Category: Temkin Group Research

2017 Temkin Online Ratings (U.S.): USAA, Advantage Rent-A-Car, and Amazon.com On Top

Temkin Group published the 2017 Temkin Online Ratings. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the ratings benchmarks the online experience delivered by 282 companies across 20 industries.

USAA took the top two spots for its banking and insurance businesses, and its credit card business tied for 4th. Advantage Rent-A-Car took third place and Amazon.com tied for 4th. Four TV/Internet service providers earned the lowest scores: Comcast, Cox Communications, Spectrum, and Time Warner Cable. Here’s a list of all of the companies.

You can see all of the high-level results on the Temkin Ratings website, or purchase a full dataset.

Purchase dataset for $295+
(see sample spreadsheet)

Purchase dataset for $295+
(see sample spreadsheet)

Report: Infusing Culture Throughout The New Employee Journey

We just published a Temkin Group report, Infusing Culture Throughout The New Employee Journey.

Here’s the executive summary:

A company’s culture reflects the attitudes and behaviors of its employees and influences almost every aspect of the employee journey and experience. However, despite its importance, many companies fail to orient new employees to their culture during onboarding. Rather than helping new hires form long-term connections with the organization and its values, companies often use this time to teach new hires about the organization’s processes. Companies instead should use their culture as a focal point during recruiting, hiring, and onboarding and then continue to emphasize it as employees acclimate to their roles. This report:

  • Explores how companies can align new employees with their culture.
  • Describes how companies can infuse culture throughout the four stages of the new hire journey: Establish Cultural Fit, Set Behavioral Expectations, Reinforce Positive Performance, and Prioritize Sustaining Culture.
  • Shares examples of best practices from a number of companies, including Adobe, Crowe Horwath, LexisNexis, Oxford Properties, Touchpoint Support Services, and Safelite Autoglass.
  • Provides a checklist companies can use to execute their culture-focused onboarding program effectively.

Download report for $195+
BuyDownload3

Here are the best practices described in the report:

Download report for $195+BuyDownload3

Dataset: UK Net Promoter Score Benchmark, 2017

In our Q1 2017 UK consumer benchmark study, we asked 5,000 UK consumers to provide Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) ratings for the companies that they had interacted with during the previous 90 days. We used that data to create an NPS benchmark of 157 companies across 16 industries.

You can purchase and download the dataset, which includes companies that had at least 85 respondents. The excel spreadsheet includes detailed NPS for all 157 companies and 16 industries, along with data on industry-level NPS by the age group of the respondents.

Download dataset for $295+
(see sample spreadsheet)
BuyDownload3

Some of the highlights of the study include (see figures below):

  • Company NPS ranges from a high of 45 (Nationwide) down to a low of -39 (Bank of Scotland).
  • Industry averages for NPS range from a high of 20 (supermarkets) to a low of -12 (rental cars & transport).
  • The NPS by age groups ranges from a high of 34 (NPS of auto dealers by consumers who are at least 65-years-old) to a low of -34 (NPS of health insurers by 25- to 34-year-olds).
  • When we compare NPS to the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, UK, we find a very high level of correlation. That shouldn’t be a surprise, because improving customer experience is the path to better NPS.

Read More …

Report: Renovating Your Voice of the Customer Program

We just published a Temkin Group report, Renovating Your Voice of the Customer Program.

Here’s the executive summary:

Voice of the customer (VoC) programs are essential to any customer experience effort. In recent years, VoC efforts have continued to expand and support their organizations; however, going forward they will need to adapt to significant changes in data sources, technology, operational pressures, and consumer behavior. In this report, Temkin Group details how companies can propel their VoC programs into the future by:

  • Identifying Six Customer Insight Trends that will reshape VoC programs: 1) Deep Empathy, Not Stacks of Metrics; 2) Continuous Insights, Not Periodic Studies; 3) Customer Journeys, Not Isolated Interactions; 4) Useful Prescriptions, Not Past Descriptions; 5) Enterprise Intelligence, Not Customer Feedback; and 6) Mobile First, Not Mobile Responsive.
  • Sharing 30 examples that exemplify innovative VoC practices across each of the trends.
  • Helping companies lay the groundwork for VoC innovation with a description of how to drive change through three distinct stages.

