• by Val Brickates Kennedy , May 21, 2014

Temkin Group has released its annual customer service survey, and the winner is.....

USAA. By a long shot.

The financial group, which caters to military personnel and their families, claimed three of the top 12 positions, with its banking group ranked No. 1 for customer service. USAA's insurance unit shared the No. 2 slot with Amazon.com, while its credit card division finished in the top 12. 

Also making it into the top 12 were Chick-fil-A, Publix, H-E-B, Starbucks, Costco, QVC and Trader Joe's. 

While USAA scored a triple, Comcast struck out, landing at the bottom of the list. Comcast's rivals didn't fare much better. Of the bottom 13 positions, six were taken by telecom companies, including Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Verizon, Qwest and Cablevision. Also in the basement: health plan providers Highmark, Coventry Health Care and CareFirst, along with credit card issuer HSBC and US Airways.

Several industries showed marked improvement in their ratings over last year's survey,  particularly investment firms, credit card issuers and insurance carriers. Most improved companies were Humana, Cox Communications, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Apple Store, TD Ameritrade, American Family, KFC, Hyundai and Food Lion.  

Biggest decliners from last year? Coventry Health Care, ACE Hardware, Staples and Fifth Third.

Temkin said the rankings were based on feedback from 10,000 customers on 233 companies across 19 industries.