METHODOLOGY

The aim of the survey was to recognize brands with superior customer service on a local level, close to the everyday lives of the customers. The survey was conducted on retailers and service providers in up to 50 different categories in the 20 largest states in the U.S. by population size, providing results for a broad-spectrum of customer experiences in traditional retail and service segments. For each category, the most relevant brands were included in the scope of the survey according to reputation, turnover or market share.

The recognized 2020 America’s Best-in-state Customer Service rankings were identified from the results of an independent survey of more than 20,000 U.S. customers from the 20 observed states who have either made purchases, used services or gathered information about products or services in the past three years. Customers evaluated several brands: in total over 170,000 evaluations were collected.

The 20 states included in the study are the largest states based on population size statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. They are: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The categories examined consist of national categories examined in multiple states and state-specific categories in individual states for a list with more locally relevant players and categories.

In total, 556 brands were recognized in 77 different categories, with every category awarding the Top three brands. The number of categories recognized per state fluctuates from state to state.

The final assessment and rankings were based on the Net Promoter Score* (50 percent of the final score) and five evaluation criteria (also 50 percent of the final score):

1. Quality of communication:

measures whether the contact (via e-mail, telephone or faceto-face) was friendly or polite.

2. Professional competence:

measures the quality of information received and whether questions were answered correctly and in sufficient detail.

3. Range of services:

measures the variety of solutions available

4. Customer focus:

measures whether a personal concern/ requirement was addressed and individual feels acknowledged or important

5. Accessibility:

measures the availability of customer service in a shop or on a helpline.

The top three brands receiving the highest scores in each category were awarded as America’s Bestin-state Customer Service 2020.