LATEST NEWS – Here’s what we’ve been up to

The report can be downloaded for $295

We just published a new Temkin Group report, 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors. The report analyzes feedback from 800 IT professionals to rate 60 tech suppliers. Congratulations to the top firms:

1) Microsoft (business applications)
1) Cisco
3) IBM SPSS
3) Microsoft (servers)
5) Microsoft (desktop software)
5) IBM software (other than SPSS)
5) Intel

Here is the executive summary from the report:

To understand the customer experience delivered by IT vendors, we surveyed 800 IT professionals from large companies. Using their feedback on the functional, accessible, and emotional components of experiences with vendors, we created the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors that rates 60 large IT suppliers by their customers. Microsoft business applications, Cisco, IBM SPSS, and Microsoft servers were at the top of the list with “excellent” ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, Compuware, Capgemini, and Fujitsu were at the bottom of nine companies with “very poor” ratings. Our research also looked at the 2012 purchase plans for these IT buyers. When we chart the Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors with the purchase momentum for these 60 firms, it shows the clear connection between customer experience and revenues.

The Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors are based on evaluating three elements of experience:

1. Functional: How well do experiences meet customers’ needs?
2. Accessible: How easy is it for customers to do what they want to do?
3. Emotional: How do customers feel about the experiences?

Here are the ratings for all 60 tech vendors:

The report also examined IT purchasing plans. We created a purchasing momentum index, equal to the percentage of companies planning to increase spending in 2012 minus the percentage that were planning to decrease spending. It turns out that the Temkin Experience Ratings are highly connected with purchase momentum:

Purchase  report for $295

You can also purchase the data from this report for $295. The Excel spreadsheet contains inputs to the Temkin Experience Ratings and purchase momentum for all 60 companies in the report as well as for 28 other tech vendors which had a smaller sample size of respondents.

Purchase data snapshot for $195

We just published a new Temkin Group Data Snapshot: Social Media and Mobile Adoption that provides details of how often US consumers do a number of social media and mobile activities. Here’s the description of the research:

As part of Temkin Group’s Q4 2011 Consumer Benchmark Survey, we asked 5,000 U.S. consumers about their social media and mobile activities. This data snapshot looks at how many consumers perform activities such as update their status on Facebook, send a tweet, read an online product review, or invite someone to join their LinkedIn network. The data also shows how frequently they do these activities and the differences across seven age groups of consumers.

The data snapshot if full of facts and figures. Here are a handful of factoids that I pulled together from the report:

The data snapshot has 13 data-rich graphics. Here’s a partial view from two of the figures:

Purchase data snapshot for $195

Temkin Group announces its newest offering….

We introduced the Temkin Ratings site in the US last year. The site provides free access to all of our ratings, making it easy to see how consumers rate large companies across a number of dimensions. We decided to extend the Temkin Ratings into the UK with four of our ratings: Temkin Experience Ratings, Temkin Loyalty Ratings, Temkin Trust Ratings, and Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. You can review all of those ratings from the Temkin Ratings UK site.

As you can see below, we’re also providing the Temkin Experience Ratings report free of charge. We will providing some details around the other ratings in future posts. And, of course, we will be releasing the 2012 ratings in the US later this year — with even more industries.

The report can be downloaded for free

We just published a new Temkin Group report, 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings UK. Congratulations to the top six companies (out of 66 in the ratings):

1) John Lewis
1) Waitrose
3) Amazon.co.uk
4) Farmfoods
4) Iceland
4) Morrisons

Here is the executive summary from the report:

John Lewis and Waitrose tied for first in the 2012 Temkin Experience Rankings UK, with several other grocery stores and Amazon.com rounding out the top ten. We asked 3,000 British consumers to rate their recent interactions with companies across three dimensions of their experience: functional, accessible, and emotional. These data allowed us to rate 66 companies across seven industries. Only two of those companies received an “excellent” rating, while 26% fell in the “good” category. The results show that retailers and grocery stores deliver the best experience while personal computer manufacturers and insurance companies provide the worst.

The Temkin Experience Ratings UK are based on evaluating three elements of experience:

1. Functional: How well do experiences meet consumers’ needs?
2. Accessible: How easy is it for consumers to do what they want to do?
3. Emotional: How do consumers feel about the experiences?

Here are the ratings for all 66 companies:

The report can be downloaded for FREE

Are you interested in getting a deeper look at the data? Or do you want to see the differences in industries across age? Then you should visit Temkin Ratings at www.temkinratings.co.uk.

The bottom line: Customer experience excellence is in short supply.

The report is on sale for $195

We just published a new Temkin Group report, Employee Engagement Benchmark Study. The analysis uncovers a strong connection between employee engagement and customer experience as well as between employee engagement and productivity.

Here’s the executive summary:

Employee engagement is one of the four customer experience core competencies and it’s the one that companies tend to struggle with the most. To examine this critical area, we surveyed more than 2,400 U.S. employees. Here are some highlights of the findings: only 40% of employees are fully committed to helping their companies succeed, 54% will do something good for the company even if it’s not expected, and 26% are likely to look for a new job within six months. We also introduced the Temkin Employee Engagement Index (TEEI) based on how employees feel about three areas: understanding the company mission, feeling that their feedback is valued, and having the required training and tools. Using the TEEI, we found that only 31% of employees are highly engaged. These highly engaged employees are a real asset; they’re 5.8 times more committed to helping their companies succeed and 4.7 times more likely to recommend that someone apply for a job at their company. It turns out that companies with good customer experience have 2.5 times more engaged employees than companies with poor customer experience.

To gauge the level of employee engagement across respondents, we used the Temkin Employee Engagement Index (TEEI), which is based on how much employees agree with three statements:

1. I understand the overall mission of my company
2. My company asks for my feedback and acts upon my input
3. My company provides me with the training and the tools that I need to be successful

Using the TEEI results from the 2,435 respondents, our analysis uncovered a number of interesting items. Here’s a graphic I put together to summarize some of the key data in the report:

The report highlights four recommendations:

The report is on sale for $195

The report is on sale for $195

We just published a new Temkin Group report, Innovation Equity Quotient. Here’s the executive summary:

Companies focus on innovating new products and services, but how willing are consumers to accept these offerings? The Innovation Equity Quotient measures the readiness of consumers to try something new from a company. Led by Hershey and Kraft Foods, six consumer packaged goods (CPG) firms came out at the top of the ratings. In some head-to-head comparisons, Google leads technology companies, Coke beats Pepsi, and Walgreen’s beats CVS. We also examined the data across age, income, gender, and ethnic groups. Income levels appear to have the least impact on the Innovation Equity Quotient, but there were considerable gaps in the other areas. Nintendo and Google have the largest age gaps, Revlon and L’Oreal have the largest gender gaps, Apple has the largest income gap, and Nike has the largest ethnicity gap.

To understand this demand-side component of innovation, we created the Innovation Equity Quotient (IEQ) that gauges consumers’ openness to trying new products and services. IEQ is based on a simple question: “If <COMPANY> announced a new product or service, how likely would you be try it right away?” We asked this question to 5,000 US consumers and calculated IEQ for Forbes 50 most valuable brands. Here’s how they fared:

The report is on sale for $195

The report includes data charts that highlight the 25 brands with the largest IEQ gaps across age groups, ethnic groups, gender, and income levels.