Costco claims top spot in customer satisfaction scores

Aussies sure do love their discount stores from Kmart and Aldi to Best & Less, but this year it’s Costco that has taken home the top position for its fantastic customer service.

New research released by Roy Morgan has shown the massive warehouse store is the one to beat, nudging over its major competitors Target and Kmart by the most minuscule of percentages.

Over a period of one month Costco and other discount stores across the country were put under the microscope as thousands of regular shoppers analysed their overall experience. This involved in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 Australians in their own homes, including over 9,000 interviews with people who shop at a discount department store in an average four weeks.

In the end Costco took home the top prize with a customer satisfaction of a whopping 88.6 per cent. However, the others weren’t too far behind with Target coming in second at 88.5 per cent and Kmart following closely on 88.4 per cent. Rounding off the top five were Big W and Best & Less with scores of 86.7 and 86.4 per cent respectively.

This was a big win for Costco as the store boosted its previous score by 1.7 per cent since the last survey, while Best & Less and Target also made improvements, rising 1.8 and 1.5 per cent.

According to Roy Morgan Chief Executive Officer Michele Levine, Costco’s success comes only shortly after the store revealed new plans that could launch them further ahead of competitors.

“Costco’s victory in July comes as the American retailer has unveiled plans for an ambitious expansion with a huge new distribution centre set to open in Sydney’s west next year signalling an expanded online retail presence,” she explained.

“The focus on customers resulting in high customer satisfaction ratings of leading discount department stores show that Costco, Kmart, Target, Big W and others are taking the threat posed by online retailer Amazon seriously. Amazon recently become only the second company to top a market capitalisation of $1 trillion.”

Read more: Aldi named Australia’s most trusted brand in surprising top 10 list

Drawing on the importance of trust and dependability between retailers and their customers, Levine paid special mention to Aldi. The German discount supermarket chain has consistently been named as one of Australia’s most trusted brands.

Claiming the hearts of the young and old, Aldi even bumped airline Qantas out of the top position in the Roy Morgan survey released in July.

Measuring reliability, customer focus, knowledgable staff, ease of contact and previous good experiences with the company, the 4,000 Australians surveyed undeniably showed their support for the foreign-owned supermarket.

What are your thoughts on the latest survey results? Do you shop at Costco?