10 US brands with the best customer experience, ranked

Financial service companies are making strides in customer experience thanks to AI-driven personalization and generative models capable of emulating and responding to human emotions, according to a report released today by accounting firm KPMG US. The Customer Experience Excellence survey asked 10,000 consumers to rate their experiences with 316 U.S. brands according to their ability to meet six criteria: act in a customer’s best interests, proactively address customer needs, set accurate expectations, reduce the time and effort customers expend with digital interactions, deliver a personalized experience and display empathy. It then ranked each brand based on consumer scores. Three of the top ten brands are financial service companies, including military service member and veteran financial service company USAA, which claimed the top ranking for the sixth time in the annual report’s 10-year history. Grocery chain H-E-B was ranked second, followed by Patagonia, Publix and Fidelity. Each earned its place largely due to its ability to personalize customer experiences and reduce friction through digital interactions, said Jeff Mango, managing director at KPMG US. The top three brands further differentiated themselves by offering empathetic customer support, Mango said. AI models approximating empathy, such as chatbots providing customer support in a voice fitting for the brand and task at hand, strengthen the customer experience, he added. “Let’s say I’m having difficulty paying my bills and just lost my job,” Mango said. “The conversational AI or chatbot or whatever way you’re first interacting through non-human contact must understand how that feels.” Read about how marketers and agencies are using AI However, the report also noted that older generations worry about the inability to interact with humans, meaning companies should retain a human touch as they implement technological advancements. Mango said that proactive, empathetic customer service is the biggest improvement a company can make to its overall customer experience offering. “Most companies know how to feel empathetic when something goes wrong,” he said. “Few have figured out how to proactively connect empathetically.” Read Ad Age’s Best of 2024 stories here Mango attributed USAA’s success to its hyper-personalized customer experience offering tailored to the needs of active and former military members. It was the first financial service company to offer mobile check depositing because so many of its customers serve overseas, for example. Financial services, as a category, had the second-best showing behind grocery brands. Brands making big gains from last year include Barclays, which moved up 71 spots to 72nd; and Morgan Stanley subsidiary E-Trade, which leaped 63 spots to 41st. Watch E-Trade’s 2024 Super Bowl commercial Mango credited financial firms for getting better at personalizing interactions thanks to the huge swaths of consumer data they possess and process with AI. However, he maintained that brands must be careful, noting survey respondents identified the security of their personal data as a chief concern. For instance, Patagonia is facing a class-action lawsuit filed in July that alleges it violated California consent laws by sharing support line phone calls with AI customer service company Talkdesk without informing customers. Calls were allegedly recorded and routed to the Patagonia vendor so it could inform the clothing company’s customer experience offering, according to the lawsuit. “As companies gather more data to improve personalization, there is also an increasing need to address concerns about privacy and data security,” Mango said. “Building customer trust through transparent data practices and strong security measures is essential for providing a positive customer experience.”

10 US brands with the best customer experience, ranked

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