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MSN Money asked Zogby International to conduct an online national survey in which 7,724 randomly chosen respondents rated customer service at 140 companies from 14 industries. The response choices were "excellent," "good," "fair," "poor," "not familiar" and "not sure." The poll was conducted in late March.
We chose the companies using several criteria, including those with the largest sales in such customer-facing industries as retail, hotels and restaurants. In addition, we went back to the comments we received from readers when conducting our first customer-service survey last year, to make sure we weren't overlooking companies that were notorious for bad service but not quite large enough to make this year's initial list.
Once Zogby reported its results to us, we eliminated the responses "not familiar" and "not sure" from our tallies to focus attention on the responses from customers who were familiar with a company and expressed opinions. From there, we ranked the companies based on the percentage of respondents with opinions who rated a company's customer service as "poor."
The final cut for our rankings eliminated any companies that didn't have at least 1,200 respondents who were familiar with a company and expressed an opinion on it. That level of response corresponds to what Zogby considers a sample size with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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To get a sense of what went into survey respondents' answers, we also asked what aspect of a company's customer service was most important to them. The clear winners: a knowledgeable staff and a readily available staff, which were the top answers for a combined 69% of respondents (see the full list below).
| Feature | Rating |
|---|---|
Knowledgeable staff | 35% |
Readily available staff | 34% |
Flexible policies for return/exchange of merchandise | 13% |
Friendly staff | 12% |
None -- product is all that matters | 2% |
Not sure | 1% |
Other | 3% |
Here are the results of our survey -- those companies that received at least 1,500 responses of "excellent," "good," "fair" or "poor," ranked by percentage of "poor" responses:
| Company | Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AOL | 6.62% | 22.69% | 24.10% | 46.59% |
Comcast | 5.36% | 21.93% | 30.78% | 41.93% |
Sprint Nextel | 7.00% | 26.24% | 27.85% | 38.91% |
Abercrombie & Fitch | 8.87% | 28.37% | 25.15% | 37.61% |
Qwest | 9.43% | 28.16% | 28.85% | 33.56% |
Capital One | 9.48% | 30.93% | 27.99% | 31.60% |
Bank of America | 13.17% | 33.49% | 21.97% | 31.37% |
Time Warner Cable | 8.94% | 29.51% | 31.05% | 30.50% |
HSBC Finance | 11.62% | 32.27% | 26.43% | 29.68% |
Cox Communications | 11.41% | 33.07% | 26.72% | 28.81% |
Allstate | 13.79% | 32.65% | 25.05% | 28.52% |
EarthLink | 11.81% | 33.46% | 26.30% | 28.43% |
Kmart | 4.72% | 27.96% | 39.15% | 28.17% |
Dish Network | 14.79% | 29.93% | 28.26% | 27.03% |
Citibank | 8.75% | 35.73% | 28.72% | 26.79% |
T-Mobile | 16.33% | 30.43% | 27.24% | 25.99% |
Wal-Mart | 13.07% | 32.43% | 28.72% | 25.78% |
AT&T | 13.04% | 32.71% | 28.49% | 25.76% |
Nationwide | 17.54% | 27.93% | 28.85% | 25.68% |
Wells Fargo | 17.53% | 33.30% | 24.44% | 24.73% |
BellSouth | 10.04% | 37.59% | 27.70% | 24.66% |
Farmers Insurance | 13.34% | 34.65% | 27.52% | 24.49% |
Washington Mutual | 14.04% | 37.24% | 25.20% | 23.52% |
Progressive | 23.46% | 31.94% | 21.23% | 23.37% |
Symantec | 10.37% | 37.15% | 29.24% | 23.25% |
Discover | 17.30% | 34.94% | 24.72% | 23.03% |
Liberty Mutual | 18.15% | 30.29% | 29.13% | 22.43% |
JPMorgan Chase | 15.47% | 36.99% | 25.36% | 22.17% |
MSN | 11.63% | 39.25% | 27.11% | 22.02% |
US Airways | 7.05% | 36.29% | 34.77% | 21.89% |
Super 8 Motels | 3.95% | 31.29% | 43.29% | 21.47% |
DirectTV | 20.90% | 35.90% | 22.12% | 21.08% |
Geico | 23.55% | 33.50% | 21.96% | 20.98% |
