National Banks Improve the Customer Experience

December 29, 2016 / David VanAmburg

Across the bank industry—from large national banks to small regional and community institutions—the customer satisfaction momentum in 2016 is positive. Banks overall surge 5.3% to a score of 80 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale. This rising trend is one of the more surprising results from the ACSI’s report on the Finance and Insurance sector as it holds true across nearly every big bank.

Smaller size, however, continues to distinguish the top tier as community banks and credit unions remaining pacesetters. In general, more personalized service and the ability to offer lower fees make for happier customers. Nevertheless, both super regional banks and national banks post substantial gains, with the latter moving up 6.9% to 77.

ACSI data show that big banks are making progress toward improving the customer experience. From the variety of financial services available to call center operations, national banks earn better ratings compared with a year ago. The critical website user experience is deemed more satisfying (up 2% to an ACSI benchmark of 85), but community bank websites set the pace at 88. When it comes to face-to-face contact, small banks earn the top mark for courtesy and helpfulness (91)—a level of excellence that staff at big banks have yet to attain (86).

Among the largest U.S. commercial banks, Citibank heads the field in 2016 with a 12% leap to 82, a score that rivals the satisfaction level of credit unions and nearly matches smaller community banks.

Wells Fargo slips out of first place for customer satisfaction not by suffering an ACSI decline, but by showing less improvement than its competitors. Adding just 1% to an ACSI score of 76, Wells Fargo is now below average. Closing in on Wells Fargo, Bank of America (+10%) and Chase (+6%) are tied at 75.

Stock performance for big banks mimics their ACSI changes. Since February, Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America have each shown solid gains, whereas Wells Fargo’s stock lagged its national competitors even before news of improper sales practices broke.

ACSI Finance and Insurance Report 2016 »

Media Post: Citibank Leads National Banks In Study »

Health Insurers Doing a Better Job at Basics

December 21, 2016 / David VanAmburg

The health insurance industry is getting better at meeting policyholder needs as satisfaction rises 4.3% to 72 on ACSI’s 100-point scale. Among the big insurers, Aetna and Anthem tie for first place at 75 after posting large gains. Kaiser Permanente follows closely at 74, with Humana inching up to meet the industry average at 72. At the low end, Cigna trails the field at 67 despite earning this year’s biggest increase in policyholder satisfaction. This positive momentum is tempered by the fact that health insurers remain in the bottom dozen among 43 ACSI industries.

Nevertheless, ACSI data show that the industry is making strides in key areas of the customer experience. Policyholders are the most pleased with access to primary care doctors (ACSI benchmark of 80, up from 78 in 2015). Claims are easier to submit and coverage of standard medical procedures is viewed more favorably. Call centers also receive a higher rating, but show ample room for improvement (73).

TIME/Money: Americans Are Actually Happier With Their Health Insurance Companies Now Than They Were Two Years Ago »

D Healthcare Daily: Despite Rising Costs, Americans Report More Satisfaction With Insurance Plans »

Sears: Will it be Lights Out or Back in the Groove with Customers?

December 13, 2016 / David VanAmburg

Sears, once a stalwart American brand, is currently a shadow of its former self, having fallen on hard times with both shoppers and investors alike. Back in 2001, Sears was tied for second among department and discount stores in terms of customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Since then, the chain has managed to beat the industry average only once in 14 subsequent years.

Looking at the last decade of ACSI scores and stock performance for Sears, the period from 2009 to 2013 shows customer satisfaction trending upward by 4% while stock price falls over 57%. The reason for this outcome lies in the connection between stable, or even increasing, customer satisfaction and a dwindling customer base.

Customer satisfaction plays a vital role in competitive industries in large part because consumers can vote with their feet. That is, customers who do not like a company’s service can simply go elsewhere. The ACSI measures a company’s customer satisfaction by talking directly to the customers themselves. In situations where unhappy consumers leave en masse, the only remaining customers are the ultra-loyal.

In the case of Sears, these loyal customers are likely patronizing the store for reasons other than satisfaction, such as price, proximity, or tradition. In such situations, a rise in customer satisfaction can indeed coincide with a decrease in revenues—a red flag in terms of future financial performance. As dissatisfied customers defect to competitors, the diminished pool of customers includes a greater percentage of shoppers who like the experience for a specific reason. During the period 2009 to 2013, the rise in customer satisfaction for Sears coincides with a steady depletion in sales.

