ANN ARBOR: Internet retailer Amazon has emerged at the top of a new index that rates consumer experiences with leading global brands and also looks at measurements predictive of future success.

The ForeSee Experience Index (FXI), developed by ForeSee, a provider of customer experience analytics, sought to quantify customer experience by calculating satisfaction scores for each of the top 100 brands, as reported by Interbrand, on a 100-point scale, using 75,000 surveys from customers across seven industries. In addition, scores for three key behaviours – retention, upsell and recommend – indicated the likelihood of continued prosperity.

Amazon dominated the retail industry at the brand level, with a satisfaction score of 87 (the overall average was 80), but Nordstrom (86), Coach (85), Costco (84) and Tiffany (84) were close behind.

It also excelled at retention, scoring 91 against an average of 83, upselling (74 versus 65) and recommendation (68 versus 49). Comparable figures for Nordstrom were 89, 72 and 69.

Facebook was the lowest scoring brand in the overall index (69), and ForeSee suggested that it had lost the trust of the social media community. McDonald's (72) was another major brand that could work on improving customer satisfaction.

The FXI also threw up examples of customers clearly favouring one brand over a leading competitor. Thus, for example, Honda (85) led Kia (78) by seven points, and American Express (82) led MasterCard (76) by six points.

The highest satisfaction levels were apparent in the automotive and consumer packaged goods categories, both scoring 82, followed by retail & apparel (81) and technology & electronics (80). Financial services came bottom on 75.

And when ForeSee compared highly satisfied customers (defined as those with satisfaction scores of 80 or higher) to less satisfied ones (scoring 69 or less) it found the former group was 75% more likely to prefer the brand overall and 77% more likely to give the brand a positive recommendation to others.

Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee, said the Index gave the companies in it a chance to "benchmark themselves against each other in terms of the overall customer experience" while at the same time "serving as an industry resource to give other businesses the opportunity to compare themselves to the best in class".

Data sourced from PR Newswire; additional content by Warc staff