Roy Morgan’s Annual Customer Satisfaction Awards have revealed that First Choice Liquor Market is Australia’s No.1 liquor store for the second year in a row.

Coles Liquor chief executive Darren Blackhurst said: “It’s a great honour and achievement. 2020 was a challenging year for all Australians but I am extremely proud of our team members for consistently delivering outstanding customer service.

“This award win is a fantastic acknowledgement of the exceptional work of the entire First Choice Liquor Market team and I would personally like to thank them for their hard work in making this happen.”

The first Liquor Market store opened in Ringwood, Victoria, as a trial in 2016. Since that time Coles Liquor has been fine-tuning the offering to provide a broader range of products, while retaining a low-cost operating model. In 2018, Coles Liquor decided to combine the best of the Liquor Market offering with First Choice to create First Choice Liquor Market. The new-look First Choice Liquor Market chain, won 2019 Store Design and Fit-Out of the Year at the Australian Retailers Association Retail Awards.

It follows the KPMG Customer Experience Excellence report surveying over 20,000 people globally to evaluate which brands were delivering the top customer service in 2020.

The top three brands for customer experience in Australia, as selected by Australian consumers, were First Choice Liquor Market, IKEA and Afterpay.

Respondents noted that First Choice Liquor Market got it right on product range, availability, value for money and an enjoyable purchase experience led by friendly, cheerful and helpful staff.

The customer satisfaction repeat winners

Of the 40 award winners in Roy Morgan’s 2020 Annual Customer Satisfaction Awards, nearly half are repeat winners backing up from a victory a year ago, while there were 21 new winners including first-time winners Aussie Broadband, Chemist Warehouse, Elgas and Schnitz. First Choice Liquor (Liquor Store of the Year), The Athlete’s Foot (Shoe Store of the Year) and Subway (Major Quick Service Restaurant of the Year) all built on their victories in 2019 to complete back-to-back victories in their respective categories for the first time.

Respondents name the companies they deal with in various categories across more than 30 industries, including Automotive, Banking, Supermarket and Telecommunications, and rate how satisfied they are with them. Monthly Customer Satisfaction winners are cited in each category throughout the year, with the annual award going to the company with the most of these wins.

There were several companies to score a clean sweep of 12 monthly victories during 2020 including first-time winners Aussie Broadband and Health Partners as well as back-to-back 2019 & 2020 winners Myer, The Reject Shop, Powershop, Bunnings Warehouse, Rebel, RAC and Defence Health. Costco also returned to the winners’ circle with an unblemished record in 2020 after last winning the annual award in 2017.

Also performing strongly were the Commonwealth Bank, Autobarn, Newcastle Permanent Building Society, Apple’s iPhone and ahm all of which won at least 10 monthly customer satisfaction awards.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says 2020 has been a year like no other but this hasn’t stopped businesses across the land stepping up to deliver high customer satisfaction to their customers in industries as diverse as finance and insurance, automotive, gas and electricity and even travel:

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic there were several businesses that satisfied their customers at a high level in 2020 with ten businesses winning every monthly customer satisfaction award – a feat that not a single business achieved a year earlier.

“Many businesses, and particularly those in retail and hospitality, faced a major threat to their way of doing business in 2020 as a nation-wide closure early in the year forced many to close – at least temporarily. The good news for the businesses hit hardest with the lockdowns was that they proved effective with most of Australia spending the remainder of 2020 in relative normality compared to the rest of the world.

“The effective strategies of both Federal and State Governments to suppress the virus as well as the hundreds of billions of dollars support pumped into the economy returned the Australian economy to growth and one year after the pandemic began Australia is one of the few countries which now has a larger economy and higher employment than it did pre-pandemic.

“This success has been built on by all the businesses honoured in this year’s Roy Morgan Annual Customer Satisfaction Awards who have thrived despite the adversity of 2020 and can look forward with confidence having satisfied their customers at a higher level than any of their competitors.”

Roy Morgan Annual Customer Satisfaction Awards for 2020

Finance

Retail

Telecommunications

Travel and Tourism

Utilities

Automotive

Impulse buying boom in the off-premise