- Todd Wasserman

Apple scored high again, but not as high as USAA and health insurers tumbled in this year's tabulation of Net Promoter scores.

The scores, compiled by Satmetrix, are based on polling 19,500 U.S. consumers about which brands they would recommend to a friend. Positive recommendations (+100 percent) are averaged with negatives (-100 percent) for a final score.

Just as last year, the overall winner was USAA, an insurer and banker for military personnel. John Abraham, general manager of Net Promoter programs at Satmetrix, said that USAA has a "unique recipe of really great service and innovation." Such innovations include compensating users for using ATM fees (USAA has a few ATMs) and the ability to deposit a check electronically.

USAA, which scored 78 percent and 69 percent in the auto and homeowners insurance categories, respectively, was a standout in the segment. USAA's biggest competitor in auto insurance is Geico with 41 percent. In health insurance, scores were generally abysmal. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois was the only brand with a positive score while Cigna had a score of -28 percent the lowest of any brand.

On the upside, Trader Joe's and Wegmans broke into the top 10, largely because Satmetrix didn't survey retail brands the previous year. Apple had a strong showing, though Abraham said AT&T's 9 percent score may have a dragging effect on the brand since it is Apple's exclusive telecom partner for the iPhone.

Another surprise was that Amazon, which led the online services category last year, is now just close to being tied with eBay with 71 percent versus 65 percent and Facebook (65 percent) overtook Google (63 percent) in the online search and information segment.


Here are the top 10 best-ranked Net Promoter brands: