Supermarkets dominate this ranking

When it comes to the customer experience, one retail segment stands out above all others.



Supermarket chains took 13 out of the top 20 spots in the sixth annual Temkin Experience Ratings, with regional grocers Publix and H-E-B earning the highest overall scores. Other supermarket chains in the top 20 were Save-a-Lot, Kroger, Wegmans, Aldi, Food Lion, Shop Rite, Giant Eagle, Trader Joe’s, Wawa (classified as a supermarket by Temkin), Winn-Dixie and Hy-Vee.



At the other end of the spectrum were health plans, which had some of the lowest scores of the 194 companies surveyed.



To generate the ratings, Temkin asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to rate their recent interactions with 294 companies across 20 industries and then evaluated their experiences across three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion.



The survey noted that consumers' expectations are outpacing customer experience improvements, especially in industries with chronically poor customer experience.



"This year was particularly telling, as we found a steep decline in customer experience across all industries,” said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.



Average scores for all 20 industries in the 2016 Ratings declined this year over last year. The percentage of good and excellent companies dropped from 37% in 2015 to 18% in 2016.



The "2016 Temkin Experience Ratings" can be downloaded for free from the Customer Experience Matters blog, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, TemkinGroup.com.