House of Travel flies to top of Kantar’s Customer Leadership Index 

House of Travel is number one in this year’s annual Kantar Customer Leadership Index. It’s New Zealand’s leading ranking of the best brands for customer experience, compiled by data, insights and consulting company Kantar. 

Toyota and Powershop came in second and third, with AA Insurance and Mitre 10 rounding out the top 5. 

To create the index, Kantar surveyed 2,500 New Zealanders about their opinions of 70 of New Zealand’s top brands in banking and insurance, online shopping, retail and grocery, media and entertainment, travel, telecommunications, energy and car repair. 

This is the fifth year the Kantar Customer Leadership Index has been calculated. It covers all aspects of the customer experience including service delivery, customer-centricity, brand clarity and offer excellence. 

House of Travel’s success is testament to how the brand has focused on making customers feel valued. 

Celeste Ryall, Customer Engagement Director at House of Travel, told Kantar: “Since its inception 37 years ago, House of Travel has prioritised value creation. House of Travel retail stores are 50% owned and operated in partnership with House of Travel Holdings. This model ensures trust, commitment, communication and drives our customer-first approach.” 

Kantar New Zealand’s Chief Commercial Officer, David Thomas, says: “Our top 10 brands, really excelled this year – often by leveraging one important strength into leadership across a number of related areas. They show the great benefit of having a clear proposition and consistently delivering to it – what we think of as meaningfully different experiences.”

Strength in more than one area

The brands in the top 10 tend to be strong at more than just one thing. House of Travel have a strong voice of customer programme, and locally owned stores are connected to the communities they operate in. This empowers House of Travel as a group to understand their customers’ needs, desires and challenges. It drives them to continuously strive to improve their customers’ experience and refine their products and service across every touchpoint. 

Thomas notes that House of Travel’s focus on delivering high-value experiences and products has resulted in strong customer loyalty – and continues to attract new customers. 

“In an industry increasingly shaped by technology, House of Travel embraces digital innovation not to replace human connection but to elevate it and enhance customer experience.” 

The link between brand and customer experience 

Thomas says: “By using Kantar’s new Meaningfully Different experiences analytical framework, we have seen that the leading brands are often leading due to their performance on the ‘difference’ part of Meaningful Difference.”

He breaks this difference into three parts: 

1. Authentic – being consistent, fair and transparent, and being true to the expectations of your brand. 
2. Unique – being distinctive, and offering something your clients can’t get elsewhere.
3. Inspiring – offering magical moments, that delight with the unexpected, and going above and beyond where it matters.

These are the aspects that can be harder to implement consistently, but that allow brands to stand out and prosper. 

Kiwis seek truly personal, personalised and flexible service 

In the wake of the cost of living crisis, brands that excel go beyond a strong value-based offer, says Thomas. They connect with their customers at a deeper level, demonstrating true customer understanding and ensuring their offer is tuned to meet those needs. 

“One of the most notable aspects of this year’s Index is that scores have gone down overall. What is most fascinating is that – as we hopefully come out of a cost of living crisis – higher order dimensions of customer service, relating to the ‘difference’ part of our Meaningfully Different experiences framework, are driving the decline,” says Thomas. 

“This suggests customers may be reframing their expectations of what good looks like, and starting to go beyond pure value-based considerations into more personalised and flexible aspects when they assess brands.” 

The top 10 ranked brands

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