J. D. Power Award Winners

Just a few days ago, J. D. Power announced the award winner for 2014.  We are all basically familiar with the J. D. Power and Associates awards, these awards are given for a variety of reasons, but mainly for excellence in customer satisfaction.  When a business is awarded with this honor, they are doing what is needed to take care of their customers and their investments, that says a lot about the class the company has and the service it is providing.

Customer Champions

The awards given were presented to a total of fifty companies, with more than 600 competing for the honors.  These awards were based on a seemingly simple criteria and feedback from the most important source, the customers each company has.  This criterion is expanded to what is known by the J. D. Power staff as their five “P’s”.  These are People, Presentation, Price, Process and Product.

The fifty companies recognized demonstrated the ability to provide outstanding customer service to their customers not just in their own industry, but also when compared across all industries.  The J. D. Power team has found that customer often perform a comparison of their experience with services and products not only with like companies, but usually across a gambit of industries, expecting a high level of satisfaction with each encounter.

With the advances in media today, especially social media, the “word of mouth” approach reaches many more ears than it ever has.  Because of this customer satisfaction must be at the forefront of any company directives or ideals in order to survive.  According to Finnbar O’Neill, President of J. D. Power, “when a company gets it right, they often see a return on investment in the future”.  O’Neill went further to explain that customer loyalty is built around satisfaction, bringing the happy customer back to be repeat customers is very important to the survival of any company.

After the survey of thousands of customers of the more than 600 businesses across a wide variety of industries, the following companies were the J. D. Power and Associates Customer Champions Award Winners:

• Amazon.com
• Amica Mutual
• Apple
• AvMed Health Plan
• Bangor Savings Bank
• Beneficial Mutual Savings Bank
• Boost Mobile
• Cadillac
• Capital District Physicians Health Plan, Inc.
• Clark Public Utilities
• Clay Electric Cooperative
• Drury Hotels
• Enterprise
• First Citizens Bancorp
• Four Seasons
• Frost Bank
• Good Neighbor Pharmacy
• HealthPartners
• Homewood Suites
• Independent Health Association
• Jackson EMC
• Jaguar
• JetBlue Airways
• Lexus
• Lincoln
• MetroPCS
• National
• Neiman Marcus
• NJM Insurance Co.
• Publix (Retail and Pharmacy)
• Quicken Loans
• The Ritz-Carlton
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Sawnee EMC
• Scottrade
• SECO Energy
• SelectHealth
• Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative
• Southwest Airlines
• SRP
• Staybridge Suites
• Straight Talk
• Tennessee Farm Bureau
• Texas Farm Bureau
• TracFone
• U.S. Cellular
• Union First Market Bank
• United Community Bank
• USAA

As you can see there are is a wide variety in the industries represented, but remember these are the companies that during the past year ranked highest in customer satisfaction.  When you make your next purchase, or shop for a service you might need, it might be a good idea to start with these companies first, knowing they take their customer satisfaction seriously.

Most Dependable Vehicles

Before you buy a vehicle wouldn’t you like to know just how dependable that vehicle is going to be?  Whether you are buying new or used, most likely you are going to be financing the vehicle for a number of years and certainly want the vehicle to not only out live the length of the loan, but also many years beyond that.  As another thought, you might also be looking to see what vehicles are going to bring you the best trade in value when the time comes to go find another car, truck, van or SUV and its certainly in your best interest to know this information.

J. D. Power and Associates has an award that will help you in determining which vehicle to choose when making your next purchase; their Vehicle Dependability Award.  As the name mentions, these are the vehicles on the road today that have had the fewest problems experiences by the original owners of vehicles that are three years old.  This means the group of vehicles was from the 2011 model year class to receive this award.  The rating was based on the number of problems experience per 100 vehicles (PP100) and this study is known to be used extensively in aiding manufacturers when designing new models of vehicles.

The auto makers use this survey and results as a benchmark to help determine their customer satisfaction ratings.  If a car is constantly breaking down and in need of repair, and has not even come close to outlasting its loan, that can cause a great deal of frustration for a customer, which might result in their choosing a different manufacturer next time.  On the other hand, a great car that needs very little attention outside of regularly scheduled vehicle maintenance will elicit customer loyalty and increase the likelihood a customer will choose the same auto maker for their next vehicle.

The 2014 J. D. Power Vehicle Dependability Award Winners were:

• Compact CUV- 2011 Honda CR-V
• Compact Car – 2011 Chevrolet Volt
• Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle – 2011 Scion xB
• Compact Premium CUV – 2011 Acura RDX
• Compact Premium Car – 2011 Lexus ES 350
• Compact Sporty Car – 2011 MINI Cooper
• Large CUV – 2011 GMC Yukon
• Large Car – 2011 Buick Lucerne
• Large Heavy Duty Pickup – 2011 GMC Sierra 2500HD
• Large Light Duty Pickup – 2011 GMC Sierra 1500
• Large Premium CUV – 2011 CADILLAC ESCALADE
• Large Premium Car – 2011 CADILLAC DTS
• Large Premium Car – 2011 Lexus LS
• Midsize CUV – 2011 Honda Crosstour
• Midsize Car – 2011 Toyota Camry
• Midsize Pickup – 2011 Honda Ridgeline
• Midsize Premium CUV – 2011 Lexus RX
• Midsize Premium Car – 2011 Lexus GS
• Midsize Sporty Car – 2011 Chevrolet Camaro
• Minivan – 2011 Toyota Sienna
• Sub-Compact CUV – 2011 Honda Element
• Sub-Compact Car – 2011 Honda Fit