Amazon.com is tops in customer experience, survey says

Retailers deliver the best experience among several categories of companies that serve consumers, according to a new report from Temkin Group, a customer experience consulting firm. Retailers claimed 15 out of the top 20 spots in a survey that included banks and investment firms, Internet service providers and companies in travel firms, credit cards, wireless, health care and insurance, among others.  

Amazon.com ranked No. 1 overall, followed by multichannel retailers Kohl’s, Costco, Lowe’s and Sam’s Club. Consumers rated companies based on their experiences with them over the prior 60 days across all touchpoints, including online interactions.

Only two companies among the 143 measured received a rating of “excellent.” Both are retailers: Amazon and Kohl’s. Retailers—the survey included 26—averaged a “good” rating, the only business category to do so. The hotels category rated second highest with an overall rating of “okay.” 73% of companies received an okay or poor rating, according to the Temkin Experience Rating scale. Two business categories received a “very poor” overall rating: TV service providers and health plans.   

Consumers rated their experiences on three evaluation categories: functional experience, accessible experience and emotional experience. Retailers had the best average scores across all three categories, although retailers’ lowest score (63%) came in connecting emotionally with consumers.

Costco (86%) and Amazon.com (86%) delivered the best functional experience to consumers. Among retailers, RadioShack (55%) rated the lowest on functional experience. Kohl’s (86%) and Costco (85%) led the retailer pack for accessibility and Amazon (74%) and Kohl’s (71%) took the top spots for emotional experience. Amazon is the No. 1 retailer in Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide. Costco is No. 15, Kohl’s is No. 43 and Radio Shack is No. 240.