CONTACTS:
Mary Ellen Keating
Senior Vice President
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-3323

Carolyn J. Brown
Director
Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble, Inc.
(212) 633-4062

New York, NY (December 17, 2008) — Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that it has been ranked the number one company in the customer experience index by Forrester Research.  According to the December 2008 report titled The Customer Experience Index, 2008 published by Forrester Research, “Barnes & Noble takes the top spot” with an “excellent” rating and overall score of 92%.

Forrester asked nearly 5,000 consumers about their interactions with 114 companies across 12 different industries and developed its customer experience index.  The report is based on companies’ combination of ease of use, usefulness and enjoyability of experience.  According to the report, “only 11% of the firms wound up with ‘excellent’ ratings.” 

Barnes & Noble is the number one company overall in the customer experience index.  The bookseller’s rankings in each category measured by the report are as follows:

• Barnes & Noble lead in “Ease of Use” with a 98% ranking.  The report states, “Barnes & Noble ended up with an incredibly high score of 98% for being easy to work with.”  Barnes & Noble received an “excellent” rating in this category.
• Barnes & Noble ranked among the top in “Usefulness” with a 92% ranking.  Barnes & Noble was one of the few companies to receive an “excellent” rating in this category.   
• Barnes & Noble lead in “Enjoyability” with an 86% ranking.  The report states, “On average, firms scored significantly lower on enjoyability than they did on usefulness and ease of use.”  Barnes & Noble was one of only two companies to receive an “excellent” rating in this category.