Exclusive Look At The Best Brands By Industry | Omicron Cancelations Escalate | Airbnb's Next Challenge

Plus: The Fourth Installment of The Next 1000

Happy holidays! What better time of year to talk about the customer experience? That’s what we’re measuring with the Forbes Halo 100, which we published on December 16 in partnership with HundredX. The Dallas-based data and analytics company has collected feedback from more than 110,000 U.S. customers on more than 2.8 million interactions with 2,000-plus brands. In addition to giving us insight into how well brands are actually serving customers, that data enables us to see how well they’re serving different groups of customers, and how well those brands fare when it comes to perceptions of trust and brand values. For more on the methodology, click here.

As a bonus for readers of this newsletter, HundredX has revealed the top brands by category, which we’ll list below. Lauren Debter tells us why Costco ranked No. 1 on this year’s list. Jena McGregor explores why Columbia Sportswear came out on top in terms of trust. Brands like Netflix do an especially good job of serving nonwhite consumers, as Jared Council notes. And CMO Network Editor Marty Swant looks at why Toyota won top marks among the automakers. 

While these companies didn’t crack the Halo 100, they were recognized as the best in their categories by customers surveyed by HundredX: 

O'Reilly Auto Parts (Auto Parts)

Airbnb (Booking Sites)

Enterprise Holdings (Car Rental)

General Mills (Cereals)

Align Technology (Dental Products)

Dollar Tree (Discount Stores)

Best Buy (Electronics & Office)

Orangetheory Fitness (Fitness Centers & Gyms)

1-800-FLOWERS.COM (Flower Delivery)

Instacart (Food Delivery)

Baylor Scott & White (Hospital Systems)

State Farm (Insurance)

Signet Jewelers (Jewelry)

HelloFresh (Meal Kits)

Quicken Loans (Mortgage Lenders)

Cinemark USA (Movie Theaters)

CarMax National (Car Dealers)

Zillow Group (Online Real Estate)

DraftKings (Online Sports Betting)

Walgreens (Pharmacies)

Lyft (Ride Sharing)

Bird (Scooter & Bike Rental)

WW (Weight Loss & Diet Programs)

Verizon Communications (Wireless & Internet Providers)

We look forward to bringing our newsletter readers more exclusive content and early access to our stories in 2022. Thanks. Diane

What's Next

With the omicron variant surging here in New York and around the world, the anxiety and cancellations are also on the rise. That’s shifting travel schedules and back-to-the-office plans. The annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos has been rescheduled from late January to the summer as a result of the latest surge. The Rockettes won’t be dancing at Radio City Music Hall for the rest of this season and even SNL canceled its live audience. 

Being vaccinated is a critical but insufficient prerequisite when considering travel or live events. Regular rapid testing is important, too. That’s especially true for large groups in confined spaces. As my colleague Suzanne Kelleher notes, breakthrough cases happen so routinely on cruise ships these days, it’s become something of a trend. The latest: 48 passengers tested positive aboard Symphony of the Seas. 

Here in Dumbo, the Brooklyn neighborhood where I live, testing sites remain few and far between. The one mobile testing van that occasionally sits in my neighborhood wasn’t there when I went by on Sunday and doesn’t offer rapid tests on the spot. Luckily, resourceful friends like consultant Victoria Harmon made sure to provide their own rapid tests for guests at recent events. 

The good news: More tests are coming. Meanwhile, Moderna released data showing its existing Covid-19 vaccine leads to a 37-fold increase in the level of neutralizing antibodies that can prevent omicron from taking hold.

By The Numbers

$54.4 billion

That’s how much America’s top 100 charities, as ranked by Forbes, received in private donations during their most recently reported fiscal years.

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