We recently published the 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings, that evaluates the customer experience of 143 US companies across 12 industries. Let's start with kudos to the top 10:

1. Amazon.com
2. Kohl's
3. Costco
4. (tie) Lowe's
5. (tie) Sam's Club
6. BJs Wholesale Club
7. Walgreens
8. Old Navy
9. Target
10. Rite Aid  

While those were the top overall, I also want to give credit to the top companies in each of the 12 industries we examined:

• Amazon.com (Retailers)
• Marriott (Hotel chains)
• Regions (Banks)
• USAA (Credit cards)
• USAA (Insurance)
• Vanguard (Investment firms)
• TriCare (Health Plans)
• Cox Communications (Internet service providers)
• TracFone (Wireless carriers)
• Apple (Personal computer makers)
• Cox Communications (TV service providers) 

When we examined customer experience levels by industry, we found that most retailers were well out in front while TV service providers and health plans were consistently poor. 

We created the Temkin Experience Ratings for a couple of reasons. First of all, we want to give a voice to consumers about their experiences. The second reason for the ratings is to provide companies with a tool to compare themselves against other companies both inside of and outside of their industries.

That's why we've decided to make this report freely available. 

I don't want to bore you with too many details on how we created the Temkin Experience Ratings, but here's a quick synopsis:

• During January 2011, we surveyed 6,000 US consumers about their very recent experience with companies
• We set quotas to make sure that the respondents were representative of the overall US populations 
• We asked consumers to rate their experiences along three components of the experience: functional, accessible, and emotional (see below)
• The Temkin Experience Ratings are an average of the scores across those three components   

• How Much Does Social Media Matter? gives my assessment of where social media should fit within a firm's overall customer experience priorities 
• More Income, More Feedback provides data on how often consumers across income levels give feedback 
• Fidelity's Employee Engagement Goes Up And Down shows how Fidelity Investments reaches its employees with its customer experience message 
• Customer Experience Skills Are Lacking shows that employee communications is a very poor area of performance within large companies 
• Three Characterisitcs Of Transformational Leaders provides advice for executives that are leading their company through transformational efforts such as a customer experience journey. 

• Assessments of customer experience efforts, to identify gaps and opportunities to accelerate your transformation efforts
• Speeches and webinars on a wide range of customer experience and leadership topics
• Interactive workshops for executive teams or other groups to gain alignment around key customer experience principles and priorities or to develop plans in areas such as voice of the customer programs
• Educational curriculum to establish and reinforce an understanding of proven customer experience principles across an organization
• Strategy reviews of marketing and product plans for vendors who want to help companies transform their customer experience