Survey reveals retailers with best customer experience
Three very different retailers earned the top score in a survey of customer experience.
Ace Hardware, BJ's Wholesale Club, and QVC deliver the best customer experience in the retail industry, according to the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.
Ace, BJ's, and QVC all tied for the top spot out of the 48 retailers included in this year's ratings, each earning a score of 81% and coming in 8th place overall out of 331 companies across 20 industries. Five other retailers received scores that put them in the top 10% of companies for the entire Ratings: Sam's Club, O'Reilly Auto Parts, True Value, Amazon.com, and Dollar Tree.
Overall, the retail industry averaged a 74% rating in the report, and came in 3rd place out of 20 industries. The average rating of the industry improved by five percentage-points between 2016 and 2017, going from 68.6% to 73.9%.
The ratings for all retailers increased between 2016 and 2017, expect for J.C. Penney, whose score decreased by one point and Dollar General, whose score stayed the same. Macy's and Old Navy improved the most, each gaining 12 points.
To generate these ratings, consumers were asked to evaluate their recent experiences with a company across three dimensions: success (can you do what you want to do?), effort (how easy is it to work with the company?), and emotion (how do you feel about the interactions?). Temkin Group then averaged these three scores to produce each company's rating.
In the ratings, a score of 70% or above is considered "good," and a score of 80% or above is considered "excellent," while a score below 60% is considered "poor."
The ratings of all retailers in the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows:
• Ace Hardware: 81%
• BJ's Wholesale Club: 81%
• QVC: 81%
• Sam's Club: 80%
• O'Reilly Auto Parts: 79%
• True Value: 79%
• Amazon.com: 78%
• Dollar Tree: 78%
• Barnes & Noble: 77%
• Advance Auto Parts: 76%
• AutoZone: 76%
• Home Depot: 76%
• Lowe's: 76%
• Michael's: 76%
• Ross: 76%
• Bed Bath & Beyond: 75%
• PetSmart: 75%
• Walgreens: 75%
• Dollar General: 74%
• Etsy: 74%
• Family Dollar: 74%
• GameStop: 74%
• Macy's: 74%
• 7-Eleven: 73%
• Apple Retail Store: 73%
• Costco: 73%
• Kohl's: 73%
• Marshalls: 73%
• Nordstrom: 73%
• Rite Aid: 73%
• Staples: 73%
• CVS: 72%
• eBay: 72%
• Old Navy: 72%
• T.J. Maxx: 72%
• Target: 72%
• Dick's Sporting Goods: 71%
• Toys 'R' Us: 71%
• Wal-Mart: 71%
• Best Buy: 70%
• JCPenney: 70%
• Office Depot: 69%
• Office Max: 69%
• Sears: 67%
• Gap: 66%
• Kmart: 66%
• Foot Locker: 64%
• RadioShack: 64%