“Making customers happy, some experts say, is the fine art of balancing experience and expectation. Based on that, the feeling of Microsoft Corp. customers is starting to edge ever so slightly toward the disappointment end of the spectrum, according to the results of an annual survey by the University of Michigan released on Tuesday,” Eric Lai reports for Computerworld.
Lai reports, “Microsoft scored 70 out of 100 on the latest Q1 results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index released by Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. That’s down from 74 for the same period in 2006, the first year Microsoft was ranked. ‘Very small differences [in this survey] count for a lot,’ said Claes Fornell, a University of Michigan professor and director of the ACSI.”
“The overall customer satisfaction rating with companies in the ACSI, which surveyed 80,000 people nationwide via the Web during the first three months of the year, was 73, according to Fornell. The approval rating for all software vendors (including Microsoft) assessed in the survey was 75,” Lai reports.
Lai reports, “Fornell said that the launch of Windows Vista and Office 2007 during the period in which the survey was conducted may have played a part in dragging down Microsoft’s score. That’s not actually because a majority of respondents had tried either software and found it lacking, he said. Rather, Microsoft’s need to hype the two products through marketing and advertising may have created a backlash among some jaded consumers, he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, if those who had actually tried Vista were surveyed more heavily, Microsoft would have scored around 32.
Lai continues, “Fornell also said that customers have higher expectations for market-leading companies such as Microsoft… But Fornell said that customers already give high-tech firms, such as Microsoft, a break because of the nature of the industry and of the products. ‘If cars were only as reliable as PCs, our roads would be pretty messy,’ he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Now you know why so many use Windows. Microsoft has mastered the art of creating low expectations. This is why The Dark Ages of Personal Computing are so pervasive and tenacious. This is why your Windows-only friends, family and co-workers won’t believe you or Apple about Macs; it’s why they won’t switch and drastically improve their personal computing experience. Microsoft has taught them, through harsh repetition, that computers often break, are unreliable, insecure, frustrating, etc. Unlike poor Mr. Fornell, who (it’s painfully obvious) is a WIndows-only sufferer, the typical Mac user would instead say, “If cars were only as reliable as Macs, we’d save a fortune in auto repair bills.” To Windows-only users who’ve just found us today by way of Google News or elsewhere: it’s way, way, way past time to pop the red pill. Expect more. Demand more. Get more. Apple Macintosh.
Full article here.
Q1 2007 and Historical ACSI Scores can be found here (no info about Apple or any other software maker is available in the report).
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nick” for the heads up.]
We need news, not abuse.
This is why your Windows-only friends, family and co-workers won’t believe you or Apple about Macs; it’s why they won’t switch and drastically improve their personal computing experience. Microsoft has taught them, through harsh repetition, that computers often break, are unreliable, insecure, frustrating, etc.
THIS IS SO TRUE. IT MAKES ME SAD
Isn’t Microsoft and Customer Satisfaction an oxymoron?
I Love Microsoft
It’s the bordom, medicrocity and disfunctional software from them that makes Apple fun, happy and reliable platform to be on.
And you thought I was a troll…
I guess it’s Gates, Ballmer and the whole Microsoft brigade that has the reality distortion field. People think it’s a reality that computers are all un-reliable. That particular distortion was created by MS, not Steve Jobs and Apple.
Also people are given false hope of a great new OS that will drag them out of hte mire of XP but when they actually try Vista they are very often disappointed. That again is MS distorting reality via their huge marketing engine.
As far as Steve J having a reality distortion field. Well yes he is great at getting us excited about a product during his keynotes but invariably I am totally satisfied with everything I buy from Apple. I have an Apple TV now which is amazing. A network of several macs and a 5.5g iPod and all are as satisfying to use as Steve points out in his keynotes so I guess he doesn’t have a RDS.
I suppose PC users that is used to working with crap could get a glimpse of his keynotes and think he is distorting reality. Their thoughts might take the following path:
“Computers are unreliable and crash a lot and are a pain to use. How can it be possible for Macs to be how Jobs says they are. reliable, powerful, secure, easy to use and dependable. Nah!! Can’t be!!”
Well I have news for you PC people. Macs are all of those things and more. They are compatible too.
Get a mac and sort your lives out Windows drones!!!
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Free yourself from the MS collective
{nelson}
HA ha.
{/nelson}
…the feeling of Microsoft Corp. customers is starting to edge ever so slightly toward the disappointment end of the spectrum…
Ever so slightly? Ever so slightly???? This goes beyond low expectations but rather towards high surprise that it even functions? Bonus….I can open MS word on Vista. I am sooo excited I could shit.
I really wish MDN would have accounts so I can edit my posts.
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C1..you smokin wacky tabacky? I give up …what does Nelson mean?
The character from “The Simpsons”: HA-HA!
Vista is in the crapper with customers less because of low expectations than because to most people it’s not even as “good” as XP. Lack of driver support and in many cases running much slower even on relatively new hardware doesn’t make for a good exprerience.
The obvious “improvements” in Vista seem to consist of the ripped-off-from-Apple “Aero” look, and supposedly improved security.
Most people I’m sure don’t care about Aero, and anyone but total dumbasses know you need a third party anti virus package, which negates anything as lame as what M$ included in Vista for security.
All in all, what’s to like in Vista? If it came with a new computer, and you were lucky to have no problems, is it Vista or the new box you really like?
Where was I when Microsoft had any customer satisfaction?
No, but I have been into the gaffer’s home brew.
Goes to show how much TV I watch.
I am still working my way through the Munster’s first season on DVD.
Gotta love Heman and Lily
I thought it was Admiral Nelson.
“Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub. Ha ha.”
Buster: Here’s some utterly useless trivia for you!
Martin Van Buren’s look was part of the inspiration for the appearance of the “Grandpa” character on the The Munsters.
Let the market share be equal with the customer satisfaction.
Greetings from Ballmer’s Uncle, he enjoys the cellar. Today he tried to press the Play button on the Zune. He had listened to all Win Me sound schemes. Then he started to yell MS DOS commands.
LIke I said in another thread:
The day Microsoft dosen’t suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
Ballmer’s tombstone will have just one word.
“Cancelled.”
Are there ANY satisfied Microsoft customers?
I doubt any would know what that means.
They’re abuse victims, who see NO other way….
Windows users….classic Stockholm syndrome on a MASSIVE scale.
“They’re abuse victims, who see NO other way….”
That would be one huge MA meeting!
“Hi, my name is Stan and I’ve been abused by a predatory monopoly.” “We love you, Stan. Please tell us your story.” “Hey! Could you speak up? We can’t hear you in Omaha.”
I sent a Windows tip to my Windows-only friends, saying that Windows fonts look lousy in Windows XP, so to make them look less lousy on an LCD screen, set up ClearType and use the ClearType tuner… the closest thing MS has to Apple’s anti-aliasing which is set on by default.
Response from one of my readers, who happens to be related to me:
“You must have some Mac compatibility problems.”
Talk about DENIAL !!
Dont’ be so smug ! QuickTime 7.1.6 doesn’t work for quite many users (can’t read any videos past the 5-second mark), and I have to go through 17 steps to re-install version 7.1.5 and this involves re-installing Mac OS X completely ! My satisfaction with Apple just dropped to… 35 percent.
Reported on by MDN in April, relates to why Apple’s customers, Gilles notwithstanding, are such satisfied customers.
http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2007/04/behind-scenes-why-apples-customerbase
and related to this is this TED video:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93
Enjoy!