Brands Customers Actually Like: Customer Loyalty Revealed by UK Satmetrix(R) Net Promoter(R) Benchmarks Report

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2015) - Satmetrix®, the leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for managing and improving customer experience, today releases its UK Net Promoter Customer Loyalty Benchmark Reports. The reports rank more than 60 brands across 10 UK sectors, including financial services, insurance, television, mobile and internet providers, identifying which companies consumers do business with.

"We are pleased to announce Net Promoter Benchmark reports for the UK this year, replicating our research in the US, which has become a crucial resource for companies looking to get ahead of the competition with their customer experience," said Brendan Rocks, head of data science at Satmetrix. "The Net Promoter leaders are more likely to enjoy high customer retention, lower customer acquisition costs, and ultimately benefit from more sustainable growth. Many of the companies at the bottom of the rankings have huge potential to improve, and Satmetrix's research brings to light the areas of the customer experience where they lag competitors."

Factors determining brands' Net Promoter Score (NPS) include customer views on ease of use, access to support, company reputation, treating customers fairly and value for money, to name just a few. Over 11,000 UK customers were surveyed.

Highlights from the 2015 UK report:

Top 10 Net Promoter Scores across all sectors:
1. First Direct +73
2. Nationwide Building Society +43
3. Freeview +38 / Tesco Mobile +38 (tie)
4. Plusnet +37
5. LV +34 / Hargreaves Lansdown +34 (tie)
6. Santander credit cards +28 / Tesco Bank credit card +28 (tie)
7. Santander banking +27

NPS Leader First Direct's Customer Services Director, Karen Walker says: "It is fantastic news to be ranked top for customer loyalty across all sectors, especially as the results are based on what our customers say about us."

"I believe the UK Net Promoter score truly reflects how consumers feel, which makes being ranked first out of 60 brands, 30 points clear of second position, all the sweeter."

• Royal Bank of Scotland had the lowest loyalty score of all the companies analysed at -19
• Consumer banking has the biggest gulf between best and worst performers; First Direct scored +73 versus Royal Bank of Scotland with -19
• Tesco is winning back customers' loyalty with extra services; Tesco Mobile had the highest mobile industry NPS at +38 and the consumer credit card from Tesco Bank (+23) was beaten only by Santander (+28).
• Credit cards: Providing a customer experience focussed on community and reward is paying off for MBNA (http://www.mbna.co.uk/) whose NPS score of +4 was enough to place them amongst high-street competitors including Lloyds, Barclaycard and Virgin Money.
• EE and Vodafone are bottom for both mobile and internet services. EE scored -7 for mobile and -17 for internet, with Vodafone respectively scoring -1 and -18. Given the shifting market and the increased bundling of services in the mobile and media industry they face tough competition
• Freeview is streets ahead of digital TV competition with a Net Promoter Score of +38, 25 points ahead of subscription services including Sky, Virgin Media, BT, and finally Talk Talk -- which had the only negative score (-11) in the top five.

The Satmetrix Net Promoter Benchmarks are based on survey responses from more than 11,000 UK consumers who rated their experience with the primary brands they use. The Net Promoter Score, or NPS®, for each brand is based on customers' likelihood to recommend the company's product or service in the sector being rated. NPS is calculated as the percentage of customers who are promoters, rating the company 9 or 10 on a 0-10 point scale, minus the percentage who are detractors, rating 6 or lower. Consumers also rated each brand on various aspects of customer experience, including product or service features, customer service and overall value, enabling Satmetrix to identify the key drivers of loyalty and recommendation.

Complete results and commentary on the UK Net Promoter Benchmarks are available from Satmetrix. The U.S. Benchmarks covering twenty-two market sectors and backed up by a decade of US survey data, are also available for download with analysis of time trends and the key factors that affect customer loyalty within each industry (raw data is also available) at: http://www.satmetrix.com/uk-benchmarks

Notes to editors:

NPS®, Net Promoter® and Net Promoter® Score are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.

About Satmetrix Satmetrix is the leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for managing and improving overall customer experience. As co-creator of the Net Promoter® methodology, Satmetrix combines unrivalled NPS expertise with a powerful, yet cost-effective SaaS-based software solution to provide continuous, actionable, 360-degree customer insights. Leading organizations of all sizes and across multiple industries use Satmetrix solutions to drive customer retention, improve customer affinity and maximize positive word-of-mouth to deliver overall improvements in customer lifetime value. With more than 1,000 deployments in 40+ languages, Satmetrix provides a holistic view of the customer experience and the necessary expertise to help accelerate customer experience program success. For more information, visit www.Satmetrix.com