Customer Service Hall of Fame

Source: Wikimedia Commons

15. Victoria’s Secret
> Pct. “excellent” ratings: 36.5%

More than three-quarters of Victoria’s Secret customers surveyed reported an overall positive experience with the company. Of those, nearly half gave the company an excellent rating. Many of the companies that earned the largest share of excellent ratings from customers also have a popular product, and Victoria’s Secret is likely no exception.

L Brands, the store’s parent company, reported an increase in revenue from $10.8 billion in fiscal 2013 to $12.2 billion in 2015. With its success driven largely by the Victoria’s Secret brand, the company announced plans to open a net of 13 new stores in 2016, increasing its total retail square footage by 4% nationwide.

Victoria’s Secret currently has more than 1,100 brick-and-mortar locations. The company also offers customers a 24-hour a day customer care phone line as well as an online customer care chat service.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

14. Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX)
> Pct. “excellent” ratings: 36.5%

Next to product quality, the most important element in a restaurant’s success is the customer experience, which Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has cited as the driver of the company’s continued growth. According to Schultz, key reasons behind the company’s high customer satisfaction are the Starbucks rewards loyalty system and comprehensive online engagement.

On its suggestion portal MyStarbucksIdea.com, which Starbucks launched in 2008, customers posted more than 230,000 ideas and voted more than 2 million times. The idea of free Wi-Fi, which is now available at every company-owned location, was crowdsourced through the website. An early version of the company’s mobile payment system was also the result of the crowdsourcing platform. The company launched its latest version, the Mobile Pay & Order application, in stores nationwide last September. The app allows customers to order and pay for their drinks before entering the store and ultimately helps to shorten lines and wait times. The mobile application is now used for more than 20% of all transactions and is expected to handle more than 50% in a few years.

Another potential reason for the high customer satisfaction at Starbucks is the high satisfaction among its employees. Starbucks employees reviewing the company on Glassdoor frequently cite friendly interactions with regular customers as a major benefit to working at the cafe restaurant. Starbucks has one of the highest employee satisfaction scores of any company on Glassdoor.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

13. Hilton
> Pct. “excellent” ratings: 37.0%

The hotel industry is one of a handful where 75% or more of survey respondents claim to have an overall positive experience when dealing with companies within the industry. Like the industry as a whole, Hilton, in its fourth appearance on the Customer Service Hall of Fame, ranks as having some of the best customer service. Roughly 87% of survey respondents reported a positive overall experience at Hilton hotels, and 37% reported excellent customer service specifically.

With more than 4,700 locations globally, Hilton is the second largest hotel operator in the world. Only Marriott, after its merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is completed, will own more properties.

Approximately 55 million people are members of Hilton’s customer loyalty program. Members, who are likely treated with the best of Hilton’s already highly regarded customer service, accounted for more than half of the hotel company’s system-wide occupancy in 2015.