Report: Sam's Club, Amazon tops in retail customer experience

Waban, Mass. -- Research results released Tuesday by consulting firm Temkin Group revealed, among retailers, Sam’s Club and Amazon earned top marks.



According to the 2013 Temkin Experience Rankings which queried 10,000 U.S. consumers about customer service issues across 246 companies in 19 industries, Sam's Club and Amazon earned the top spots in the retail sector and RadioShack was the lowest rated retailer for the third consecutive year.



The retail industry, on average, was tied for third out of 19 industries studied and one of four industries with an average rating of good.



“The retail industry remains one of the better sectors for customer experience, but RadioShack is a real black sheep in the industry,” said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.



The Temkin Experience Ratings evaluated three areas of customer experience: functional, accessible and emotional. Other key findings of the report included:

• Three of the top 10 companies across all industries are retailers: Amazon and Sam’s Club (tied for No. 5 overall), and Ace Hardware (No. 7 overall).

• RadioShack is the lowest-rated retailer for the third consecutive year and 191st overall in 2013. The retailer is also the lowest scoring across all three underlying components: functional, accessible, and emotional.

• Amazon and Costco are the top rated in the functional component, Ace Hardware is the top rated in the accessible component, and Nordstrom is the top in the emotional component.

• Office Depot (increase of 11 percentage points) and Barnes & Noble (increase of eight percentage points) made the largest improvements in the industry from 2012.

• J.C. Penney (decrease of six percentage points), Sam’s Club (decrease of four percentage points), and Lowe’s (decrease of four percentage points) had the largest declines from 2012.

• The average rating for the retail industry increased from 71% in 2012 to 74% in 2013.

• Sixteen of the 24 retailers that were in both the 2012 and 2013 ratings showed improvement.