Luxury Institute Customer Experience Survey: Wealthy Clients rate Fidelity Brokerage Services #1 in Customer Experience.

NEW YORK -- According to the new Luxury Customer Experience Index survey (LCEI) from the New York-based Luxury Institute, Fidelity Brokerage Services earned top honors as the brand that delivers "the best customer experience" as rated and ranked by Fidelity's own wealthy customers.

Eleven leading Brokerage brands were rated, each by its own wealthy customers. These included: (in alphabetical order): A.G. Edwards, Inc., Ameriprise Financial (formerly American Express Financial Advisors), Charles Schwab Corp., Edward Jones, Fidelity Brokerage Services, Merrill Lynch & Co, Smith Barney, TD Waterhouse Group, UBS Financial Services, Wachovia Securities, and Wells Fargo Investments.

"Fidelity Brokerage received an overall Customer Experience Index score of 71.4, edging out Edward Jones at 70.9, and Charles Schwab at 69.8," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "Fidelity was also recently voted number one by wealthy consumers in the Luxury Institute's Luxury Brand Status Index survey (LBSI), which is a rating of the brand's reputation and status vs. its competitors. This new Luxury Customer Experience Index (LCEI) survey tells the wealthy that brand perception truly is reality when it comes to Fidelity's actual delivery of the Customer Experience."

"The most critical indicators of Fidelity's strength are its Customer Retention and Customer Referral Index scores. Fidelity's Customer Retention Index score was two points above its nearest competitor while its Customer Referral Index score was three points above its nearest competitor', said Pedraza. "Despite all the chatter from consultants and executives about Customer Relationship Management, most companies are in the Stone Age in terms of measuring their own Customer Experience; never mind measuring the competition's Customer Experience. This survey tells executives what they need to know, although, for some, not necessarily what they want to hear- all from the voice of their own wealthy customers."

This survey, called the Luxury Customer Experience Index (LCEI), creates a set of measures and indices that capture the critical drivers for Customer Experience, as rated by each brand's own customers, and goes far beyond traditional customer satisfaction measures. The LCEI delivers a critical set of metrics based on the four "pillars" of a Customer's Experience including: Experience Drivers, Price Worthiness, Customer Retention and Customer Referral for each brand in a category.

As the trusted and respected voice of America's wealthy, the Luxury Institute is the pioneer in developing objective and independent customer-centric performance metrics for the luxury goods and services industry. This benefits all consumers and the luxury goods and services firms that truly believe in customer relationships.

Using LCEI, the Luxury Institute surveyed a nationally representative valid and reliable statistical sample of more than 2,100 households with a minimum of $200,000 in gross annual income and minimum net worth of at least $750,000 (including home equity). The Luxury Institute's original source for Brokerage Firms reviewed in this survey was the list of "top 50 brokerage firms ranked by number of retail reps" published December 20, 2004 in Investment News, a Crain Communications Inc. publication.

About the Luxury Institute

The Luxury Institute is the uniquely independent and objective research institution that focuses solely on the top 10 percent of America's wealthy. The Institute provides a portfolio of proprietary publications and research that guide and educate high net-worth individuals and the companies that cater to them on leading edge trends, wealthy consumer rankings and ratings of luxury brands, and best practices. Publications include the monthly Wealth Report, the Luxury Brand Status Index surveys, the Luxury Best Practices surveys and the Luxury Consumer Experience Index surveys. To reach the Luxury institute, please call 646-792-2669 or go to www.luxuryinstitute.com.