Customers Experience Better At Tech-Focused Brands Vs. Traditional Media

Among 160 brands, Amazon was the only technology company to rank as “excellent” in Forrester’s latest customer experience index.

The achievement is all the more impressive considering that, as Forrester found, U.S. customers are becoming harder to please. Indeed, the percentage of brands in the excellent category dropped from 6% last year to just 3% this year -- continuing a steady downward trend from 2008 to 2012. Difficult as it may be, however, “improving customer experience can have an enormous positive impact on a firm’s bottom line,” according to Forrester analyst Megan Burns. To calculate its customer experience scores, Forrester asked some 7,600 U.S. consumers about their interactions with a variety of brands, and then subtracted the percentage of customers who reported bad experiences from the percentage who reported good experiences. Brands typically rate “OK” (65 to 74) to “very poor” (less than 55). This year, 64% of brands got a rating of “OK,” “poor” (55 to 64), or “very poor” from their customers, while 37% rated “good” (75 to 84) or “excellent” 85 and higher). Technology-focused brands with “good” consumers ratings included eBay, Apple and iTunes, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo, Vizio, and Samsung. “Poor” performers included AOL, Blackberry, T-Mobile, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Verizon, and Cox Communications.