Hall of Fame

Fielmann retains its leading position in both Austria and Germany and has been one of the pioneers of the omnichannel business model in eye care. In a market that continues to grow steadily year on year, Fielmann has fueled market growth by using carefully defined omnichannel strategies and the application of advanced technology.

It is pioneering three technologies: Fielmann Fit, Fielmann Focus and Fielmann Vision. These three technologies combined will help Fielmann customers to buy glasses also from the online shop and via the app in the future without leaving their home.

Air Bank was founded 10 years ago as one of a new generation of digital and retail banks. It has a strong history of continuous customer-centric innovation being the first Czech bank to launch instant payments.

It was also among the first to make the Apple Pay service available, and is subsequently going on to add Google Pay, Garmin Pay, and Fitbit Pay. It launched multi-banking and linked this system with all other major banks.

In 2021, Air Bank deployed the first banking app that could be voice-controlled in the Czech Republic. It was also one of the first banks in the Czech Republic to offer banking identity, or BankID, as a means of facilitating communication with the public and commercial sectors.

Parc Asterix was a new addition to the French index this year and immediately took the top position. It is a playground for innovations where immersion, digitalization, and experience are the watchwords.

Now celebrating over 30 years in operation, it is a theme park based on the cartoon stories of the Adventures of Asterix. In recent years it has extended its status as a destination by adding themed hotels.

The park gets 2 million visitors a year. Introducing virtual queuing it has overcome one of the key pain points in a theme park, making customer visits much easier and less stressful.

As the leading brand in three markets, Apple Store shows that its unique approach to its customers transcends local geographies. Apple Store’s secret sauce is an unrivalled commitment to building strong customer relationships. Its stores are more about enriching customers’ lives than simply selling them things.

While in the factory they build world leading products, and in the store they sell expertise. It is its people rather than the products that make the difference.

Taj employees strive to consistently deliver “Tajness,“ a signature customer experience where employees are encouraged to put customer needs above everything else and ensure that the Taj experience exceeds anything they may have encountered elsewhere.

There are many that describe Taj Hotels as the best customer service company in the world. They aspire to achieve customer delight in every guest interaction. The staff — whether in housekeeping, at the restaurants, or room service — all perform random acts of kindness that leave the customer surprised, pleased, and cared for.

This bank is very focused on NPS and uses it to drive great experiences along the end-to-end customer journey. The bank is keen to exceed customer expectations in key moments that matter, such as onboarding, dealing with complex acquisitions, acquires and responding rapidly to fraud.

The bank’s digital strategy is an aspirational one, seeking to position itself as the leader in digital financial services, believing that a continuous expansion in digital capabilities is key to growing its customer base and extending the customer support ecosystem.

Customer engagement is a critical factor, which means understanding and adapting quickly to changing customer behavior.

Credit Union Ireland continues to hold its top market index position. A mutual organization, it is owned by its members and is run for their benefit. It has a non-profit ethos. Its starting point, therefore, is customer orientated; it is based on a philosophy of people helping people.

Every interaction is an opportunity to show that they really care about every member who walks through their door, picks up the phone, or sends them an email.

Credit unions feature in every town and village in Ireland, an essential financial mainstay to equip members with the financial wherewithal to improve their lives. They help fund local community groups, improving the facilities that serve local people.

Once again Tokyo Disney Resort leads the Japan index. Tokyo Disney Resort is one of the world’s most popular themed resorts, and is made up of two Disney theme parks: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, and was the first Disney Park to be built outside the United States.

This year, these two theme parks celebrated their 800 millionth visitors. Since its opening in 1983, Tokyo Disney Resort has been a commercial success and fan favorite.

The resort continues to improve customer experiences by initiating daily attendance limits that reduce overcrowding and help to better manage resources and staffing, and introduced Disney Premier Access, a reservation system that provides guests with the convenience of reserving certain park attractions by using an app.

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is an Islamic bank based in Malaysia that has been in operation since July 1983. Bank Islam was established primarily to assist the financial needs of the country's Muslim population and has since extended its services to the broader population. It is the largest provider of Shariah- compliant financial products and services in the country.

