J.D. Power measures home improvement satisfaction

The 2021 U.S. Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study measures customer satisfaction with home. improvement retailers by examining five factors (in alphabetical order): in-store experience; merchandise; online experience; price; and staff and service.

The study is based on responses from 2,172 customers who purchased home improvement related products from a home improvement retailer within the previous 12. months. The study was fielded in January-February 2021.

The following brands received the following scores:

Ace hardware, 863;
Menards, 836;
Lowe’s, 824; and
The Home Depot, 819

The results marked the 14th time in 15 years that Ace received top honors from the J.D. Power study. “We are thrilled to receive this prestigious award recognizing Ace’s commitment to the pursuit of serving others,” said John Venhuizen, president and CEO of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Ace Hardware Corporation. “We are very proud of our small—mostly family run businesses—who live the Ace core values every day, and truly make Ace stores the best, most helpful hardware stores rooted in neighborhoods across the country.”

Ace also received top honors in the 2020 study. In 2019, Ace tied with True Value for highest ranking. Menards took top honors in 2018. 

In addition to its retail brand rankings, J.D. Power released the following home improvement findings from its study:

• Nearly one-third (30%) of U.S. consumers say they are either planning or actively working on a home improvement project.
• Just 13% of home improvement retailer customers say they purchased products via a retailer’s website, while 87% shopped in a brick-and-mortar location. Of the 87% who shopped in a store, 98% say they felt safe and comfortable while shopping during the height of the pandemic.
• Customers don’t want to have to spend more than five minutes finding an item or aisle. Fortunately, 66% of customers say their home improvement retailer met this threshold. One differentiator is customers’ ability to receive assistance without having to search or ask for it. More than half (55%) of customers give their primary retailer credit for doing so, but there is a definite range in performance, from the best-in-class retailer achieving this criteria 72% of the time to the lowest average of 49%.
• Overall satisfaction among Gen Y and Gen Z customers averages 842 (on a 1,000-point scale) while overall satisfaction among Gen X and Boomers averages 824. These younger generations have increased their home improvement activity during the past year with 42% planning for, or in the process of, doing a project in the next three months compared with 27% among older generations.