USAA Earns Highest Net Promoter Scores According to Research Firm Temkin Group

WABAN, Mass., Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Temkin Group, a leading market research and consulting firm that helps organizations improve their customer experience, released a new research report: "Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012." The study, which is based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers, calculates the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for 180 companies across 19 industries.

NPS has become a popular customer experience metric within large organizations. It identifies the likelihood of consumers to recommend a company to their friends and family. USAA earned the highest NPS scores on the list for two of its business—77% in banking and 75% insurance businesses. Other companies at the top of the NPS ratings include Marriott, Amazon.com, H.E.B., credit unions, Barnes & Noble, Apple (for both computers and software), Publix, QVC, BJs Wholesale Club, and Aldi.

HSBC earned the lowest two NPS scores across all companies for its banking and credit card businesses, with NPS scores below zero. Other companies at the bottom of the NPS ratings include Charter Communications (for its TV service and Internet service businesses), Capital One, Citibank (for its banking and credit card businesses), Anthem, McDonald's, Aetna, and Motel 6.

"Net Promoter Scores can provide a strong indication of your relationship with customers," states Bruce Temkin, Managing Partner of Temkin Group. Temkin goes on to say, "While NPS can be an important metric, it's only valuable when companies develop a closed-loop program to improve customer experience."

The Temkin Group report includes eight tips—such as don't believe in an "ultimate question" and use control charts, not pinpointed goals—for successfully implementing an NPS program.

Here are some of the findings from the report:

• Auto dealers earned the highest average NPS (45%) followed by software companies (41%) and grocery chains (40%).
• TV service providers and health plans earned the lowest average NPS (19%) followed by credit card issuers and Internet service providers (20%).
• USAA, credit unions, Bright House Networks, and Marriott most outperformed their industry average NS scores.
• HSBC, Motel 6, Days Inn, McDonald's, and Charter Communications fell the farthest behind their industry averages.
• NPS tends to correlate to the age of consumers, with the highest scores coming from older consumers.
• Banks have the highest ethnic gap in their scores, receiving an average NPS of 45% from Asians and 15% from Caucasians.

The 19 industries included in this report are airlines, auto dealers, banks, computer makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, grocery chains, health plans, hotel chains, insurance carriers, Internet service providers, investment firms, major appliance makers, parcel delivery services, rental car agencies, retailers, software firms, TV service providers, and wireless carriers.

The report "Net Promoter Score Benchmark Study, 2012" can be downloaded from the Customer Experience Matters blog, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, www.TemkinGroup.com.

Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld. Customer experience matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.

About Temkin Group

Temkin Group is a leading customer experience research and consulting firm with one simple goal for its clients: increase customer loyalty by becoming more customer-centric. The company combines customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of large organizations to help senior executives accelerate their results. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email to [email protected].

About Bruce Temkin

Bruce Temkin is widely recognized as a customer experience thought leader and is Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is also the author of a very popular blog, Customer Experience Matters (ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com). Prior to forming Temkin Group, he was a VP at Forrester Research for 12 years. Bruce is a highly demanded speaker who consistently receives high marks for his content-rich, entertaining keynote addresses. He is also the co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management.

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SOURCE Temkin Group