ratings in this area. HSBC and Charter Communications are two of the seven companies that didn’t even cross the 20% mark in this area.