It is focused on implementing its LEAP25 Strategy, which is designed to transform the bank into the champion in Sharia-compliant environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, with leadership in digital banking and social finance.

Digital transformation is a core pillar of the bank's strategy and in the past year, it’s leveraged digital channels to expand its reach and improve convenience.

NuBank has a singular brand promise: to offer, transparent, easy to understand and hassle-free banking. It empowers its employees to deliver “WoW“ service — looking to ensure the customer is always more than just satisfied with any experience they have through outstanding customer service. Its service is defined by four pillars, Anticipation, Solving, Caring, and Training.

NuBank launched in Brazil in 2013 with a mission to redefine people’s relationship with money through simple, mobile-first banking and credit card services. It is obsessive about customer experience, and this permeates everything they do.

WoW moments occur when bank personnel go off script and empathize with customers, making a real connection.

Mighty Ape is New Zealand’s top scorer in this year’s index. It is an online retail store, founded and operated in New Zealand and famed for being the country’s coolest online store.

Mighty Ape started life as a retailer selling gaming products, but with mixed success. It moved fully online in 2007. Since then, it has expanded its product range to include books, music, toys, and collectibles and more recently has expanded into household items to become New Zealand’s biggest online store.

It has grown its business on amazing customer service and overnight delivery anywhere in New Zealand — with same day service in major cities.

Keurslager continues to be ranked at the top of The Netherlands index. It is a fresh meat and deli retailer, where food is showcased and its craftmanship and passion are presented in a way that excites and inspires.

The company is fixated on the quality of its product with strict controls and hygiene processes governing every aspect of product presentation and delivery.

It is this passion for the product that is evident in every store and every interaction that sets Keurslager apart.

GCash is mobile money or “e-money” that allows customers to pay bills, send or receive money, buy mobile data, shop online, book movie tickets, and more with the use of their smartphone. Through a “mobile wallet,” customers get to do all these transactions anytime and anywhere without the need to withdraw money.

It has grown to over 60 million mobile wallet users in the Philippines, and has economically empowered its community and small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a strong focus on the Voice of the Customer, GCash continuously drives customer experience success and approaches challenges as growth opportunities, leveraging technology innovations and the power of data and insights.

The Bringo delivery platform is now present in over 30 Romanian cities. It provides a personal shopping experience through a mobile app. It was recently acquired by Carrefour but has had a strategic partnership there for five years.

Bringo aspires towards personalizing the shopping experience in a way that is as flexible and efficient as possible, adapted to the dynamic lifestyle of its customers, while maintaining the guarantees of quality.

It is focused on removing the pain of shopping for specific segments. There are customers who are driven by need or want for products they forgot to buy when at the store. They also have customers for whom it’s simply impossible to go shopping, such as mothers with babies, differently abled customers, or people with reduced mobility.

For customers in Saudi Arabia, global hotel chain Hilton topped their list of excellent companies. With the Hilton Riyadh getting five-star reviews from every customer, it sets a very high standard across the kingdom.

Its success has come from thinking about all the micro moments they have with customers where they’re experiencing the Hilton brand and how they can be harnessed to create the maximum positive impact.

Every aspect of the customer journey is forensically examined from dreaming and shopping, to booking and staying at the property.

Book seller Martinus retains its top ranking in Slovakia. They describe their customer experience as shaped by the following principles: Passion — because we love what we do. Personal approach — because we want to understand each other even though we are completely different. Wow effect — because we deliberately do little things that together create a unique experience. Strive for improvement — because we appreciate curiosity, initiative, and progress.

The “Martinus spirit” permeates everything the company does. When updating their online website recently Martinus was guided by a strongly articulated customer outcome. It needed to be a website that acts like a good librarian and leads customers to what they’re looking for, always advises with empathy and expertise, and helps with any additional requirements.

Din Tai Fung started as a storefront eatery and has now become one of the most successful privately owned restaurants, with more than 170 locations in 13 countries around the world, including the U.S. In Taiwan it serves 18,000 customer every day from 11 locations.

At any given location, time, or day of the week, there is always a long line of customers waiting outside of Din Tai Fung, eager to taste its dim sum-style menu.

