Food and beverages — and especially beer — continue to rank high in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a national economic indicator of the quality of products and services available to consumers in the U.S.
In the rankings by category, breweries rank first, with a satisfaction score of 85. Food manufacturers and makers of soft drinks in two separate categories — are tied for fourth with a score of 82.
Hershey continues to hold down the top ranking among food companies, its 86 identical to the score it got in the 2017 survey. Dole was the biggest gainer, up 4 points to a score of 85. "After losing ground a year ago, Dole has regained its strength with healthy snacks-to-go and redesigned salad packaging," ACSI surmised.
All the food processors on the list did well, all coming in with scores above 80.
So did soft drink makers, although there was a reversal of the order. A year ago, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. were tied for first with 85s and Dr Pepper had an 82. This year Keurig Dr Pepper scored an 84, Coke had an 81 and Pepsi an 80.
Anheuser-Busch InBev scored an 85, up one point from 2017, and Molson Coors had an 81, down three points. "All other breweries" topped that chart with 86.
If you're curious, Internet Service providers and Subscription Television Service were tied for last place among the 46 product and service categories with a score of 62.
The ACSI Nondurable Products Report 2018 — one of 10 economic sectors — is based on interviews with 5,315 customers, chosen at random and contacted via email between Oct. 2, 2017, and Sept. 28, 2018. Customers are asked to evaluate their experiences with recently purchased products of the largest manufacturers, plus an aggregate category consisting of "all other," and thus smaller, companies in these industries.
ACSI was started by University of Michigan and is licensed to American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC.
