Cable television providers and Internet service providers are among the worst around with regard to customer service. A recent poll of 235 companies across 19 different industries found cable television providers ranked dead last followed closely by ISPs according to research firm Temkin Group.
The firm asked participants to rank the satisfaction of their experience with various companies on a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (completely very satisfied). From there, Temkin did the math and ranked each company with a net satisfaction score as a percentage.
Television service provider Charter Communications ranked dead last at 22 percent followed by Time Warner Cable at 25 percent, Cox Communications at 28 percent and Comcast and Verizon at 30 percent each. As for Internet service, Qwest, Verizon and Charter Communications finished at 31 percent while Comcast ranked nearly as low at 32 percent.
On the opposite end of the scale, banks, fast food chains and grocery chains all scored favorably among consumers. At the top of the list was USAA as an insurance carrier and a bank with a score of 76 percent and 75 percent, respectively. Fast food chains Chick-fil-A and Sonic Drive-In finished at 70 and 69 percent while grocery chains Hy-Vee, Trader Joe's, Publix, H.E.B. and Aldi all ranked 67 percent or better.
Data for the study was collected from a third-party online survey of 10,000 participants during January 2013. Survey takers were asked to identify and rate companies they had used within the past 60 days.