Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
J.D. Power recently released its 2022 U.S. Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction StudySM, which measures customer satisfaction through five factors: staff and service, in-store experience, merchandise, online experience and price. Despite supply chain challenges and other COVID-19-related issues, the study shows that customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers has never been higher.
“Despite the countless challenges home improvement retailers have faced during the past two years, we’re seeing all-time high levels of customer satisfaction,” says Christina Cooley, director of the home and retail intelligence practice at J.D. Power. “Peeling back the layers to better understand this phenomenon, the stand-out performers in this year’s study are differentiating themselves from the competition and driving scores higher by nailing down the formula for helpful staff and great customer service.”
Based on a 1,000-point scale, the study is based on responses from 2,114 customers who have purchased home improvement-related products from a home improvement retailer in the last year. Overall customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers in 2022 is 849, which is 22 points higher than the 2021 study. The average wait time has increased to 6.1 minutes in 2022 from 5.6 minutes in 2021, with the highest-performing retailers assisting customers in less than five minutes.
The study has also highlighted that staff and service metrics are the driving metrics setting retailers apart from each other, while price satisfaction metrics were similar across the board.
The final results of the study are below:
- Ace Hardware: 869
- Lowe’s: 849
- Menards: 849
Ace Hardware ranks highest in customer satisfaction among home improvement retailers for the 15th time in 16 years, but the big box stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot see the biggest year-over-year gains in customer satisfaction.
Discover how customer service has evolved since COVID-19 here.
