Southwest Airlines and AirTran Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Airlines

Southwest Airlines and AirTran deliver the best customer experience in the airline industry, according to the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual customer experience ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Southwest Airlines took the top spot out of the 10 airlines included in this year's ratings, earning a score of 73 percent and coming in 90th place overall out of 331 companies across 20 industries. Southwest has earned the highest score every year since the Ratings began in 2011, with the exception of 2015 with JetBlue came in first.

The ratings of all airlines in the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings are as follows:

Southwest Airlines: 73 percent AirTran Airways: 70 percent Virgin America: 69 percent JetBlue Airlines: 69 percent Alaska Airlines: 68 percent United Airlines: 66 percent US Airways: 65 percent American Airlines: 62 percent Delta Airlines: 62 percent Spirit Airlines: 50 percent

"Congratulations to Southwest for its continued excellence in customer experience, and the entire industry for making improvements over last year," states Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.

Overall, the airlines industry averaged a 66 percent rating in the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 14th place out of 20 industries. The average rating of the industry improved by nine percentage-points between 2016 and 2017, going from 56.4 percent to 65.6 percent.

The ratings for all airlines increased between 2016 and 2017. US Airways improved the most, gaining 17 points, while Delta Airlines improved the least, gaining only three points.

Now in its seventh year of publication, the 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings is the most comprehensive benchmark of customer experience in the industry, evaluating 331 companies across 20 industries: airlines, auto dealers, banks, computer & tablet makers, credit card issuers, fast food chains, health plans, hotels & rooms, insurance carriers, investment firms, parcel delivery services, rental cars & transport, retailers, software firms, streaming media, supermarket chains, TV & appliance makers, TV/Internet service providers, utilities, and wireless carriers.

To generate these ratings, Temkin Group asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to evaluate their recent experiences with a company across three dimensions: success (can you do what you want to do?), effort (how easy is it to work with the company?), and emotion (how do you feel about the interactions?). Temkin Group then averaged these three scores to produce each company's Temkin Experience Rating.

In these ratings, a score of 70 percent or above is considered "good," and a score of 80 percent or above is considered "excellent," while a score below 60 percent is considered "poor."

The 2017 Temkin Experience Ratings, along with other ratings, can be accessed at the Temkin Ratings website, www.TemkinRatings.com.

The free report, "2017 Temkin Experience Ratings," is available for download at the Customer Experience Matters blog (ExperienceMatters.blog) and at the Temkin Group website.

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About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is a leading customer experience research, consulting, and training firm. Many of the world's largest brands rely on its insights and advice to steer their transformational journeys, and Temkin Group accelerates their results by combining customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of organizational dynamics. Rather than layering on cosmetic changes, Temkin Group helps companies embed practices within their culture by building up four core competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. The firm's ongoing research identifies leading and emerging best practices for engaging the hearts and minds of customers, employees, and partners. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an email to 150532@email4pr.com.

*Customer Experience Matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.