• by Val Brickates Kennedy , March 4, 2014

The way to a customer's heart is through their stomach, apparently.

According to an annual survey by Waban, Mass.-based Temkin Group, grocery stores and fast-food chains ranked highest in providing positive customer experiences while health care insurers and telecom providers were lowest.

The big winners of the 2014 Temkin Experience Ratings Survey were Trader Joe's, H.E.B., Publix, ALDI, Food Lion, Kroger, Sam's Club and Piggly Wiggly. Other favorites were fast-food emporiums Chick-fil-A, Dairy Queen and Starbucks. Credit unions also fared well.

The big losers? Coventry Health Care, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Highmark BlueCross BlueShield, Medicaid and U.S. Cellular. 

Forty-eight percent of the companies included in both the 2013 and 2014 surveys showed improvement -- namely EarthLink, Morgan Stanley, Humana and Capital One. Steepest decliners, year-over-year, were Coventry Health Care, U.S. Cellular, Marriott, Fifth Third Bank and Chrysler. 

The Temkin study surveyed 10,000 customers about their experiences with 268 companies in 19 industries.