For this report, we received submissions of innovative VoC practices from Confirmit, InMoment, Rant & Rave, Qualtrics, Verint, and Walker.

Download report for $195+
BuyDownload3

Here are the best practices described in the report:

Download report for $195+BuyDownload3

Report: Economics of Net Promoter Score, 2017

We just published a Temkin Group report, Economics of Net Promoter Score, 2017. Here’s the executive summary:

Net Promoter® Score (NPS®) is a popular metric that companies use to analyze their customer experience efforts. But how does this metric actually relate to loyalty? To uncover the relationship between NPS and loyalty, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to give an NPS to 331 companies across 20 industries, and we then looked at how this score correlated with four key loyalty behaviors. Here are some highlights from this research:

  • Compared to detractors, promoters are over four times more likely to repurchase from a company, over five times more likely to forgive a company if it makes a mistake, over seven times more likely to try new offerings from a company, and almost five times more likely to trust a company.
  • We performed a detailed analysis of the loyalty data for promoters, passives, and detractors across 20 different industries: airlines, auto dealers, banks, computer and tablet makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, health plans, hotels and rooms, insurance carriers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, rental car and transport agencies, retailers, software firms, streaming media services, supermarkets, TV and Internet service providers, TVs and appliance makers, utilities, and wireless carriers.
  • Ultimately, if a company wants to benefit from using NPS as a key metric, it must focus on improving customer experience, not obsessing over the metric itself.

Download report for $295+
BuyDownload3

Note: To see NPS for individual companies and industries, download the report, Net Promoter Benchmark Study, 2016.

These two graphics from the report show the average connection between NPS and loyalty across all 20 industries, while the report also contains data for each of the 20 industries:

Download report for $295+BuyDownload3

While this report provides clear evidence that promoters are more valuable than detractors, it is not an endorsement of NPS as a metric. The data shows that companies should be able to increase their customer loyalty if they create promoters and cut down on detractors. As you will see on our VoC/NPS Program Resources, the processes for improving is more important than the specific metric being used.

2017 Temkin Trust Ratings, UK: Nationwide, John Lewis, and M&S Food on Top

Trust is a critical component of a strong relationship with customers. That’s why Temkin Group has been measuring trust for several years in the U.S.

This year we’re publishing the 2017 Temkin Trust Ratings, UK, which evaluates 157 companies across 16 industries based on a survey of 5,000 UK consumers in January 2017 (see full list of companies below).

At the top of the ratings are Nationwide, John Lewis, and M&S Food.  At the bottom of the list are Audi, Bank of Scotland, and BMW. Nationwide, Nissan, and Virgin Atlantic are more than 20 percentage-points above their industry averages, while Audi and Bank of Scotland are more than 40 points below their peers.

You can see a summary of the results in the charts below, and you can also purchase the dataset with 2017 Temkin Trust Ratings, UK for all 157 companies. And it also includes industry average Temkin Trust Ratings across age groups.

Download dataset for $295 (see sample file)

Read More …

Report: Activating Executive Commitment to CX

We just published a Temkin Group report, Activating Executive Commitment to CX. Here’s the executive summary:

Organizations that want to drive sustainable customer experience (CX) improvements need to have senior executives who are committed to propel change throughout the entire journey. Successful transformation efforts require senior executives to set the direction, lead communication efforts, model desired behaviors, align resources, and hold the rest of the organization accountable. However, CX leaders and their teams often struggle to obtain the commitment and involvement necessary from senior executives to ensure these change efforts succeed. In this report, we provide a model for how CX teams can effectively engage their senior leaders. Here are some highlights:

  • The blueprint includes six levers CX leaders can use to gain and strengthen senior executive commitment: Create Vision Clarity, Share Compelling Opportunities, Amplify Emotional Empathy, Feed Intrinsic Motivations, Enable First Steps, and Fuel Ongoing Confidence.
  • To illustrate how these levers work, we share examples of 24 best practices from companies including Anthem, CA Technologies, Cisco, Fidelity, Microsoft, Penske Truck Leasing, and Regions Bank.
  • We provide CX leaders with an assessment they can use to identify the commitment stage of their senior executives and offer advice on which of the six levers can have the greatest impact by stage.

