Walmart is fixing a mistake it has been making for years - and it's paying off

After years of widespread complaints about poor customer service, Walmart is finally making improvements.

The retailer's customer service scores have increased for 79 weeks straight, reports The Street. The scores, which measure shoppers' satisfaction with cleanliness, speed, and friendliness, are calculated by surveying thousands of shoppers about their experiences.

The improvement comes after Walmart committed last year to investing $2.7 billion over two years in wage increases, scheduling improvements, and employee training.

"Our customers continue to tell us they are happy with the changes we're making in our stores, as evidenced by our customer-experience scores, which rose again this quarter versus last year," said Brett Biggs, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walmart stores, on a call with analysts in May.

Beyond customer satisfaction, Walmart is also seeing results when it comes to sales, with the company's US same-store sales growing 1% in the most recent quarter, driven by a 1.5% increase in traffic.

Walmart isn't alone in investing in customer service. McDonald's has seen lower crew turnover and higher customer-satisfaction scores since raising its average hourly wage from $9.01 to $9.90 last July, and KFC is currently testing new tech to help employees provide higher-quality customer service.