The multiyear customer satisfaction trend for retailers, both traditional brick-and-mortar and online, has been increasing steadily and is currently at an all-time high. The most recent ACSI study in 2012 had the average rating for retail companies peaking at 76.6 on a 100-point scale. Online retailers often enjoy much higher customer satisfaction numbers with an average rating of 82 in the same study.
Many of the companies have historically low performance numbers such as The Gap and Sears. According to 24/7 Wall St. "Walmart has been the lowest-rated department or discount store in the nation every year between 2007 through 2012. Worse, it has been the lowest-rated supermarket every year since 2005." This isn't exactly new information for most of the retailers on the list. The customer satisfaction score for Netflix however is new since the company outperformed the average score for Internet retailers for four years.
While online retailers historically outperform their brick-and-mortar rivals, traditional stores still account for the majority of sales. If there is one take away from the survey it's that change consumer perception can be an uphill battle and it doesn't take much to damage a stellar reputation. Netflix has recently made a few stumbles and has paid the price accordingly.