Northwest Airlines | 8.95% | 37.27% | 33.01% | 20.77% |
Wachovia | 19.41% | 37.16% | 23.28% | 20.15% |
Hardee's | 5.17% | 33.20% | 41.70% | 19.94% |
Denny's | 5.84% | 34.43% | 39.82% | 19.91% |
State Farm | 25.91% | 33.98% | 20.29% | 19.82% |
Travelers | 12.55% | 40.50% | 27.63% | 19.31% |
Circuit City | 9.53% | 37.10% | 34.46% | 18.92% |
Verizon | 21.47% | 38.18% | 21.69% | 18.65% |
United Airlines | 5.77% | 42.14% | 33.62% | 18.47% |
The Hartford | 15.05% | 42.14% | 24.39% | 18.42% |
Taco Bell | 5.77% | 36.45% | 39.57% | 18.21% |
Microsoft | 13.98% | 39.08% | 28.76% | 18.18% |
Palm | 13.58% | 35.40% | 33.01% | 18.02% |
McDonald's | 7.45% | 38.20% | 36.69% | 17.67% |
Blockbuster | 7.90% | 36.07% | 38.48% | 17.55% |
Toys R Us | 6.48% | 41.09% | 36.10% | 16.33% |
Dell | 19.60% | 41.94% | 22.41% | 16.05% |
TJ Maxx | 8.03% | 32.76% | 43.69% | 15.52% |
Delta Air Lines | 9.97% | 43.30% | 32.11% | 14.62% |
American Express | 31.76% | 37.90% | 15.86% | 14.48% |
Best Buy | 12.86% | 42.82% | 30.14% | 14.19% |
AirTran | 15.09% | 41.96% | 28.77% | 14.19% |
American Airlines | 8.54% | 47.39% | 29.91% | 14.16% |
Continental Airlines | 13.48% | 42.48% | 29.93% | 14.11% |
Foot Locker | 6.38% | 43.78% | 36.92% | 12.92% |
Pizza Hut | 7.68% | 42.70% | 36.89% | 12.72% |
Winn-Dixie | 8.67% | 43.53% | 35.15% | 12.65% |
Sears | 9.85% | 44.47% | 33.28% | 12.39% |
RadioShack | 13.27% | 45.48% | 28.88% | 12.37% |
Quicken | 18.80% | 44.99% | 24.49% | 11.72% |
JetBlue Airways | 27.30% | 42.77% | 18.24% | 11.69% |
Home Depot | 13.25% | 47.02% | 28.13% | 11.61% |
Days Inn | 5.87% | 41.58% | 40.94% | 11.60% |
Quality Inn | 5.58% | 41.78% | 41.06% | 11.59% |
Travelocity | 13.63% | 48.01% | 26.87% | 11.50% |
Hewlett-Packard | 19.76% | 45.64% | 23.26% | 11.33% |
Albertsons | 13.14% | 50.41% | 25.18% | 11.28% |
Rite Aid | 9.62% | 46.57% | 32.71% | 11.11% |
eBay | 21.24% | 42.21% | 25.52% | 11.03% |
The Gap | 8.97% | 49.77% | 30.91% | 10.35% |
A&P | 8.76% | 47.42% | 33.71% | 10.11% |
Safeway | 13.72% | 49.42% | 26.75% | 10.11% |
Starbucks | 21.70% | 46.50% | 21.72% | 10.08% |
Dunkin' Donuts | 11.72% | 46.68% | 31.63% | 9.96% |
Applebee's | 16.91% | 47.19% | 25.96% | 9.93% |
Victoria's Secret | 21.09% | 47.23% | 22.29% | 9.40% |
Nokia | 15.52% | 46.44% | 28.75% | 9.28% |
British Airways | 29.78% | 44.21% | 17.38% | 8.63% |
CVS Caremark | 14.25% | 50.49% | 26.73% | 8.52% |
Macy's | 13.74% | 50.14% | 27.64% | 8.48% |
Expedia | 15.59% | 49.92% | 26.01% | 8.48% |
Sony | 22.91% | 47.06% | 21.89% | 8.14% |
Apple | 38.92% | 38.78% | 14.34% | 7.96% |
Wendy's | 11.46% | 50.13% | 30.70% | 7.71% |
Olive Garden | 23.64% | 47.77% | 21.02% | 7.57% |
Yahoo | 20.12% | 49.53% | 23.04% | 7.31% |
IBM | 15.45% | 49.53% | 27.76% | 7.25% |
Kohl's | 15.53% | 46.58% | 30.64% | 7.24% |
Ikea | 20.51% | 46.03% | 26.23% | 7.23% |
Office Depot | 11.47% | 48.51% | 33.23% | 6.79% |
JCPenney | 11.74% | 50.12% | 31.41% | 6.73% |
Target | 17.58% | 51.00% | 24.88% | 6.54% |
Best Western | 8.26% | 51.39% | 34.07% | 6.29% |
Lowe's | 20.41% | 51.54% | 21.86% | 6.20% |
Costco Wholesale | 28.73% | 43.84% | 21.42% | 6.01% |
Staples | 14.22% | 50.61% | 29.17% | 6.00% |
Comfort Inn | 9.28% | 52.13% | 32.91% | 5.68% |
Kroger | 19.25% | 53.44% | 21.70% | 5.61% |
AutoZone | 20.21% | 49.72% | 24.52% | 5.55% |
Publix | 36.07% | 44.06% | 14.37% | 5.50% |
Holiday Inn | 10.64% | 53.16% | 31.06% | 5.14% |
Whole Foods Market | 36.82% | 43.32% | 14.87% | 4.99% |
Nordstrom | 46.09% | 35.19% | 14.23% | 4.49% |
Hampton Inn | 24.43% | 51.72% | 20.18% | 3.67% |
42.10% | 42.89% | 11.45% | 3.55% | |
Trader Joe's | 44.84% | 39.95% | 11.89% | 3.32% |
Hilton | 30.90% | 53.12% | 12.97% | 3.01% |
Amazon.com | 39.58% | 44.96% | 12.45% | 3.00% |
Sheraton | 21.60% | 57.53% | 17.95% | 2.92% |
Marriott | 31.31% | 55.27% | 11.54% | 1.88% |
Published May 28, 2008
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