Customer satisfaction continues on a bumpy path without momentum or trend in the second quarter, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. After a small uptick last quarter, ACSI slips 0.1% to 75.1 on a 100-point scale. The ACSI second quarter report, released today from the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center, forecasts consumer spending will remain weak with growth of no more than 2.3% in the third quarter.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. It is updated each quarter with new measures for different sectors of the economy replacing data from the prior year. The overall ACSI score for a given quarter factors in scores from about 200 companies in 44 industries and from government agencies over the previous four quarters.
The index is produced by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and CFI Group.
“The American consumer has long been the single biggest force propping up the U.S. and the global economy,” said Professor Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI at the University of Michigan, in the press release. “But declining customer satisfaction combined with weaker demand for U.S. exports may make it difficult for American households to shoulder the burden of being the locomotive for world economic growth.”
Every second quarter, ACSI features the annual measurement of the manufacturing durable goods sector and e-business category of websites, including automobiles, personal computers, major appliances, portals & search engines, and news & information websites.
Personal Computers:
The personal computer industry suffers a second consecutive drop in satisfaction, falling 1% to 74 and losing all gains made since 2005.
Apple defies the industry by moving in the opposite direction and posting its largest gain ever to 85, a new all-time high for the industry. The 8% leap puts 10 points between Apple and its nearest rival, one of the largest gaps between first and second in any industry measured by ACSI. As Apple’s satisfaction improves, so too have its sales, market share, net income, and stock price.
“It’s hard not to be impressed with Apple,” said Prof. Fornell. “This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn’t hurt either.”
The industry aggregate decline is largely for Windows-based machines: Hewlett-Packard (73), Gateway (72), and Compaq (70) each sink 4%. Dell remained relatively flat, rising a mere 1% to 75.
E-Business:
Customer satisfaction with the e-business category of websites surges 6% to an all-time high of 79.3, largely on the remarkable improvement of Google. After slipping behind Yahoo! for the first time last year, Google surged an unparalleled 10% to leave all rivals in its wake. Google’s score of 86 sets a new standard for e-businesses and creates a formidable nine-point gap between its nearest competitor, Yahoo!, which fell 3% to 77.
Automobiles:
Hit with record losses, American auto manufacturers are also suffering from slumping customer satisfaction. No domestic car maker is represented among the top four nameplates, but the bottom three in the industry are all American brands. Yet customer satisfaction for the industry as a whole remains at an all-time high (unchanged at 82), and one American car maker, GM’s Saturn, shows considerable improvement, climbing 5% to tie its all-time high from 1998.
“The problem for domestic companies is that they now lag further behind their foreign counterparts,” said Prof. Fornell. “This is not going to be helpful as the Big Three will lose more pricing power and be forced to continue dependence on rebates and discounting in a market where consumer preferences keep shifting away from domestic cars.”
Lexus and BMW lead all auto manufacturers at 87. Toyota and Honda each improve 2% to 86. Mercedes Benz, once no. 1 in customer satisfaction, continues to fall behind the leading car makers. From being the top scorer in ACSI eight years ago, Mercedes has seen a slow but steady erosion in customer satisfaction – it is now no better than the industry average. Chevrolet, GM’s best-selling brand, takes the biggest fall, losing 4% to 79. Chrysler’s Dodge (-3% to 78) and Jeep (+1% to 76) anchor the bottom of the industry.
Major Appliances:
Customer satisfaction with major appliances slides 3% to 80 this quarter. All three major companies decline, with Whirlpool dropping the most (-5% to 80). General Electric and Electrolux each drop 1% to 80.
Whirlpool, the world’s biggest appliance manufacturers, faces increased competition at a time when domestic demand is shrinking and the cost of shipping and raw materials is rising. The company’s customer satisfaction rose after its acquisition of rival Maytag in early 2006, but the gains in satisfaction were short-lived.
For a complete list of measured companies and scores, please visit www.theacsi.org.
Source: ACSI
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tony G.” for the heads up.]
Yep, build crap and spend your time and money trying to SELL that crap and eventually you end up at the bottom of the tank. Just like American TV sets and Sony, American Car mfg and Toyota, Hp, Dell, etc and Apple. Build a great product and hang in there and eventually you rise to the top.
Just a thought.
en
“All three major companies decline, with Whirlpool dropping the most (-5% to 80).”
You can almost smell the irony. Maybe if they changed the brand to Clogged Pipes, they wouldn’t drop as fast.
An interesting thing to note is that Google has even higher rating than Apple (86), and BMW yet higher (87).
