The most recently published Temkin Web Experience Ratings of more than 200 companies across 19 industries reveals continuing widespread disappointment with the quality of the “web experience.”
The Temkin Web Experience Ratings are compiled annually by Temkin Group, a Newton, MA-based customer experience research and consulting firm. The ratings are based on consumer feedback when asked to rate their satisfaction when interacting with each company’s website.
Temkin ratings are established for companies garnering responses from 100 or more of the ~10,000 randomly selected participants in an online survey conducted by the research firm in January 2013.
Rankings are calculated via a “net satisfaction” score based on a 7-point rating scale from “completely satisfied” to “completely dissatisfied” by taking the percentage of consumers selecting the two highest ratings and subtracting the percentage who selected the bottom three ratings.
Just 6% of the brands earned strong or very strong “net” trust ratings, while ten times as many (~63%) were given weak or very weak scores.
And there’s this, too: Not much improvement is happening. More than half of the ~150 companies that were included in both the 2012 and 2013 Temkin evaluations earned lower scores this year than last.
Managing partner Bruce Temkin summarized it succinctly: “The web is a key channel, but online experiences aren’t very good – and are heading in the wrong direction.”
The latest Temkin ratings give Amazon the top-rank position with a 77% overall rating score. Other companies ranked near the top include Advantage Rent A Car, U.S. Bank and QVC.
At the other end of the scale, MSN, EarthLink and Cablevision earned the lowest ratings – MSN worst of all.
Indeed, the following industries had composite company ratings that ended up in the “very weak” column:
- Airlines
- Health plans
- Internet service providers
- TV service providers
- Wireless carriers
Do any of these industries seem like ones that shouldn’t be on this list?
I didn’t think so, either.
Which ones are the industries that score best in the Temkin analysis? By order of rank, they are as follows:
- Banks
- Investment firms
- Retailers
- Credit card issuers
- Hotel chains
Come to think of it, I haven’t encountered problems online with companies or bands in any of these five industries.
It’s also interesting to consider which companies have improved the most over time. When comparing year-over-year results for the ~150 companies that were included in both the 2012 and 2013 studies, eight of them showed double-digit improvements in their scores:
- Blue Shield of California
- Citibank
- Humana
- Old Navy
- Safeway
- Toyota
- TriCare
- U.S. Bank
On the other hand, a much bigger contingent of 21 companies saw their ratings decline by at least 10 points; the six firms that dropped by 15 points of more were these:
- Bright House Networks
- Cablevision
- MSN
- ShopRite
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
You can view the scores (and trends) for all 200+ companies by clicking here to download the full report.
If you notice any rankings that seem surprising – or that don’t comport with your own online experiences – please share your thoughts and perspectives below.
Nones Notes 
Actually, I’m surprised the banks fared so well.
I’ve heard several complaints about bank sites in the last year or two. Apparently, in an effort to thwart hackers, some operate behind such convoluted firewalls that it can be difficult (sometimes impossible) to retrieve balances or transfer funds on certain devices. Or at least that’s the theory of some customers I know who are constantly frustrated at being unable to bank online.