The 15 Most Disliked Companies in America
The most disliked companies in America once again include airlines, utilities and banks, according to the latest cycle of ratings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Service industries typically score worse than manufacturing because of limited competition and the difficulty of interacting with customers.
"Where companies have little or no competition or where customers encounter barriers to switching among competitors in terms of cost and/or convenience, companies may not need to satisfy their customers to the same degree in order to keep them," ACSI's David VanAmburg says.
This opens an opportunity for some companies like JetBlue, however, that can excel in unpopular industries.
ACSI's customer satisfaction rating has been shown to be strongly related to financial performance.
[Related: Small business advocate finds middle ground]
The biggest gainers this year include Pepco rebounding 28% after a significant infrastructure overhaul; and Delta rising 16% after working the kinks out of the Northwest merger. The biggest losers include Northeast Utilities and Long Island Power Authority which plunged after power outages during massive storms.
#1 Long Island Power Authority
Rated 58/100. Seven point decline from last year.
#2 Northeast Utilities
Rated 59/100. 16-point decline from last year.
#3 Charter Communications
Rated 59/100. The worst TV company.
#4 Comcast (Television service)
Rated 61/100. The second-worst TV service.
#5 United Airlines
Rated 62/100. The worst big airline.
#6 Time Warner
Rated 63/100. A four-point improvement from last year.
#7 Cox Communications (Television Service)
Rated 63/100. Four-point decline from last year.
#8 American Airlines
Rated 64/100. The second-worst big airline.
#9 US Airways
65/100. Four point improvement from last year.
#10 Delta
Rated 65/100. Nine-point improvement from last year.
#11 CenturyLink
Rated 66/100. Four points worse than last year. The worst fixed line telephone company.
#12 Facebook
Rated 66/100.
#13 Aetna
Rated 67/100. The worst health care provider.
#14 DirectTV
Rated 68/100. Actually one of the higher scoring companies in an unpopular industry.
#15 Bank of America
Rated 68/100. The worst big bank.
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