I guess all these switchers are waking up to the real ease of computing and are thrilled, after suffering years under Windows. This rating can only continue to climb (ever so slowly), as more people switch and begin to experience the beauty that is Mac.
If you dig into it, M$ scored 69 in 2008 and falling.
Just goes to show that you might be able to fool all the people some of the time but you can never fool all the people all the time and John and Mary Citizen are now waking up to the existence of real alternatives that make the whole experience of computing fun.
For example in the daily Metro free paper distributed in London today there is a 60 second interview with the Hollywood star, Anne Hathaway. In it is this little gem…
“Are you good with computers?
Well I have a Mac, and it’s impossible to be bad with a Mac.”
The full link is
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=271854&in_page_id=11
and the quote is 2/3 down the page.
Cheers
“Chrysler’s Dodge (-3% to 78) and Jeep (+1% to 76) anchor the bottom of the industry.”
The PERFECT partners for Dell’s renewed attempt at the music player market.
Just wait till Dell comes out with the iZingaling to compete with the iTele. How will customer satisfaction be then?
Oh wait! It will be a downward spiral for Dell. Nevermind!
pretty soon Apple is going to have to start making cars so that america can have a top rated car manufacturer……
fenman,
nice link.
Being a fenman, can you see Ely cathedral from where you are?
APPLE IS SLIPPING!!!
First off, Gateway has a great laptop/swivel monitor/tablet with handwriting recognition that is simply AWESOME!!
It’s much faster than typing and one can draw on it, clip web pages from the internet by simply circling them among other neat things. I was simply shocked.
Second off: Apple has completely and utterly kissed off the 3D PC gaming market. Consoles like the X-Box and PS3 now rule, strike another reason not to need a computer.
Third: The iPhone is cannibalizing sales from Mac laptops and computers. Sure one needs a pair of reading glasses, a touch stylus and their first born child given to the AT&T;/NSA. But if people are getting their internet info from a pocket device…
To finish my RANT!!
Third is when Apple does give computers, they come with AWLFUL GLOSSY SCREENS THAT REFLECT EVERYTHING SO MUCH YOU CAN’T SEE WHATS ON THE DISPLAY!!!
I’m so fed up with Apple’s lately, and this is coming from a 20 plus year Apple veteran. I stick because Apple has done some stupid things in the past and I only need them for safe AND RELIABLE COMPUTING!!
If I didn’t have that I would have been gone LONG AGO!!
Please Apple, get your head outta your asses. Stop breathing that Cupertino SMOG, it’s killing your brain cells!
Amen, Hail Jobs.
Apple customer satisfaction scores gains
Apple blew away its PC industry peers in this year’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, perhaps because it was the only company that didn’t release a Windows Vista PC.
“To finish my RANT!”
Oh, if only we could be that lucky.
“Sure one needs a pair of reading glasses, a touch stylus and . . .”
Yes. One. And only one.
@Raving Machead
Your posting name should be “Raving Asshat.” YOUR opinion of Apple’s business model means absolutely NOTHING, actually LESS THAN NOTHING, in the face of the above numbers, stock price, market share growth, new product development, and the like. Who the fsck do you think you are? WE know who you are: Just another troll with an agenda. The agenda? To save your misled, antiquated ass from extinction by a truly innovative company.
A Mac veteran for 20 years? Bullcrap. Don’t “stick” . . . LEAVE! Vote with your feet! Show those neanderthals in Cupertino that YOU KNOW BEST. YOU’RE THE MAN! Yeah, you and Scully and Amelio and Dell and Ballmer and Gates, et al.
Moron.
Very impressive for Apple, hopefully the next survey will be discrete enough to not let any mobileme FUD contaminate the broader results.
One thing I noticed in the article and found interesting is the subtle media bias. I see this a lot when covering the upcoming elections so am probably too sensitive to it.
The 10% gap between Apple and it’s nearest rival is appropriately called out as being pretty amazing.
Dell, on the other hand, was criticized for improving by a “mere 1%” The bias is that Dell leads in customer sat among PCs and while 1% improvement isn’t much, it certainly is a pretty big difference when compared to a 4% DROP by the other PC folks.
I’m just a big fan of intellectual honesty and let’s be fair, Dell is doing the best among companies that suck. And…they sucked a bit less now than they did the last time.
peace…
Raving MacHeads comments notwithstanding, Apple seems to have hit the mark just perfectly. Year after year, consumer satisfaction seems to be growing. Recently, while all others in the computer industry seem to be eroding the consumers’ faith, Apple keeps solidifying its position.