Download report for $195+
BuyDownload3

Here are the six levers for activating executive commitment:

  1. Create Vision Clarity. Many senior executives are enamored with the idea of customer experience, yet lack a clear picture of what CX really means for their organization. As a result, they aren’t able to persuasively advocate for the required changes. Therefore, CX teams should provide leaders with a clear understanding of where the CX efforts are heading.
  2. Share Compelling Opportunities. Senior leaders will only stay committed to a CX effort for as long as they remain convinced that it will help the organization succeed. That’s why CX leaders must continue to make and reinforce the CX business case to senior executives. This requires establishing a tangible business case and setting realistic expectations for the upside of action and the downside of inaction.
  3. Amplify Emotional Empathy. An executive who is emotionally committed to CX efforts provides a different level of support than one who is only intellectually bought-in. To gain this emotional commitment, the CX team should enhance executives’ natural empathy by bringing customers’ experiences to life for them.
  4. Feed Intrinsic Motivations. Executives are motivated by a myriad of different objectives, such as being seen as successful or reaching some self-defined goals. Intrinsic motivators – like meaning, choice, competence, and progress – can be particularly powerful levers for activating commitment. CX leaders should connect their efforts to the personal goals of executives and should make them feel good about the efforts underway.
  5. Enable First Steps. Even executives who are fully committed to the CX agenda may not know exactly what they can do to help propel the CX efforts forward, especially since they are often juggling many different priorities. It’s up to the CX leader to make it easy for the senior leaders to participate in the efforts by recommending specific, doable steps that they can take.
  6. Fuel Ongoing Confidence. CX teams need ongoing support from their executives; however, senior leaders are prone to distraction and doubt. To keep them on track, CX leaders need to keep executives informed of the progress and success of CX efforts and need to demonstrate to executives that resources are being used well and risks are being managed well.

Here are the best practices discussed in the report:

Download report for $195+BuyDownload3

2017 Temkin Customer Service Ratings: USAA and Mercedes-Benz Are On Top

Temkin Group announces the release of the 2017 Temkin Customer Service Ratings. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the ratings benchmarks the customer service of 295 companies across 20 industries. USAA earned the highest score in the Temkin Customer Service Ratings for the fifth year in a row. Its banking business earned the only excellent rating, while its insurance, and credit card businesses tied with Mercedes-Benz for the second highest rating. Here’s a list of all companies in the ratings.

You can see all of the high-level results on the Temkin Ratings website, or purchase a full dataset.

Purchase dataset for $295+
(see sample spreadsheet)

Highlights of the 2017 Temkin Customer Service Ratings include: Read More …

2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, UK: Sony, Aldi, & Nationwide On Top

Every organization makes some mistakes, so an important area of loyalty is the willingness of customers to forgive them. That’s why Temkin Group has been measuring forgiveness for several years in the U.S.

This year we’re publishing the 2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, UK, which evaluates 157 companies across 16 industries based on a survey of 5,000 UK consumers in January 2017 (see full list of companies below). At the top of the ratings are Sony, Aldi, and Nationwide. At the bottom of the list are Audi, Bank of Scotland, and Airbnb.

You can see a summary of the results in the charts below, and you can also purchase the dataset with 2017 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings, UK for all 157 companies. And it also includes industry average Temkin Forgiveness Ratings across age groups.

Download dataset for $295 (see sample file)

Read More …

2017 Temkin Trust Ratings (U.S.): H-E-B and Mercedes-Benz On Top

Temkin Group announces the release of the 2017 Temkin Trust Ratings. Based on a study of 10,000 U.S consumers, the ratings benchmarks the level of trust that consumers have with 329 companies across 20 industries. H-E-B and Mercedes-Benz tied for the tops spots, followed closely by USAA (for banking and insurance), and Navy Federal Credit Union. Three TV/Internet service providers earned the lowest Temkin Trust Ratings: Time Warne Cable, Comcast, and Cox Communications. Eleven of the bottom 12 companies are either TV/Internet service providers or health plans. Here’s a list of all of the companies (.pdf).

