If you’ve had to call in to a customer service line over the past year or two, then you probably had the displeasure of being placed on hold—likely for far longer than you’d care to wait.
Hold times over the last several years have increased drastically, with one expert estimating that they have as much as tripled in length since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline, banking, and telecom industries rank among the worst for hold times, with Delta, Verizon, and Bank of America being some of the worst offenders. In fact, just a couple of months ago, one Delta customer reported hold times of up to 12 hours.
There are a few key factors driving this increase in hold times, including customer service staffing shortages, increased turnover rate, and chattier customers dialing in.
Excessive hold times aren’t just bad for customers either. One study reveals that overly long hold times can be detrimental to businesses as they make customers feel unappreciated and that their time is not valued.
To that end, we wanted to know just how well some of the United States’ largest companies rank for customer satisfaction. We looked at a selection of online reviews for 50 U.S. companies, selecting ten each across five different sectors (retail, banking, airlines, healthcare, and telecom), and then ranked them based on their average scores across a range of review platforms.
Take a look and see how these companies rate with their customers. And for telecom solutions with advanced features to help you reduce hold times and reach your customers all over the world, explore our range of virtual phone numbers.
The complete findings are as follows:
Retail Industry Rating
| Walmart | 2.7 |
| Amazon | 2.7 |
| Costco | 2.8 |
| The Home Depot | 2.5 |
| Kroger | 2.1 |
| Walgreens | 2.5 |
| Target | 2.4 |
| CVS | 1.6 |
| Lowes | 2.5 |
| Albertsons | 2.6 |
| Average | 2.4 |
Banking Industry Ratings
| JP Morgan Chase | 2.2 |
| Bank of America | 2.1 |
| Wells Fargo | 2.2 |
| Citigroup | 2.2 |
| 5/3 Bank | 2.1 |
| PNC | 2.1 |
| Truist | 1.8 |
| Goldman Sachs | 3.3 |
| TD Ameritrade | 2.3 |
| Capital One | 2.2 |
| Average | 2.2 |
Airline Industry Ratings
| American Airlines | 2.2 |
| Delta Airlines | 2.5 |
| United Airlines | 2.2 |
| Southwest Airlines | 2.1 |
| Alaska Airlines | 2.8 |
| Spirit Airlines | 1.9 |
| JetBlue Airlines | 2.2 |
| Frontier Airlines | 2.7 |
| Allegiant Airlines | 1.5 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 2.4 |
| Average | 2.2 |
Healthcare Industry Ratings
| United Health Group | 2 |
| Anthem | 2.5 |
| Centene | 3.2 |
| Humana | 2.6 |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield | 1.9 |
| Highmark | 2.1 |
| Molina | 2 |
| Cigna | 2.3 |
| Kaiser Permanente | 1.7 |
| CVS | 2.2 |
| Average | 2.2 |
Telecom Industry Ratings
| AT&T | 2.1 |
| Verizon | 1.9 |
| Xfinity | 2.5 |
| T-Mobile | 1.9 |
| Spectrum (Charter) | 1.8 |
| U.S. Cellular | 2 |
| Cox Communications | 2.1 |
| Altice USA | 2.1 |
| Frontier Communications | 1.8 |
| Windstream Communications | 2.9 |
| Average | 2.1 |
Methods:
The data used in this study was found by calculating the average customer rating scores for the selected companies on the review platforms Trust Pilot, Consumer Affairs, Site Jabber, Reviews.io, and BBB.
