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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. 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.
We then ranked the companies based on the percentage of respondents with opinions who rated a company's customer service as "excellent."
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.
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).
When thinking about a company's customer service, which one of the following features is most important to you?
| 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 "excellent" responses:
| Company | Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nordstrom | 46.09% | 35.19% | 14.23% | 4.49% |
Trader Joe's | 44.84% | 39.95% | 11.89% | 3.32% |
42.10% | 42.89% | 11.45% | 3.55% | |
Amazon.com | 39.58% | 44.96% | 12.45% | 3.00% |
Apple | 38.92% | 38.78% | 14.34% | 7.96% |
Whole Foods Market | 36.82% | 43.32% | 14.87% | 4.99% |
Publix | 36.07% | 44.06% | 14.37% | 5.50% |
American Express | 31.76% | 37.90% | 15.86% | 14.48% |
Marriott | 31.31% | 55.27% | 11.54% | 1.88% |
Hilton Hotels | 30.90% | 53.12% | 12.97% | 3.01% |
British Airways | 29.78% | 44.21% | 17.38% | 8.63% |
Costco Wholesale | 28.73% | 43.84% | 21.42% | 6.01% |
JetBlue Airways | 27.30% | 42.77% | 18.24% | 11.69% |
State Farm | 25.91% | 33.98% | 20.29% | 19.82% |
Hampton Inn | 24.43% | 51.72% | 20.18% | 3.67% |
Olive Garden | 23.64% | 47.77% | 21.02% | 7.57% |
Geico | 23.55% | 33.50% | 21.96% | 20.98% |
Progressive | 23.46% | 31.94% | 21.23% | 23.37% |
Sony | 22.91% | 47.06% | 21.89% | 8.14% |
Starbucks | 21.70% | 46.50% | 21.72% | 10.08% |
Sheraton | 21.60% | 57.53% | 17.95% | 2.92% |
Verizon | 21.47% | 38.18% | 21.69% | 18.65% |
eBay | 21.24% | 42.21% | 25.52% | 11.03% |
Victoria's Secret | 21.09% | 47.23% | 22.29% | 9.40% |
DirectTV | 20.90% | 35.90% | 22.12% | 21.08% |
Ikea | 20.51% | 46.03% | 26.23% | 7.23% |
Lowe's | 20.41% | 51.54% | 21.86% | 6.20% |
AutoZone | 20.21% | 49.72% | 24.52% | 5.55% |
Yahoo | 20.12% | 49.53% | 23.04% | 7.31% |
Hewlett-Packard | 19.76% | 45.64% | 23.26% | 11.33% |
Dell | 19.60% | 41.94% | 22.41% | 16.05% |
Wachovia | 19.41% | 37.16% | 23.28% | 20.15% |
Kroger | 19.25% | 53.44% | 21.70% | 5.61% |
Intuit/Quicken | 18.80% | 44.99% | 24.49% | 11.72% |
Liberty Mutual | 18.15% | 30.29% | 29.13% | 22.43% |
Target | 17.58% | 51.00% | 24.88% | 6.54% |
Nationwide | 17.54% | 27.93% | 28.85% | 25.68% |
Wells Fargo | 17.53% | 33.30% | 24.44% | 24.73% |
Discover | 17.30% | 34.94% | 24.72% | 23.03% |
Applebee's | 16.91% | 47.19% | 25.96% | 9.93% |
Washington Mutual | 16.91% | 32.91% | 22.25% | 27.93% |
T-Mobile | 16.33% | 30.43% | 27.24% | 25.99% |
Wells Fargo | 16.33% | 31.53% | 24.16% | 27.99% |
Expedia | 15.59% | 49.92% | 26.01% | 8.48% |
Kohl's | 15.53% | 46.58% | 30.64% | 7.24% |
Nokia | 15.52% | 46.44% | 28.75% | 9.28% |
JPMorgan Chase | 15.47% | 36.99% | 25.36% | 22.17% |
IBM | 15.45% | 49.53% | 27.76% | 7.25% |
AirTran | 15.09% | 41.96% | 28.77% | 14.19% |
The Hartford | 15.05% | 42.14% | 24.39% | 18.42% |
Dish Network | 14.79% | 29.93% | 28.26% | 27.03% |
CVS Caremark | 14.25% | 50.49% | 26.73% | 8.52% |
