What consumers value most in a product are quality and customer service. Companies that succeed in creating a brand based on excellent quality and outstanding customer service can charge more for their products, get away with occasional missteps and depend on their customers to promote the company with the zeal of convert. In online sales, creating an emotional engagement with customers is especially important for developing loyalty and, ultimately, profitability.
Research firm Brand Keys released on Wednesday its 2014 customer loyalty index for online service brands. The firm tracks 70 brands in seven categories, measuring customer expectations related to “trust and security,” “content/product range” and “customized curation.”
The top scoring brand in each category is listed here:
- Retail: Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), with a score of 93%
- Payment Services: PayPal, a division of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), 90%
- Music: Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), 89%
- Streaming Video: Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Amazon tied at 88%
- Travel: Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), 87%
- Online Brokerage: OptionsXpress, a division of Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW), 86%
- Search Engine: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), 85%
There are no big surprises here, although there are some interesting observations. Pandora outscores iTunes from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Google’s YouTube finished in a tie for fourth in the video streaming category, even though YouTube draws more unique users than any other website.
It is also interesting that eBay’s PayPal service is at the top of its category, but eBay itself trails Amazon. Those who have argued that PayPal should be spun off from eBay might have a point.
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