Most retailers are having trouble bringing in foot traffic, leading once-steady brands like JCPenney, Sears, and Macy’s to shutter large swaths of stores. Yet, those customers who continue to shop at brick-and-mortar retailers appear to be happier about the experience. [More]
customer satisfaction
Wells Fargo Overhauls Teller Pay System After Fake Account Fiasco
By 1.11.17 — Updated: 1.23.17
Shortly after federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for its decades-long fake account fiasco perpetrated by employees who opened more than two million unauthorized accounts in order to meet high-pressure sales goals, the company said it would ditch the incentive system. Now, the bank has finally outlined its new approach to compensating employees that shifts the focus away from upselling add-on products and toward improved customer satisfaction. [More]
Study: The “Better” Walmarts Are In Higher-Income, Whiter Areas
By 8.31.16
All Walmarts are, bluntly, not created equal. Some have better customer service than others and are just plain more pleasant shopping experiences. And if you’ve felt like the Walmarts in richer ZIP codes are more likely to be the nicer ones, well, one study says you’re right. [More]
Americans Less Annoyed With Facebook Than Last Year, Still Dislike LinkedIn
By 7.28.15
Ordinary consumers aren’t really the customers of social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest: we’re their products, there to have our personal data and preferences sold to advertisers. Still, people will flee a site if they don’t like it, making it important for social media platforms to keep users on the site longer in order to please their real customers. That’s why the American Customer Satisfaction Index has tracked our happiness with these sites since 2010. [More]
It’s Not Just You: Pretty Much Everyone Hates Their TV & Internet Providers, Survey Finds
By 3.25.14
If you’ve got problems with the company providing your TV and broadband service, you are most definitely not alone. Our siblings over at Consumer Reports ran a national survey to find out how satisfied with their cable and internet providers subscribers really are. And the findings won’t surprise most Consumerist readers: when it comes to their telecom providers, most consumers are a lot less than pleased. [More]
Survey Says: Walmart Is Worst Discount Retailer & Worst Supermarket
By 2.28.14
Walmart may be the nation’s largest retailer and its biggest supermarket chain, but the latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index once again show that Big W continues to lag far behind all of its competition. [More]
Customers Still As Unsatisfied Today As They Were In 1976
By 11.27.13
Before we all get to giving thanks and whatnot, let’s have a discussion about the stagnant state of consumer satisfaction. A new study on “customer rage” shows that people are really no more or less satisfied with how businesses resolve complaints. [More]
Ask The Consumerist: Is There Any Point To All These Stupid Surveys?
By 9.19.12
Rachel is sick of surveys and writes in to ask if we think they serve any purpose. [More]
Walgreens Goes All Out In Effort To Convince You To Buy Sex Toys
By 3.21.12
Not only does Walgreens.com have a wide variety of “Sexual Wellness” products, from the usual lubrication and condoms all the way to vibrators and “Adult Toys for Men,” they’re really not holding back when it comes to the descriptions of each item, and why you’d be crazy not to buy them. [More]
Airlines' Approval Ratings Rise
By 6.8.10
You love the airlines now! Or at least, you don’t hate them any worse than you did back in 2007, according to a new survey released by J.D. Power & Associates. [More]
It's Official, Everybody Hates AT&T
By 12.2.09
There’s a new Consumer Reports survey out that ranks cellphone companies by customer satisfaction, and to pretty much no one’s surprise, AT&T comes in last in all 19 cities surveyed. (Verizon came in first.) As AllThingsD notes, the survey “suggests that AT&T’s shortcomings are more widespread than the carrier would have us believe and not simply the product of a high concentration of iPhones in the country’s larger cities.” [More]
Even Indians Hate Indian Call Centers
By 4.25.09
You’re not alone hating Indian call centers. Indians hate them too, mostly because they get stuck dealing with an even lower caste of customer service representatives than Americans. The well-educated smooth talking CSRs get the prestigious jobs infuriating foreign customers, while the the untrained masses are paid basmati to cater to India’s domestic customers.
Fliers Are Officially Fed Up With Crappy Airline Service
By 6.18.08
You may be thinking to yourself, “Congratulations, you’ve written the world’s most obvious headline!” And you’d be right, but according to J.D. Power and associates there could be something of a sea change going on in the universe of airline complaints. It seems that crappy customer service may have reached a Gladwellian “tipping point” — more customers are choosing which airline to fly based on factors other than price.
American Customer Satisfaction Drops
By 3.27.08
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) dropped again for the second consecutive quarter to 74.9. Why does this matter? “When customer satisfaction declines, consumers have less enthusiasm for repeating experiences that no longer provide the same gratification,” says Professor Claes Fornell. AKA, they’ll be spending less money.
Retain 5% More Customers, Reap 35-95% More Profit
By 1.23.08
Did you know that if you keep 5% more of your customers, you will make 35-95% more profit? Those were the findings of a Harvard researcher* when he investigated the financial impact of keeping customers around. The chart above demonstrates how a 5% increase in retention rates increased profit across a variety of industries. The equation is simple: make us stick around (usually by making us happier) and we’ll make you more money. Cut out support, services, make it difficult to talk to you, etc, and while you might save in the short, you’ll lose in the long-term.
By 12.4.07
../..//2007/12/04/mainly-driven-by-higher-food/
Mainly driven by higher food prices, the American Customer Satisfaction Index went down for the first time in two years of continual growth. The blip was minus .1%, still up 1% from a year ago. [ACSI]
Consumers Grow Unhappier With Buying Cellphones
By 10.30.07
Customer satisfaction with buying cellphones at stores fell this year, reports J.D. Power and Associates in the recently released 2007 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2.
American Express Customers Are Most Satisfied, HSBC, Least
By 10.17.07
American Express ranks highest in customer satisfaction in the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Credit Card Satisfaction Study. They said there’s two types of customers. One is transactors, who pay their bill off in full each month and for whom membership benefits are the most important drivers of customer satisfaction. The other is revolvers, who don’t pay their bill off in full each month, and for whom APR and fees are the most important drivers of customer satisfaction. So if we flip this survey over….