Staples | 14.22% | 50.61% | 29.17% | 6.00% |
Microsoft | 13.98% | 39.08% | 28.76% | 18.18% |
Allstate | 13.79% | 32.65% | 25.05% | 28.52% |
Macy's | 13.74% | 50.14% | 27.64% | 8.48% |
Safeway | 13.72% | 49.42% | 26.75% | 10.11% |
Travelocity | 13.63% | 48.01% | 26.87% | 11.50% |
Palm | 13.58% | 35.40% | 33.01% | 18.02% |
Continental Airlines | 13.48% | 42.48% | 29.93% | 14.11% |
Farmers Insurance | 13.34% | 34.65% | 27.52% | 24.49% |
RadioShack | 13.27% | 45.48% | 28.88% | 12.37% |
Home Depot | 13.25% | 47.02% | 28.13% | 11.61% |
Bank of America | 13.17% | 33.49% | 21.97% | 31.37% |
Albertsons | 13.14% | 50.41% | 25.18% | 11.28% |
Wal-Mart | 13.07% | 32.43% | 28.72% | 25.78% |
AT&T | 13.04% | 32.71% | 28.49% | 25.76% |
Best Buy | 12.86% | 42.82% | 30.14% | 14.19% |
Travelers | 12.55% | 40.50% | 27.63% | 19.31% |
EarthLink | 11.81% | 33.46% | 26.30% | 28.43% |
JCPenney | 11.74% | 50.12% | 31.41% | 6.73% |
Dunkin' Donuts | 11.72% | 46.68% | 31.63% | 9.96% |
MSN | 11.63% | 39.25% | 27.11% | 22.02% |
HSBC Finance | 11.62% | 32.27% | 26.43% | 29.68% |
Office Depot | 11.47% | 48.51% | 33.23% | 6.79% |
Wendy's | 11.46% | 50.13% | 30.70% | 7.71% |
Cox Communications | 11.41% | 33.07% | 26.72% | 28.81% |
Holiday Inn | 10.64% | 53.16% | 31.06% | 5.14% |
Symantec | 10.37% | 37.15% | 29.24% | 23.25% |
BellSouth | 10.04% | 37.59% | 27.70% | 24.66% |
Delta Air Lines | 9.97% | 43.30% | 32.11% | 14.62% |
Sears | 9.85% | 44.47% | 33.28% | 12.39% |
Rite Aid Pharmacy | 9.62% | 46.57% | 32.71% | 11.11% |
Circuit City | 9.53% | 37.10% | 34.46% | 18.92% |
Capital One | 9.48% | 30.93% | 27.99% | 31.60% |
Qwest | 9.43% | 28.16% | 28.85% | 33.56% |
Comfort Inn | 9.28% | 52.13% | 32.91% | 5.68% |
The Gap | 8.97% | 49.77% | 30.91% | 10.35% |
Northwest Airlines | 8.95% | 37.27% | 33.01% | 20.77% |
Time Warner Cable | 8.94% | 29.51% | 31.05% | 30.50% |
Abercrombie & Fitch | 8.87% | 28.37% | 25.15% | 37.61% |
A&P | 8.76% | 47.42% | 33.71% | 10.11% |
Citibank | 8.75% | 35.73% | 28.72% | 26.79% |
Winn-Dixie | 8.67% | 43.53% | 35.15% | 12.65% |
American Airlines | 8.54% | 47.39% | 29.91% | 14.16% |
Best Western | 8.26% | 51.39% | 34.07% | 6.29% |
TJ Maxx | 8.03% | 32.76% | 43.69% | 15.52% |
Blockbuster | 7.90% | 36.07% | 38.48% | 17.55% |
Pizza Hut | 7.68% | 42.70% | 36.89% | 12.72% |
McDonald's | 7.45% | 38.20% | 36.69% | 17.67% |
US Airways | 7.05% | 36.29% | 34.77% | 21.89% |
Sprint Nextel | 7.00% | 26.24% | 27.85% | 38.91% |
AOL | 6.62% | 22.69% | 24.10% | 46.59% |
Toys R Us | 6.48% | 41.09% | 36.10% | 16.33% |
Foot Locker | 6.38% | 43.78% | 36.92% | 12.92% |
Days Inn | 5.87% | 41.58% | 40.94% | 11.60% |
Denny's | 5.84% | 34.43% | 39.82% | 19.91% |
Taco Bell | 5.77% | 36.45% | 39.57% | 18.21% |
United Airlines | 5.77% | 42.14% | 33.62% | 18.47% |
Quality Inn | 5.58% | 41.78% | 41.06% | 11.59% |
Comcast | 5.36% | 21.93% | 30.78% | 41.93% |
Hardee's | 5.17% | 33.20% | 41.70% | 19.94% |
Kmart | 4.72% | 27.96% | 39.15% | 28.17% |
Super 8 Motels | 3.95% | 31.29% | 43.29% | 21.47% |
(Some totals do not add up to 100% because of rounding.)
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