Sam's Club Grabs Top Spot in Consumer Loyalty Survey

Customer loyalty is increasingly a marker for success, especially as brands compete for market share and look for ways to grow and maintain a loyal customer base. Given the influence of social media, engendering loyalty becomes all the more important for brands because they can be impacted by positive recommendations or negative comments shared among consumers.

That makes a new research report, the 2012 Temkin Loyalty Ratings, particularly interesting. Based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers in January 2012, the research examines consumer loyalty to 206 large companies across 18 industries.

The Loyalty Ratings survey took into account three components of loyalty:

- Likelihood of consumers to recommend companies

- Reluctance of consumers to switch business away from companies

- Willingness of consumers to purchase additional products and services from companies.

The top three industries in terms of loyalty were grocery chains, retailers, and fast food chains. Last in the ratings were TV service providers and Internet service providers. Banks and credit card issuers appear in six of the bottom nine spots in the ratings.Continue reading...