Comcast and other TV and Internet providers are notoriously frustrating for American consumers to deal with, but a couple of companies actually fare even worse than the cable giant in a recent online survey.
Temkin Group, a research and consulting company, published its fifth annual customer experience ratings last month, ranking 293 companies across 20 industries based on an online survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers. The survey asked consumers to provide feedback on their recent interactions with companies using three main criteria: success, effort and emotion.
SLIDESHOW: 18 Companies with the Worst Customer Experience in 2015
The lowest-scoring company was Coventry Health Care, part of another industry that ranks at the top of Americans’ gripe list: health insurers.
That’s not to say that cable and broadband companies fared well. In the ranking, Internet service providers had the lowest average score of any of the 20 industries and also performed worse than in last year’s ranking. Comcast was the lowest-scoring Internet service provider for the second year in a row.
Overall, 10 industries saw their “customer experience” ratings decline compared to last year’s findings.
Are companies simply getting worse at satisfying consumers?
The answer isn’t quite so simple, according to Temkin. One of the main issues is that many companies in the U.S. have difficulties keeping up with consumer expectations. “Consumer expectations are rising at a pace that is faster than the speed at which companies are improving their customer experience,” the company said in a blog.
“A few companies that are really, really good at consumer experience establish a baseline of expectations for consumers across all of their interactions. Keeping up with mediocre peers may no longer be a viable strategy.”
Click here to see the 18 companies with the worst customer experience
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