You can see all of the high-level results on the Temkin Ratings website, or purchase a full dataset.

Purchase dataset for $295+
(see sample spreadsheet)

Highlights of the 2017 Temkin Trust Ratings include: Read More …

Report: Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity, 2017

1706_StateOfEE2017_COVER2We just published a Temkin Group report, Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity, 2017. Here’s the executive summary of this annual review of employee engagement activities, competencies, and maturity levels for large companies:

Engaged employees are critical assets to their organization. It’s not surprising, therefore, that customer experience leaders have more engaged employees than their peers. To understand how companies are engaging their employees, we surveyed 169 large companies and compared their responses with similar studies we’ve conducted in previous years. We also asked survey respondents to complete Temkin Group’s Employee Engagement Competency & Maturity (EECM) Assessment. Highlights from our analysis of their responses include:

  • Front-line employees are viewed as the most highly engaged.
  • More than 70% of companies measure employee engagement at least annually, yet only 45% of executives consider taking action on the results a high priority.
  • Sixty-four percent of respondents believe that their social media tools have had a positive impact on their employee engagement activities, an increase from last year.
  • The top obstacle to employee engagement activities continues to be the lack of an employee engagement strategy.
  • While only 23% of companies are in the top two stages of employee engagement maturity, this is still an increase from last year.
  • When we compared companies with above average employee engagement maturity to those with lower maturity, we found that employee engagement leaders have better customer experience, enjoy better financial results, are more likely to take action on employee feedback, and face fewer obstacles than their counterparts with less engaged workforces.
  • You can use the results of the EECM Assessment to benchmark your own employee engagement activities.

Download report for $195+
BuyDownload3

Here’s an excerpt from one of the 17 graphics that shows the maturity levels of employee engagement efforts in large companies and their effectiveness across five employee engagement competencies:

Download report for $195+BuyDownload3

Report: The Shift To Customer Journey Insights

We just published a Temkin Group report, The Shift To Customer Journey Insights. Here’s the executive summary:

Customer insights are critical to customer experience programs. However, current insights’ efforts tend to focus on individual interactions rather than on a customer’s entire journey, and as a result, they often fail to provide a complete picture of a customer’s experience with the company. This report helps companies shift their insights efforts from concentrating narrowly on single transactions to focusing broadly on customers’ journeys.

Here are some highlights :

  • We developed an approach to help companies create a comprehensive view of journeys called Customer Journey Insights (CJI), which is made up of five strategies: Internal Journey Alignment, Journey Data Farming, Journey Performance Tracking, Journey Visualization, and Journey Prioritization.
  • We share 20 examples of best practices from companies that are applying these strategies to develop a more complete understanding of their customers’ journeys.
  • To help companies master these strategies, we have identified three stages organizations proceed through on their path to enabling customer journeys: 1) Customer Journey Orientation, 2) Customer Journey Enablement, and 3) Customer Journey Mastery.

Download report for $195
BuyDownload3

Here are the best practices focused around five strategies for shifting towards customer journey insights:

  1. Internal Journey Alignment. Shift the company’s mindset away from siloed interaction success to customer goal facilitation.
  2. Journey Data Farming. Tap into adjacent data sources and make linkages across channels.
  3. Journey Performance Tracking. Overhaul metrics to measure performance across customer journeys.
  4. Journey Visualization. Create mechanisms for communicating insights in a way that reinforces the centrality of customer journeys.
  5. Journey Prioritization. Focus on the journeys, customer segments, and channels that are strategic business priorities.

Download report for $195
BuyDownload3

Report: What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2017

We just published a Temkin Group report, What Happens After a Good or Bad Experience, 2017. This is our annual analysis of which companies deliver the most and least bad experiences, how consumers respond after those experience (in terms of sharing those experiences and changing their purchase behaviors), and the effect of service recovery (see last year’s report).

