PAG Study Shows Southwest Flying High in Customers' Minds
Just when you thought the kudos bestowed upon Southwest Airlines may have come to a halt, the company comes out on top in a recent report on customer satisfaction released by the Public Affairs Group.
PAG's research shows customer satisfaction is linked to training employees as customer-service advocates and devising proprietary customer-interaction systems. The PAG report was culled from an ongoing program, "Best Practices in Corporate Communications," based on roundtables, conference calls and research conducted by PAG.
Making the customer service PAG list are:
- Airlines: Southwest
- Apparel: Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, VF, Reebok and Nike
- Auto: Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Saturn, Subaru and Ford
- Beverage: Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes
- Consumer Electronics: Zenith, Philips, Sony and Sanyo
- Financial Services: AG Edwards, MBNA and Visa
- Food Processing: Heinz and Hershey
- Gasoline: Amoco
- Hospitality: Disney, Promus/Ritz Carlton, Marriott and Hyatt
- Mail Delivery: UPS and Federal Express
- Manufacturing Overall: GE and Maytag
- Media: Gannett
- Personal Care: P&G and Clorox
- Personal Computer: Hewlett-Packard and Dell
- Personal Insurance: USAA, State Farm and Allstate
- Retailing: Nordstrom, WalMart and J.C. Penney
- Supermarkets: Publix and Meijers
- Telecommunications: SBC, Ameritech and AT&T
- Utilities: American Electric Power, Southern and Duke Energy. (PAG, 202/463-3766)
Counselors Rate Ethics A High Priority
A survey of 250 Counselors Academy members shows that 100 percent of agency executives feel that an ethical culture strengthens their agencies' internal and external image. The study was done by Hermanoff & Associates, Inc., Farmington Hill, Mich.
One-third responded to the fax survey and results were recently announced at the Counselor's Academy conference in Palm Springs, Calif. The survey also shows that 98.5 percent of PR agency employees place ethical behavior high on their priority lists for effective day-to-day professional conduct. (H&A, 248/851-3993)