Colmar Brunton spoke to 2,000 Kiwis and asked them if they had a particularly good experience at a supermarket in the past year, or a particularly negative one. Some 42 per cent of shoppers at New World reported a positive experience, outweighing negative experiences (7 per cent) by a ratio of six to one. That leaves the supermarket operator with a Nett Experience Score of 35, compared with a score of 25 for Countdown, 20 for Pak'nSave, 15 for Four Square, 13 for Foodtown and Woolworths with a score of 10.

The slot will identify the best provider of customer service in categories such as banking, airlines, telecommunications, power companies and real estate firms. The next Fair Go-Colmar Brunton Best in Service Poll will focus on home appliance stores; the segment will screen on Wednesday, May 25, on TVOne at 7:30pm.

Colmar Brunton has conducted, at its own expense, comprehensive customer experience surveys in 2005, 2006 and 2010. The most recent survey showed that the personal customer experience in New Zealand has improved in the past five years, mainly because of a significant reduction in particularly bad customer experiences.

ENDS