Who else but the consumer, the people who use the products and services, understands which companies are best?
In announcing its first-ever Buyer’s Choice Awards, ConsumerAffairs employed an advanced sentence-by-sentence analysis of high-integrity consumer reviews – posted at ConsumerAffairs – to uncover the brands that earned the highest rates of positive feelings from purchasers.
Each review analyzed for the 2024 Buyer’s Choice Awards was conducted by phone interview or detailed questionnaire in 2023. To calculate the winners, ConsumerAffairs then conducted “emotional decoding,” or sentiment analysis, of eligible reviews, using a customized Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool. Experienced auditors confirmed the accuracy of the sentiment analysis.
“We decoded millions of reviews to learn what aspects of each industry’s particular buying journey made the biggest emotional difference to purchasers,” said Zac Carman, CEO of ConsumerAffairs.
Of the five awards in the home warranty category, for example, three were pinpointed by review analysis as specific preoccupations of home warranty customers: Best Technicians, Best Coverage Options, and Best Claims Handling.
“That’s what makes these awards unique,” Carman said. “Each award recognizes one super-important need for customers in that category and the companies that best fulfill it.”
Each quarter in 2024, ConsumerAffairs will announce Buyer’s Choice Awards in new categories and use its website to flag the winning companies with a signature badge designed to guide consumers in need to trusted companies. The initial five categories with winners are:
Home Warranties
Industry pioneer American Home Shield was the only home warranty company to win all three of those Buyer’s Choice Awards plus the industry’s awards for Best Customer Service and Best Value for Price.
Solar
In the Solar category, reviews of solar purchasing platform SunPower earned it the Buyer’s Choice Awards for Best Customer Service and Best Value for Price. But the company also was recognized for Best for Installation, which review contents revealed as the second most critical emotional difference-maker to solar customers.
Debt Relief
In the Debt Relief category, Accredited Debt Relief, National Debt Relief and Freedom Debt Relief each won for Best Customer Service as well as Best Experience with Staff and Best for Transparency, two awards that speak to customers’ need for a high-touch, trustworthy relationship with their debt relief company.
Personal Loans
Among personal loan lenders, Best Egg, Net Credit, and Achieve Personal Loans each won for Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, and Best Loan Process, an award triggered by how important that aspect is to personal loan shoppers.
Stairlifts
Among companies providing stairlifts, Bruno Independent Living Aids and Stannah Stairlifts, were singled out for Best Customer Service, Best for Installation, and Best Experience with Staff; and Arrow Lift, for Best for Installation and Best Experience with Staff.
You can check out the full results here.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-01-04 20:09:14
