Most things about a brand can be copied. Pricing can be matched overnight. Products get replicated within months. What doesn’t transfer is the institutional habit of treating customers well, and in 2026, that gap has gotten harder to hide.
According to SurveyMonkey’s 2025 CX study, 84% of consumers say a positive customer support experience substantially shapes their overall perception of a company. AmplifAI’s 2026 research finds 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better experience, and three in four spend more with companies that consistently deliver on CX. AnswerConnect’s April 2026 survey of 6,000 adults across the US, UK, and Canada found 85% still prefer speaking to a real person over AI, up from 83% the year before, and 70% believe the overall customer service experience would get worse if humans were replaced entirely.
The companies below made 2026’s rankings not because they are the largest, but because customers keep choosing them, recommending them, and coming back. Behind every great customer experience is an IT backbone that works quietly and reliably. Tools like Infraon ITSM help operations and support teams stay ahead of incidents, manage service requests, and keep the systems behind customer-facing operations running without disruption.
1. The UPS Store
The UPS Store claimed the top spot on the Forbes Best Customer Service 2026 list for the third consecutive year. Forbes partnered with customer-insights firm HundredX on a year-long survey of 158,000 consumers who rated over 3,500 brands, and The UPS Store came out on top in personal interaction, speed, services, and resolution.
What holds the ranking isn’t any single thing. Customers dealing with shipping, printing, and logistics often arrive stressed and pressed for time. The store’s staff are trained to resolve quickly and communicate clearly. That reliability, repeated across thousands of locations, compounds into something that becomes genuinely hard to dislodge.
Key takeaways:
- Ranked number one on Forbes Best Customer Service 2026 for the third straight year
- Consistency across locations builds trust more durably than any single standout interaction
- Speed and resolution clarity are the primary satisfaction drivers in their category
2. Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A has held the highest customer satisfaction score among quick-service restaurants for over a decade, and 2026 is no exception. The chain appeared on both the Forbes and Newsweek lists.
The “my pleasure” culture is deliberate and structural. Chick-fil-A’s hiring model prioritizes character and chemistry over competency, asking candidates why they want to serve rather than whether they know how to. That shift in the interview process produces frontline staff who treat hospitality as a value rather than a performance.
Key takeaways:
- Hiring for character before competency drives genuine, consistent service quality
- Culture-first approach produces interactions that feel natural rather than scripted
- Appeared on both Forbes and Newsweek customer service rankings for 2026
3. USAA
USAA made the Forbes 2026 top ten and continues to lead in financial services satisfaction by focusing on a specific audience: military members and their families. That focus shapes how agents are trained, how products are designed, and how every interaction is structured.
Reliability, loyalty, and individual treatment aren’t part of USAA’s brand messaging. They are operational defaults. For customers navigating insurance claims, banking, and financial planning during deployment or transition, that specificity is worth more than any feature comparison.
Key takeaways:
- Deep audience focus enables genuine contextual understanding, not generalized empathy
- Personalized assistance and reliability are the structural cornerstones of every interaction
- Ranked in Forbes top ten for Best Customer Service 2026
4. Publix
The employee-owned supermarket chain has consistently ranked in customer service for years. The model is direct: when employees have a stake in how the store runs, the customer experience changes.
Staff at Publix aren’t working toward a corporate bonus structure. They have equity in the outcome. Publix locations also stock what their local communities actually buy, which means service quality begins before anyone reaches the checkout line.
Key takeaways:
- Employee ownership creates a direct link between staff investment and customer experience
- Service-first approach outperforms price-focused competitors on loyalty metrics year over year
- Multi-decade track record of ranking among top US customer service companies
5. Chewy
Chewy leads the online pet retail category across multiple 2026 rankings. Its reputation for customer service comes from 24/7 availability, genuinely easy returns, and a culture of going beyond the transaction. The most-cited example: when a customer mentions a pet has died, Chewy agents regularly send handwritten condolence notes and flowers without being asked.
That cannot be automated. It comes from hiring people who care, giving them the autonomy to act, and measuring success by customer sentiment rather than call handle time.
Key takeaways:
- 24/7 support combined with human empathy separates Chewy from standard e-commerce
- Giving agents room to act on their instincts produces loyalty moments that no script can create
- Consistently ranked across Newsweek, Forbes, and ACSI 2026 evaluations as one of three brands tied at the top with a score of 82
6. Costco
Costco’s return policy is one of the most generous in retail, and it reflects a deliberate long-term view: customer trust is more valuable than any individual transaction. The company appeared on the Forbes 2026 list and multiple other 2026 rankings, continuing a multi-year run.
The warehouse model removes the complexity that frustrates customers elsewhere. Staff know the product range deeply, queues move efficiently, and the quality bar means most customers never need to use that return policy in the first place. When they do, the process is frictionless.
Key takeaways:
- Return policy reflects a long-term valuation of customer relationships over short-term cost savings
- Deep staff product knowledge accelerates resolution across most service interactions
- Commitment to quality reduces issue volume upstream, before it reaches customer service
7. Nordstrom
Nordstrom ties Amazon and Chewy at an ACSI score of 82 in 2026, a three-way lead in online retail. The brand’s service reputation is decades old, and it endures because Nordstrom hasn’t tried to automate its way out of the high-touch model that built it.
Technology handles operational tasks like inventory lookup and order processing. Frontline staff focus entirely on the customer. High-end service doesn’t slow down; it gets faster, because staff aren’t distracted by administrative work.
