Consumers say LL Bean delivered the best customer service in all retail formats in 2007, according to the third annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customer Service Survey;Â LL Bean moved up from third place in the 2006 survey to take the top spot.
The survey of 8,800 consumers conducted by BIGresearch had internet-only retailers landing top spots on the list, with Zappos.com coming in second, Amazon.com third, Overstock.com fourth and Newegg.com tenth.
Other retailers that excel in customer service have both websites and physical stores or catalogs, with multichannel retailers Blair ( No. 5), Lands’ End ( No. 6), Coldwater Creek ( No. 7), Nordstrom ( No. 8) and Lane Bryant ( No. 9) rounding out the top 10.
In 2006, Amazon ranked No. 1, followed by Nordstrom, LL Bean, Overstock.com and Lane Bryant; four retailers among 2006’s top 10 didn’t make the list: Boscov’s, Kohl’s, REI, and Macy’s (via MediaPost).
Among other findings:
- In terms of customer service, shoppers say they expect the most from restaurants and specialty stores – both were rated 4.4 out of 5.0.
- Customers also have high expectations of department stores (4.1), drug stores (4.0), grocery (3.9), internet retailers (3.8) and membership warehouse clubs (3.7).
- Shoppers say they expect the least from discounters, which had a ranking of 3.4.
About the survey: The NRF Foundation/American Express 2007 Customer Service survey was designed to gauge consumer attitudes toward retailers’ customer service and to provide a listing of the top customer service retailers. The survey, which polled 8,877 consumers, was conducted by BIGresearch September 4 – 11, 2007.
