Surprise, Surprise 

The Same Great Winners

A nationwide research study by Satmetrix, a West Coast provider of customer experience software, reinforces the ethical business model’s value. By and large it’s no surprise that companies boasting a long history of ethical standards top the Satmetrix Benchmark study. Wegmans, Costco, Apple, Jet Blue, American Express, Virgin America, Amazon, Lowes, Google, all the usual suspects top this  study and when it comes to doing the right thing by all their stakeholders. And guess what? They are leaders when you check their bottom line.

Satmetrix measured the attitudes of 30,000 consumers and used the results to rank 200 brands in 22 industries to create its Net Promoter Scores (NPS®) for each company. People were asked to score the companies they do business with on a zero-to-ten point scale. NPS® scores are based on a customer’s willingness to recommend their company. The percentage of those giving a company a 9 or 10, minus the percentage of those rating them 6 or lower, produces the company’s NPS® score.

Surprisingly, the highest score -an 83% NPS®- was in the banking sector, USAA, an organization that offers a wide range of financial services and insurance to its members - active duty and military veterans. When you look at the broad picture banking had more detractors than supporters. Seven large banks were in negative territory with Wachovia leading the charge to the bottom with a minus 15% NPS® score. Among major credit cards American Express was on top with a 43% NPS®. 

Amazon’s 76% NPS® was a close second to USAA’s overall lead, followed not too far behind by ethically oriented Wegmans and Costco at 73% & 71% respectively. These two perennial poster children for maintaining a healthy bottom line while covering all the ethical bases, manage it in spite of the large number of entry level jobs in their operations. Wegmans also has managed to stay on the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work list ever since it was created. They have been in the top five for eight years running and were ranked number one in 2005. That’s amazing when you consider the benefits and salary levels of companies like Google that they go head-to-head with year after year for the Fortune workplace honor roll.

Costco was on top of the retail pile again this year with a NPS® 71%, Nordstrom and Belk had a very respectable 66%. Once proud and respected Sears is at the bottom of that list with less than half the Costco score, a 35% NPS®. Is it any wonder? Reminiscent of a famous Roman fiddle player, Sears Chairman Edward Lampert is reportedly laying out $40 million for an estate just north of Miami; it’s said to be a record price for a single-family home in Dade County. All this while he is gutting the iconic retailer, selling off and closing Sears stores. Adding a let-them-eat-cake touch, the ethically challenged Lampert’s new digs features a series of “Versailles-Style Reflecting Pools” that will enable them to reflect on all the little folks they crushed so they could enjoy this idyllic setting.