Key takeaways:
- ACSI score of 82 puts Nordstrom tied for the top position in US retail for 2026
- Technology removes friction so staff can focus on the customer, not the system
- Decades of service culture produce institutional habits that competitors cannot copy quickly
8. Amazon
Amazon tied Nordstrom and Chewy at an ACSI score of 82 in 2026. The scale at which it maintains that score is what makes it remarkable. Achieving top-tier satisfaction across a customer base of over a billion people requires systems, automation, and human judgment to work together at a level most companies haven’t reached.
Amazon’s shift toward predictive service has been central to its 2026 performance. Rather than waiting for customers to report problems, the company uses data to identify and resolve issues before customers notice them. This proactive approach is something IT teams across industries are increasingly adopting through AIOps and intelligent IT operations platforms that surface anomalies and trigger automated responses before a customer ever feels the impact.
Key takeaways:
- Proactive, predictive service resolves issues before customers need to contact support
- ACSI score of 82 demonstrates top-tier satisfaction maintained at unprecedented scale
- AI and human judgment working in combination deliver consistency that neither could achieve alone
9. REI
REI made Forbes’ top 10 for 2026, continuing its strong run in the outdoor retail category. The cooperative model, where customers become members with a stake in the business, mirrors the Publix principle: people invested in something take care of it differently.
REI staff are typically avid outdoors enthusiasts who use the products they sell. That expertise makes service feel consultative rather than transactional. The company’s lifetime satisfaction guarantee on most products also removes purchase anxiety and signals a long-term commitment to the customer relationship.
Key takeaways:
- Cooperative model aligns staff incentives directly with customer outcomes
- Genuine product expertise creates service that customers trust because it comes from experience
- Lifetime satisfaction guarantee signals a long-term relationship over a short-term sale
10. Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s appeared on both the Forbes and ACSI top rankings for 2026. The brand operates with a simplicity that runs against most retail trends: limited SKUs, no loyalty program, no app, no self-checkout in most locations. What it offers instead is staff who are present, knowledgeable, and actually helpful.
Trader Joe’s staff know where everything is, will walk you to an item rather than pointing at it, and handle returns without asking questions. That friction-free approach, combined with a product range customers actively trust, makes every visit feel low-effort.
Key takeaways:
- Minimal complexity allows staff to focus entirely on in-person service quality
- No friction on returns or product assistance reinforces repeat visit behavior
- Ranked across Forbes and ACSI top lists for 2026
Related article: What are the Must-Have Customer Service Skills in 2022?
What These Companies Have in Common
Three patterns hold across all ten. Worth understanding if you are building a customer service strategy this year.
The human-AI balance is a deliberate choice, not a default. AnswerConnect’s 2026 research shows 57% of consumers will trust a business less if it predominantly uses AI for service, up from 53% the year before. Shep Hyken’s 2026 State of Customer Service and CX research confirms growing comfort with AI for speed and efficiency, but customers still reach for the phone when the issue matters. The companies at the top of the 2026 rankings have made a deliberate call about where automation helps and where it erodes trust.
Employee experience is a customer service input. Publix, REI, Costco, Chewy, and Chick-fil-A all operate models where staff are genuinely invested in outcomes through ownership stakes, values-based hiring, or deep product expertise built into the role. These companies treat frontline staff as the product, not just its delivery mechanism. That same principle applies to IT teams.
When support staff have the right tools, clear ownership of incidents, and real-time visibility into service health, resolution speeds improve and customer-facing downtime drops. IT service management software plays a direct role in making that possible, especially for organizations scaling their operations across multiple regions.
Trust is built through policy, not promises. The best customer service companies don’t ask customers to take them at their word. They back it with a generous return policy, a satisfaction guarantee, and a free return that goes smoothly. AmplifAI’s 2026 data shows 72% of customers share positive experiences with six or more people. The compounding effect of trust-backed policies is organic growth that no marketing budget replicates.
FAQs
What makes a company the best at customer service in 2026?
The top-ranked companies consistently share three qualities: they resolve issues quickly, they treat customers as individuals rather than transactions, and they back their service with policies that remove risk from the customer’s side. Technology plays a supporting role. The defining factor across all top performers is culture, how staff think about service, not just how they execute it.
Is AI making customer service better or worse in 2026?
The data is mixed. SurveyMonkey’s 2025 CX study found 41% of consumers feel customer service has worsened due to AI. Shep Hyken’s 2026 research shows AI is improving speed and efficiency for many customers. The answer depends on deployment. Companies using AI to handle routine tasks and surface information more quickly are seeing gains in loyalty. Companies using it to replace human judgment in moments that require empathy are seeing trust decline.
Which industries have the best customer service in 2026?
Based on ACSI and Forbes 2026 rankings, food retail, specialty retail, financial services built around specific communities, and online pet retail consistently score highest. Quick-service restaurants also outperform, with Chick-fil-A maintaining the category lead for over a decade.
How does customer service affect revenue?
Directly. AmplifAI’s 2026 data shows 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better experience, and three in four spend more with companies that deliver great CX. Positive word-of-mouth compounds this, 72% of customers share good experiences with six or more people.
What is the biggest customer service challenge in 2026?
Balancing AI efficiency with human connection. AnswerConnect’s survey found 89% of consumers believe companies should always offer the option to speak with a human. Organizations that automate too aggressively are eroding the trust they spent years accumulating.