The owner and CEO, Yang Ji Hua is very hands on. Over the past four decades Yang has devoted his attention to refining every detail, from the quality of their dishes to plating, cleanliness, employee training, and customer service.

Prudential Thailand sets out its ambition to deliver the “best possible experience to all customers” and its stated purpose is “helping Thai people get the most out of life.”

Many Thai customers experience Prudential through the relationship the company has as a provider of insurance and protection products via their employer.

Prudential has made significant investments in using digital technology to enhance the customer experience as they focus on health and well-being, creating an entire eco system of products and support materials that can be tailored by each individual to their own unique needs.

Emirates has earned a strong reputation around the world for its innovations and customer centricity. It has kept its top spot in the UAE index and leads in all Six Pillars. The airline is known for providing excellent assistance throughout the customer journey—from searching for flights, ticketing, and rescheduling to check-in, lounges, and in-flight service.

Many customers have appreciated the ability to rebook without fees during the pandemic. The airline also introduced new ways for Emirates Skywards members to earn miles, and extend miles expiration dates and tier status during this time.

Emirates is focused on listening to customer feedback and implementing change where needed. It has recently invested heavily in addressing an area in which clients asked to see improvement: food menus and variety.

Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality, smart health-tech, AI doctors, and at-home blood tests. The healthcare industry is set to undergo a transformation, powered by technology that ultimately gives patients better outcomes and greater accessibility and Pharmacy2U is at the vanguard of this movement.

With the adoption of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), managing long-term prescriptions and tracking patient adherence can now be done online. Pharmacy2U, which is the founding partner to the NHS in the launch of the EPS, is focused on removing the hassle usually associated with prescriptions by centrally dispensing millions of medications a month.

The company liaises with physicians, centrally dispenses medication via free delivery, and reminds the patient when their next pills are due.

For 13 years, USAA has continually been in a top spot in our US index. Its commitment to outstanding member service, innovation, and customer centricity, all at significantly lower cost to comparable organizations, sets it apart.

USAA is a future-ready financial service and insurance company. It constantly evaluates new technology and finds new use cases to improve the customer experience.

It rebuilt its enterprise IT architecture to facilitate customer life events and journeys some 10 years ago, adding to its existing flexible technology ecosystem. The company’s response to the pandemic was to accelerate its digital roadmap and use the pandemic as an innovation incubator, finding new ways to serve its members in a rapidly evolving world.

• Launching its behavior-based app SafePilot in the majority of states in 2021, enabling more members to save up to 30% off their auto insurance policies through safe driving. SafePilot provides members more control over their cost of insurance by creating personalized pricing and more opportunity for saving.

• HOVER, an app that enables smartphones to capture exterior measurements and derive 3D models of a home from a series of images. The traditional inspection process can take hours for a trained adjuster but with HOVER technology can be completed in minutes.

• Wi-Fi Water Leak Detector in home. These devices can be installed near appliances and if a leak is detected, the user is alerted.

• A pilot where field adjusters were given augmented reality (AR)-enabled glasses that enabled their managers to see what the adjusters were seeing and give real-time feedback during physical inspections

• Machine learning to digitize paper medical records and build summaries for applicable life insurance underwriting. This results in a significant reduction in time; where manual summaries took up to five days, machine learning has reduced to one day with improved accuracy.

Like most countries, Vietnam has experienced a substantial boom in ecommerce. Accelerated by the pandemic, home delivery has become a major feature of Asian commerce.

In response, FedEx launched the “FedEx Delivery Manager” which allows e-merchants to provide their customers with the ability to customize their FedEx Express deliveries. For example, their customers can choose delivery options such as rescheduling delivery time or location, an added convenience for small and medium businesses, at no extra cost. FedEx Delivery Manager plays an essential role in delivering a smooth last-mile delivery.

FedEx has a long history in Vietnam and has a strong reputation for innovation and customer service. Fueled by its global Purple Promise to “strive to make every customer’s experience outstanding,” FedEx is recognizing and rewarding employees who bring this promise to life and do great things for customers.