In recent years, even the most loyal Sears shoppers have seen their satisfaction decline. The company now ranks second-to-last among department and discount stores. With an ACSI score of 71, Sears beats only Wal-Mart at the low level of 66. In comparison, industry leaders Nordstrom and Dillard’s score 80 or higher. It is no surprise to see Sears report terrible earnings for the third quarter of 2016. For Sears, the challenge ahead lies with improving the customer experience. Unless the company succeeds in becoming more customer-centric, it is unlikely that Sears’ faltering financial position will turn around.

PC Satisfaction: Apple and Samsung Vie for Top Slot

November 30, 2016 / David VanAmburg

Apple personal computer and tablet owners have a long track record of loving their chosen product, checking in with a customer satisfaction rating of 84 for 2016 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale. While Apple’s ACSI leadership in the personal computer industry is well established, Samsung surges 6% to second place, just a point below Apple this year.

The tight race between Apple and Samsung mirrors the two companies’ battle in the cell phone industry. As reported by the ACSI previously, Apple and Samsung were deadlocked for customer satisfaction in 2015 and remain just a point apart in 2016 (81 and 80, respectively). The caveat for smartphone satisfaction, however, is that Samsung’s current score of 80 reflects customer evaluations from March, well before the release and disastrous battery failures and fires of its Galaxy Note7. The first Note7 recall in September was followed by a second recall that included all replacement phones, prompting Samsung to permanently halt production and sales of the Note7. In 2017, Samsung will likely take a major hit in customer satisfaction for its product meltdown, much like Toyota did when it recalled millions of cars starting in 2009 due to danger of sudden acceleration.

In terms of the personal computer market, smartphones pose a threat to PC sales as tablets have not been the longer-term solution for mobility that the industry may once have envisioned. Interestingly, Apple and Samsung have very different strategies regarding the future of tablets. Apple is targeting business customers on the go with laptop-like features for its iPad, while Samsung tablets occupy their own space as devices for entertainment and browsing, rather than laptop replacements. The number-three PC manufacturer for satisfaction in 2016 is Amazon, another maker of tablets. At 80, Amazon falls short of the PC scores turned in by Apple and Samsung, but it easily matches their most recent scores in the cell phone segment.

For the overall PC industry, customer satisfaction improves 1.3% to 78, driven by better scores for tablets and laptops. Customer satisfaction for desktop computers remains unchanged year-over-year at 81, ahead of both tablets (+4% to 78) and laptops (+3% to 77). While this could be a good sign for traditional PCs, there is also the possibility that a shrinking customer base is leaning toward the more loyal desktop users. Moreover, two of the three leaders this year—Samsung and Amazon—specialize in tablets and other mobile devices, not traditional PCs.

ACSI Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2016 »

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Domestic Automakers Catching Up to Foreign-Made Vehicles

November 23, 2016 / David VanAmburg

ACSI annual reporting shows the automobile industry bouncing back after three years of declining customer satisfaction. The overall industry is up 3.8% to 82 on ACSI’s 100-point scale, with scores tightening between domestic and international manufacturers.

While foreign-made autos have long held the customer satisfaction advantage, domestics are catching up, rising to 81 overall compared with Europe and Asian carmakers at 82.

Among domestic automakers, Ford keeps its lead, stepping up to 84, followed by GM (81) and Fiat Chrysler (78). Although U.S. auto sales were down in August, with signs that demand may have peaked, the good news for Detroit is that higher levels of customer satisfaction will make American autos more competitive.

Luxury cars have dominated the driver satisfaction rankings for years, but the industry’s top tier is now evenly split between mass market and luxury vehicles. Brand exclusivity may no longer be enough for luxury plates if consumers are finding little difference between premium and lower-priced vehicles. Across the top 10 plates for customer satisfaction, Ford’s Lincoln leads at 87, with Honda at 86. German luxury plate BMW is deadlocked with Toyota-branded vehicles at 85, while GMC and Subaru lock horns with upscale Infiniti and Lexus (all 84).

The ACSI Automobile Report 2016 was released in August. View complete report »

Automotive News: U.S. Consumers’ Satisfaction With Vehicles Reverses Years Of Decline »

CBSNews.com: America’s 5 Best And Worst Rated Cars »

The Car Connection: Lincoln, Honda, Toyota, BMW Are Tops In Customer Satisfaction (Acura, VW Not So Much) »

Columbus Business First: Honda Accelerates, Acura Skids »

The Columbus Dispatch: Honda Trails Only Lincoln In New Auto-Satisfaction Survey »

Roadshow by CNET: Would You Believe That Lincolns Have The Highest Rate Of Owner Satisfaction? »

ACSI Restaurant Recap: Fast Food Garners Better Ratings

November 17, 2016 / David VanAmburg

The fast food experience is on the upswing with consumers in 2016, as higher quality drives improving scores for the industry.

