When it comes to customer experience, every brand makes an effort to be absolutely flawless. The truth remains, however, that every brand also falls short of this goal; organizations make mistakes, and not every customer will leave every interaction satisfied.
When these companies fall short, they must rely on customer forgiveness to maintain their brand perception and retain valuable consumers. This is the subject of a recent report released by Temkin Group, simply titled “2016 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings.”
The report rates 294 companies across 20 industries using data gathered from a survey of 10,000 U.S. shoppers. Big winners included USAA and Publix, with Amazon, Kroger, Food Lion, H-E-B, and Wawa rounding out the top 7.
On the other end of the spectrum, Comcast occupied the unfortunate basement position in the report, along with Charter Communications, Motel 6, Health Net, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Anthem.
Leading the way in customer forgiveness are supermarkets and retailers, with Internet service providers and TV providers placing, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the bottom of the scale.
This difference is largely owed to the nature of respective industries: traditional stores are in a position to provide comprehensive customer experience for the duration of a shopper’s interaction, while TV and Internet providers are far less customer-facing, often interacting with customers only when they experience issues with their service.
USAA turned in an impressive performance within the banking and credit card category, rating more than 20 points higher than the industry average.
“Every organization makes mistakes, so forgiveness is a critical element of loyalty,” said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group. “USAA, Publix, and the other leaders earn consumers’ forgiveness by dedicating their efforts to meeting the needs of their customers.”
Some brands showed marked improvement over last year’s report: Con Edison of NY and RadioShack upped their rating by over 20 points. Other companies, like General Motors, saw their rating tumble by 20. These shifts can be attributed to a number of factors, the largest of which is likely the ability for a company to make an authentic connection with customers.