Apple, please don’t touch that wheel! Keep doing exactly what you’re doing, don’t change ANYTHING, otherwise you might screw it up (and in the aftermath, possibly make one single person less unhappy – our MacHead here).
Judging by all research done so far, move to glossy was a brilliant idea (much more popular than matte). Someone at Apple is clearly smart enough to offer those matte studio displays for the few that need ultimate display quality. For the rest of us, glossy is truly beautiful (not to mention easier to wipe little finger smudges from).
Keep doing what you’re doing, Apple!
RM:
So, Apple tops the list *again* and they’re terrrible, horrible, with Gateway having better products and iPhone woes etc etc etc.
If I read one more retarded glossy screen comment I’m going to scream. Didn’t YOU buy that computer with the glossy screen?????
Please, Raving Machead. Don’t wait, go and buy a Dull XPS now and stop coming here with your senseless prating.
Apple is slipping because Gateway has a swivel screen?????
Blathering nonsense.
@Raving MacHead
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Today one of my clients relayed an anecdote that I hear far too often.
Her main issue with technical support is that she speaks English and none of the technical support people she has had the displeasure of speaking with do – as a first language. Thus, the accents are thick and my clients, who are not technically savvy now have two issues: they have a technical support issue AND they can’t understand what’s being spoken to them to rectify it. This is across the board with PC support.
Whenever I go to the Genius Bar I notice that everyone there speaks English as a first language. And that’s in the 3rd largest city in the nation, here in Chicago.
THIS is the issue. Ask anyone.
Any money says you’re a teenager banging away on Windows and have little or no idea of much else. So why not go and get laid and live the real world for a bit before coming lay out your fiction.
@ Shen – YES!
Apple should make a car – it would be cool and efficient.
Of course, Microsoft would immediately copy them, but their car would just crash.
@The Muffin Man,
Used to live just a short distance from Ely Cathedral, at Sutton in The Isle and then before that in the Deepings where I had a clear view across the Fens towards Norwich for miles and miles of flatland and dead windmills.
Anyway, thanks about the link. Cool quote I thought that the line “Well I have a Mac, and it’s impossible to be bad with a Mac.” was just spot on.
@ the rest of you. Don’t give air time to those who insist on bad mouthing good products. Certainly comment about genuine issues but getting personal reduces us to the level of those we really don’t want to get identified with…
And for those who criticise glossy screens, no matter what screen you have, if the light is coming over your shoulder you will be contributing to eye strain, so reposition things. Adequate ambient light with the light source where is will not reflect and you will find the glossy screen produces superb picture quality. No it is not for everyone. I use a matt screen on my MBP and a glossy screen on my iMac. The MBP because I cannot always control the direction of light at my clients where it is mainly used.
At the end of the day, Apple makes very good products with more thought going into the user experience than most other manufacturers. That does not mean they are perfect, just better thought out and someone will always think differently.
@ Chicago PC Doc,
When I had Apple Support on the phone recently, I asked “Where are you?” The pleasant young lady with the Canadian accent said, “Kansas.” The last time I called Dell, it took a number of questions but I finally got, “Bangladesh.” Coincidence? I think not!
No surprise:
– AAPL concentrates on the top-end of the market
– they have a high margin on almost all of their products
– leaving them with significant “wiggle-room” to solve problems with products in favor of the customer (i.e. the customer get’s a replacement-part and AAPL or their chinese manufacturers eat the cost)
– customers pay more, have a higher expectation – and AAPL is able to deliver that
– by contrast, APPL’s competition is sort-of painted in the corner of the room: they have to fight amongst each other for the low-end consumer-market, where people don’t want to pay too much, yet want to receive stellar service and outstanding products. The only other field where Apple currently doesn’t play is the business-market – but margins there aren’t too big either.
As a result, PC vendors have decided not to build better computers but mostly cheaper ones – without being able to adjust customer expectations (“netbook”-style laptops may be an exception – but I doubt Asus et.al. are can make a lot of money out of them either)
Predection: it will be very difficult for the rest of the industry to break this vicious cycle.
Funny thing regarding glossy screens.
When I bought a monitor to go with my new Mac Pro, I purposefully selected a monitor with a matte screen. When I pulled it out of the box, it had a clear sheet of glossy plastic taped over the screen for protection during shipping.
I left the plastic sheet taped to the monitor, initially, in case the monitor would have to be returned to the store. But as the days passed, I found that I really liked that glossy surface. It creates an optical illusion of the screen being sharper. And, I like the protection it provides. I’m beginning to wonder wether I should have gotten a monitor with a glossy screen in the first place.