ACSI Restaurant Report 2016 »

Limited-Service Restaurant Scores »

Full-Service Restaurant Scores »

Motley Fool: This Is America’s Least-Liked Fast-Food Chain »

Eater.com: Consumers Are Deeply Unsatisfied With Chipotle »

Insider Louisville: Survey Says: Papa John’s, Texas Roadhouse Rank High In Customer Satisfaction »

Nation’s Restaurant News: Survey: Customer Opinion Of Limited-Service Chains Surges »

BuzzFeed: Chick-fil-A Leads Fast Food Industry In Customer Satisfaction, Chipotle Falls »

CNN Money: This Is America’s Favorite Fast Food Restaurant »

Consumerist: Everyone Still Loves Chick-Fil-A; Chipotle, Not So Much »

QSR Web: Americans Have Lots Of New-Found Love For Fast Food, But Still Smitten With Full-Service »

ACSI Final Poll Has Clinton Up 7 Points Over Trump

November 4, 2016 / David VanAmburg

ACSI Presidential Election Survey: October 31 to November 3, 2016

As a tumultuous election season draws to a close, ACSI’s latest polling shows the two presidential candidates in positions that vary little from initial surveys conducted early August. With just days to go before November 8, Democrat Hillary Clinton’s projected voter share stands at 48% to Republican Donald Trump’s 41%. This final popular vote count is closely aligned with ACSI’s inaugural survey projection of Clinton 49% and Trump 39%.

Over the course of the survey cycle, Clinton consistently has shown an advantage over Trump, with the narrowest spread occurring just after Labor Day (5 points). In the election’s final week, the gap is 7 points in Clinton’s favor.

The ACSI survey characterizes supporters as “strong” or “weak” depending on the gap in both satisfaction and expectations for each of the candidates. In the polling conducted between October 31 and November 3, 2016, Clinton loses some strong support, down 4 points to 35%, while Trump shows a slight uptick to 29%. For weak support, both candidates gain 2 points but remain nearly deadlocked at 13% (Clinton) and 12% (Trump). Undecideds increase for a second week to 12%.

The final demographic breakdowns of voter share have Clinton ahead in nearly every age, gender, and ethnic category. Consistent with most prior weeks of polling, Trump carries the advantage among older voters and those with less than a college degree.

The ACSI surveyed 1,543 registered voters nationwide from October 31 to November 3, 2016, for a total of 15,220 since polling began on August 1, 2016. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points for voter share.

Press Release: Final ACSI Popular Vote Prediction — Clinton 48%, Trump 41% »

ACSI Launches Voter Satisfaction Survey

September 15, 2016 / David VanAmburg

ACSI Presidential Election Survey: A Measure of Voter Satisfaction With the Major Party Candidates and Their Campaigns

Week of September 5 to September 9, 2016

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) launches a new study tracking “voter satisfaction” with the race for U.S. president, to be updated each week with new data until November 7, 2016 (the day before the election).

Customer satisfaction is a proven predictor of purchases of goods and services; therefore, it should have predictive power for presidential elections as well. Like consumers, voters may pick candidates based on the “expected satisfaction” that a candidate will deliver. Expected satisfaction, in turn, is predicted by current satisfaction. Accordingly, the ACSI will track expected and current satisfaction with the two major party candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

In markets for goods and services, current satisfaction is determined by a customer’s “consumption experience.” In the absence of any such actual experience prior to the inauguration of a new president and a period of actual governing, the ACSI uses a proxy that measures satisfaction with each candidate’s campaign. From these two measures—expectations and satisfaction with the candidates and their campaigns—both the breadth (“market share” or voter share) and depth (satisfaction) of support are derived for each candidate. An algorithm for estimating voter share and satisfaction is used to group registered voters into “strong” and “weak” supporters of each candidate and to identify both the size and satisfaction levels of those groups.

Beginning with data from the week of August 1 to 5 for the first wave and ending with the week of September 5 to 9, a total of 5,311 interviews were conducted thus far. During the first week of August, voter satisfaction was 74 for Clinton and 72 for Trump. These results do not represent percentages but rather ACSI scores on a scale from 0 to 100. The corresponding estimated voter share (or market share) in week one for Clinton was 49% versus 39% for Trump. Thus, not only was Clinton’s satisfaction score higher than Trump’s, her share of the vote also was substantially higher.

Following the first week of August, voter satisfaction for Trump slipped, rebounded, and peaked, and then declined for two consecutive weeks. During the same period, Clinton’s voter satisfaction was mostly flat, but then also declined for two weeks. According to the most recent data, Clinton’s satisfaction score has dropped to 73 (-1), while her voter share has receded 2%. Meanwhile, Trump’s satisfaction is unchanged since the first week of August, although he has gained in voter share (+3% to 42%). Nevertheless, Clinton continues to lead in both voter satisfaction (73 vs. 72) and voter share (47% vs. 42%).

