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Who's doing it right: 2007 Copernican Award finalists
Apr 18, 2007
A couple of weeks ago I promised a list of companies that are "doing it right" - organizations that understand the value and unassailable competitive advantage of a good customer experience. Now is the time to list them.
Every year, the members of the Customer Experience Councils (a cross-industry, peer-learning network run by my consulting firm, Creative Good) nominate companies they think best exemplify the main idea of customer-centered business: the organization revolves around the customer, not the other way around.
The Council members then vote on nominated companies to determine the winners of the (appropriately named) Copernican Awards, for "companies that put the customer at the center of their business universe."
This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list (especially since many outstanding companies have been spotlighted in previous years), but rather a set of just a few exemplary companies that Council members have noticed this year.
We'll announce the winners tonight in New York City, but for the moment, here are the finalists of the 2007 Copernican Awards:
Large category finalists (a billion or more in revenue):
• Newegg, an online e-commerce company
• USAA, a global financial services company
• Whole Foods Market, seller of natural and organic food
Medium category (a hundred million or more in revenue):
• Endeca, a software services company
• NYTimes.com, the online arm of the New York Times
• Shutterfly, an online photo service
• Thomas Pink, a retailer of shirts and other products
Small category (less than a hundred million in revenue):
• Angie's List, an online ratings service
• Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing service
• The Motley Fool, a provider of investment and financial content
• Pandora, an online radio service
These are all companies that are succeeding by focusing on the customer experience. Next time you need an example or two to show about "who's doing it right," check out these (and past years') Copernican finalists.
I am a Motley Fool customer and while they have solid investing advice, they pump too many "offers" and innundate my email box trying to push me to buy investment newsletters. NOT a great customer experience.
I'd go with Whole Foods - doesn't get any better than that.
I hate Angie's List. The last person I trust to recognize quality work on a house is the homeowner (myself included). Rarely are any companies given below a B, making the grading system useless, and there's no incentive whatsoever for Angie's List subscribers to provide feedback. Angie's List charges you to sign up, a monthly subscription fee, and then expects you to also spend time filling in their forms so that their site is worthwhile (basically, they're making all sorts of money off of subscriber's labor - what a ripoff). If I ran their show, I'd give a discount/not charge for monthly dues to subscribers who submit reviews of companies.
USAA recently announced that, due to rate increase restrictions being imposed by Florida, it will be dropping certain types of policies. While they seem to be trying to make more of a compromise than fellow low-cost insurer AFIE, this decision is angering some longtime customers. It will be interesting to see how a customer-focused company will handle such a delicate situation in a state with a strong military-family presence.
( Pensacola News Journal article: http://tinyurl.com/36ehnd )
Not Angie's list. Roofer got an A rating after having received 2 F's out of 13 responses. Mine was a 3rd and he still retained his A rating.
I have been actively using USAA for financial services in the last several years, and their Web site is very useful. I can easily get account balances, and I can change the mix of my IRA investment funds online. Every now and then there used to be something I couldn't figure out how to do on the Web site, but for the last two years, I haven't had any trouble, so they may have improved the site. When you get them on the phone, the quality is top notch. I've never had such a consistent good customer experience anywhere else.