Companies we love in 8 industries we hate

A trip to the bank doesn't have to be a nightmare. Here are the customer service winners in eight industries that customers hate, from airlines to cable companies.

8. Airports

Hannah Foslien/AP/File
A passenger makes a phone call while checking on her flight status at Minneapolis St. Paul International airport in Minneapolis in this 2009 file photo. With its wide variety of restaurants and shopping options, MSP isn't a bad place to be stuck during a long layover.

Winner: Minneapolis-St. Paul International

Honorable mention (most on time): Salt Lake City International, Seattle Tacoma International

Travel and Leisure conducted a rigorous airport satisfaction survey in June 2012, evaluating 22 major US airports on categories including punctuality, design, amenities, food and drink, check-in and security, and location. The winner? Minneapolis-St Paul International, which T+L readers gave top marks for shopping (it has its own mall!), food options (18 full-service restaurants!), service, and security.  

MSP is a great place to be stuck during a layover, or the ever-likely Minnesota snowstorm. But for punctual flying, the top-performing airports are Salt Lake City International (for North American airports) and Seattle Tacoma International (for major international airports, according to FlightStats’ annual on-time service awards for airports and carriers. )

Source: Travel + Leisure, FlightStats 2011

8 of 8

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.