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Unlike traditional trial heat polls, measuring current and expected satisfaction with the major party candidates allows researchers to group voters into “strong” and “weak” support groups. In the diagram, “strong” supporters are those defined as being much more satisfied with one candidate and much less so with the other. “Weak” supporters are defined as those only somewhat more satisfied with one candidate over the other. “Undecideds” express equal satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the two candidates.

For Clinton, 35% are strong supporters. For Trump, 30% are strong supporters. When combining strong and weak supporters, Clinton currently has a voter share of 47% and Trump has 42%. 11% are equally satisfied or dissatisfied with the candidates.

The following table shows how support for each candidate has fluctuated over the past six weeks. For Trump, the share of strong supporters has risen from 27% to 30%, while Clinton’s has actually declined (to 35% in week six from 38% in week one). Undecideds have shrunk from 13% of the total to 11%, although the number of undecideds is actually higher now than in the prior week.

The following tables depict voter share for each candidate for the week of September 5 to September 9 among various demographic groups. Clinton holds a strong lead over Trump among respondents 18 to 34 and a slight lead among voters 35 to 54. The two candidates are nearly even among voters 55 and above. Similarly, Clinton holds a big lead among women, while enjoying a smaller lead among men.

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Clinton holds a massive lead over Trump among African Americans and a strong lead among Hispanics, but among white voters the two are tied. Finally, respondents with less than a college degree break decisively for Trump, while those with a college degree or more favor Clinton by almost 20 percentage points.

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Download Free PDF of This Survey »

Press Release: Clinton Leads Trump in Voter Satisfaction, According to ACSI »

News Websites Score Record Satisfaction Amid Election Cycle

September 9, 2016 / David VanAmburg

Americans are happier than ever before with online news channels as a raucous presidential election cycle keeps readers coming back for more. While internet news and opinion shows only modest fluctuations over time, the year 2016 proves record-breaking for this e-business category, with user satisfaction springing upward 4.1% to 76 on a scale of 0 to 100. People are fascinated with the news right now, and the bump in satisfaction is reflecting greater interest in opinion pieces and updates from readers’ favorite sites.

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Satisfaction improves nearly across the board for news websites, regardless of political leaning, although the biggest gain goes to the group of smaller websites, up 7% to 77. This group encompasses a wide variety of outlets—from BuzzFeed and Drudge Report to the online presence of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. FOXNews.com retains its lead with an 4% boost to 79. Meanwhile, The Huffington Post, part of Verizon Communications’ AOL subsidiary, can’t shake last place despite a 1% gain to 72—a new high for the website.

In today’s 24-hour news cycle, the internet is the ideal vehicle for delivering content quickly and in a steady stream, and digital news sites are upping their game. Consumers of online news give the industry a high score for freshness of content (80). Key elements such as ease of navigation and information variety are up 4% from a year ago. The exception—consistent across all e-business categories—is amount of advertising, which rates quite low at 68, down 4% over the past year.

Customer Satisfaction Challenge Ahead for Charter as TWC, Bright House Phase Out

August 2, 2016 / David VanAmburg

Just one year ago, Time Warner Cable (TWC) tumbled to last place for customer satisfaction among 300+ companies in the ACSI. Along with TWC, Comcast showed the biggest ACSI loss among subscription television providers, a situation that has turned around in 2016. This year’s gains for Comcast and TWC (14% and 16%, respectively), come close to reversing two years of losing satisfaction, but neither company breaks out of the bottom quartile of the ACSI. While Comcast failed to nail down a marriage with TWC, Charter Communications is tying the knot, which will bring an end to the TWC brand.

ACSI results show Charter’s customer satisfaction fluctuating, now down 6% to 60 as the company begins its stint as the second largest U.S. cable operator following acquisitions of TWC and Bright House Networks. Among broadband players, Bright House at 66 is a cut above most. Nevertheless, like all cable companies, Bright House lags behind the fiber optic leaders of the pay TV industry, Verizon Fios (70) and AT&T U-verse (69), as well as satellite operators DIRECTV (68) and DISH Network (67). As a group, cable companies bring up the rear, but the range of scores is broad—from the above-average showing of Bright House and Cablevision to the last-place performance of Mediacom (54).

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Mergers overwhelmingly dampen customer satisfaction in the short term, which could spell trouble for Bright House customers as the brand phases out and combines with Charter. For Charter, the challenge will be keeping satisfaction levels from falling further as it takes on a bigger slice of the market.