We analyzed 118,744 customer responses across 74 industries.
Between 2005 and 2018, customers graded 554 businesses on BizGrader — visit by visit, question by question, anonymously. Here's what thirteen years of first-party feedback says about how industries really perform, and what the A-grade businesses did differently.
Average customer grade by industry
Top 10 industries by response volume, from the 2005–2018 BizGrader dataset.
| Industry | Grade | Avg score | Responses | Businesses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | A | 95.54 | 105,925 | 185 |
| Dairy | A- | 93.34 | 3,164 | 28 |
| Spa | A+ | 97.14 | 2,478 | 3 |
| Contract Food Services | B | 85.75 | 1,299 | 68 |
| Grocery Store | A- | 90.83 | 768 | 7 |
| Corporate Training (Sysco U) | A- | 91.58 | 746 | 2 |
| Association | B | 84.54 | 528 | 8 |
| Retailer | A- | 91.40 | 439 | 8 |
| Manufacturing | A- | 91.91 | 322 | 8 |
| Attraction | A | 94.82 | 294 | 1 |
From the 2005–2018 BizGrader dataset. Scores average every graded response in the industry; letters use the classic BizGrader scale.
What an A-grade business does differently
A-grade businesses measure relentlessly.
Businesses that collected 100+ graded responses averaged 93.04 (an A−). Businesses that collected fewer averaged 87.10 (a B+). Of the 128 businesses that crossed 100 responses, 116 — 91% — finished in the A band. The act of asking, consistently, is itself the strongest predictor of a great grade.
First-party feedback isn't review-site feedback.
The average grade across all 118K responses was 95.06. That's not grade inflation — it's selection. Review sites over-collect from the angriest 2% of customers; a survey handed to every customer captures the honest middle. If you only listen to public reviews, you're managing to the wrong distribution.
The gap lives in the categories, not the average.
Industry averages cluster between B and A, but within a single business, category scores routinely spread a full letter grade or more — an A− overall hiding a C+ in service. A-grade businesses fix categories; everyone else stares at the average.
About the numbers
- Where does this benchmark data come from?
- From the BizGrader platform's own operating history: 118,744 customer survey responses collected between 2005 and 2018 across 554 businesses and 74 industries, migrated in full to the rebuilt platform. No third-party or scraped data is included.
- How are the industry grades computed?
- Each survey response averages to a 0–100 score. Industry averages are the mean score across every graded response in that industry, converted to a letter on the classic BizGrader scale: above 96 is an A+, above 94 an A, above 89 an A−, and so on down to F.
- Why is the overall average so high?
- Because first-party surveys sample every customer, not just the angry ones. When a business asks all of its customers to grade a visit, most visits are genuinely good — and the responses show it. The signal lives in the exceptions and the category-level scores.
- Can my business compare itself against these benchmarks?
- Yes. Every BizGrader business gets a live report card computed with the same formula behind these benchmarks, so your grade is directly comparable to your industry's historical average. Start a 7-day free trial to see where you land.
Methodology
Figures are computed from the complete migrated BizGrader production dataset: 118,744 survey responses (118,159 graded) collected December 2005 – November 2018 across 554 businesses, 620 surveys, and 74 industry categories. Each response is the average of a customer's weighted answers on a 0–100 scale; industry rows average every graded response for businesses in that legacy industry category, excluding BizGrader's own internal survey. Letter grades follow the platform's report-card scale (>96 A+, >94 A, >89 A−, >86 B+, >84 B, and so on). Small industries — some with a single business — are shown as recorded; business counts are listed so you can judge sample depth yourself.
See how your business grades
Your customers are already grading you — you're just not seeing the report card. Start a 7-day free trial and compare your grade to your industry's benchmark.