Revealed: NZ's top brands for customer experience

AA Insurance topped the rankings on customer experience. Photo / 123RF

AA Insurance has topped an annual rundown of the best brands for customer experience, according to Kiwis.

The Kantar Customer Leadership index, a culmination of a survey of more than 2000 New Zealanders, annually ranks brands according to their service delivery, customer centricity and offer excellence.

To be at the top of the index means having to perform exceptionally well at all these aspects, says Kantar NZ managing director David Thomas.

This year, AA Insurance pipped Kiwibank and ASB to sit atop a pile of 50 brands operating in the local market.

AA Insurance chief executive Chris Curtin attributes the ranking to the organisation's commitment to delivering on what it promises customers.

"Marketing is very expensive, so you need to make sure that you can deliver what you say. Otherwise, your advertising just becomes a very expensive work of fiction."

Curtin says that good customer experience is delivered only when the whole company buys into what the business is trying to achieve.

"We have 800 people serving half a million customers, so the challenge is delivering on our promises consistently across the business," says Curtin.

This challenge has only become more complex with the proliferation of online means of communication, which now see customers engaging with brands across numerous touchpoints. And this is particularly challenging in an industry like insurance that customers only engage with when things go wrong.

"Kantar's recognition is really a validation of the hard work our team of 800 does every day," says Curtin.

AA Insurance wasn't the only insurer to appear on the list, with Southern Cross coming in at five and State coming in at seven.

Online retailer Mighty Ape came fourth overall and was the highest-ranking retailer of any type, while New World came in ninth and was the highest predominantly offline retailer.

Kantar's Thomas said online retailers tend to do better than offline retailers at being clear in their offer, being easy and fast to buy from and offering good prices, while offline retailers perform better than online at being flexible, rectifying issues and providing memorable experiences.

"The retailer who can best combine the responsiveness and personal touch of an offline retailer with the ease, speed and fair value of online will have a strong competitive advantage," Thomas said.

Thomas also added that uniqueness played an integral role in letting customers know what a brand is actually trying to achieve.

"It's clear from our data that three of the top brands in our ranking – AA Insurance, Kiwibank and Air New Zealand – are both meaningful and different. Customers understand what makes them unique, and that uniqueness strikes a powerful chord with customers. Other brands do well but not at both parts," says Thomas.

"Meaningfully different brands, that also offer a customer experience that matches the brand promise, have superior customer retention and desire to use more."