Here’s the executive summary:

To understand how good and bad experiences effect customer behavior, we asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their recent interactions with more than 300 companies across 20 industries. We then compared results with similar studies we’ve conducted over the previous six years. Here are some highlights:

  • About 19% of the customers who interacted with Internet service providers and TV service providers reported having a bad experience – a considerably higher percentage than in other industries. Of the companies we evaluated, 21st Century, Spirit Airlines, and HSBC deliver bad experiences most frequently.
  • We looked at the percentage of customers in an industry had a bad experience and combined that number with the percentage of customers who said they decreased their spending after a bad experience and then used this data to create a Sales at Risk Index for all 20 industries. Rental car agencies stand to lose the most revenue (6.7%) from delivering bad experiences, while retailers stand to lose the least (1%).
  • Investment firms are most effective at recovering after a bad experience, whereas TV service providers are the least effective.
  • After customers have a very bad or very good experience with a company, they are more likely to give feedback directly to the company than they are to post about it on Facebook, Twitter, or third party rating sites. Customers are also more likely to share positive feedback through online surveys and share negative feedback through emails.
  • Compared to previous years, customers are more likely to share feedback over Facebook and Twitter, and these channels are most popular with consumers who are between 25- and 44-years-old.
  • Of all the companies we evaluated, The Hartford is the most likely to receive negatively biased feedback directly from its customers, while Chubb is likely to receive the most positively biased feedback.

Download report for $195
BuyDownload3

Here are excerpted versions of 3 (out of 19) graphics in the report:
Read More …

Report: The State of CX Management, 2017

We just published a Temkin Group report, The State of CX Management, 2017.

For the eighth straight year, Temkin Group has evaluated the state of Customer Experience (CX) management at large companies. It includes a lot of details about customer experience within large organizations and examines their effectiveness across Temkin Group’s Four CX Core Competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness.

When we analyzed their efforts and their progress this year, we found that:

  • While only 8% of companies view themselves as industry leaders in CX today, 55% aspire to be leaders within three years.
  • A majority of companies have a CX executive in charge of their efforts and a central team who coordinates significant CX activities. The median number of CX staff members falls between 11 and 15 full-time professionals.
  • Companies find significant value in working with voice of the customer vendors, and the percentage of companies who get value out of this relationship has been steadily increasing.
  • We used Temkin Group’s CX Competency and Maturity Assessment, which evaluates four CX competencies­ (Purposeful Leadership, Compelling Brand Values, Employee Engagement, and Customer Connectedness) to benchmark the maturity of companies’ CX efforts and found that only 10% of companies have reached the highest two levels of customer experience, while 59% still find themselves in the lowest two stages.
  • When we compared CX leaders with CX laggards, we discovered that the leaders enjoy stronger financial results, are more likely to have senior executives leading company-wide CX efforts, employ more full-time CX employees, use more experience design agencies, and feel more supported by senior leaders.
  • This report also includes an assessment that companies can use to benchmark their CX efforts and capabilities.

Download report for $195
BuyDownload3

Here are the results from Temkin Group’s CX Competency & Maturity Assessment:

Download report for $195
BuyDownload3

Report: The Four Customer Experience Core Competencies (Free)

If you are only going to read only one thing about customer experience, then this report is it. It’s the blueprint for building a customer-centric organization… and it’s free.

We just published a Temkin Group report, The Four CX Core Competencies. This blueprint to building a customer-centric organization is an update to our groundbreaking research that was originally published in 2010 and updated in 2013.

Temkin Group has conducted multiple large-scale studies demonstrating that customer experience (CX) is highly correlated with loyalty across many different industries, in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business environments. When customers have a good experience with a company, they are more likely to repurchase from the company, try its new offerings, and recommend it to others.

While many companies try to improve their CX by making superficial changes, Temkin Group has found that the only path to lasting differentiation and increased loyalty is to build a customer-centric culture. Temkin Group has studied hundreds of companies to uncover the difference between CX leaders and their less successful peers, and has identified four CX competencies that companies must master if they wish to build and sustain CX differentiation:

  1. Purposeful Leadership: Operate consistently with a clear set of values. (see video)
  2. Compelling Brand Values: Deliver on your brand promises to customers. (see video)
  3. Employee Engagement: Align employees with the goals of the organization. (see video)
  4. Customer Connectedness: Infuse customer insight across the organization. (see video)

Download report for FREE

This whiteboard video describes the Four CX Core Competencies:

Here’s an infograhic with the best practices described in the report:

Download report for FREE