Personal computers are alive and well. Customer satisfaction with personal computers — including desktops, laptops, and tablets—remains unchanged at 77 (on a 0 to 100 scale), according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) Household Appliances and Electronics Report 2018. This new stability is helped in no small part by the high customer satisfaction with desktops.
Although just 17 percent of respondents recently purchased a desktop computer, customer satisfaction with them jumps 4 percent year over year to an ACSI score of 83. Tablets also climb 4 percent to 80, overtaking laptops, which rank as the only segment to deteriorate, down 3 percent to 75.
“Phones continue to supplant computers for web browsing, shopping, banking, and entertainment, but desktop computers are workhorses for gamers and business users,” said David VanAmburg, Managing Director at the ACSI, in a statement. “These users make up a small but passionate corner of the PC market, choosing desktops for the power and functionality that phones, tablets, and even laptops still can’t match, according to our satisfaction data.”
Apple sees new challenge from Amazon in PC market satisfaction
Apple’s customer satisfaction score hasn’t changed in the last year, but it continues to lead all personal computer makers with an ACSI score of 83. Not surprisingly, demand for the company’s Mac computers remains: Apple’s second quarter personal computer shipments grew by 1.7 percent year over year.
Amazon leaps 4 percent year over year to 82, tying for second with Samsung, which remains unchanged. ASUS falls 3 percent to 78, tying it with HP, which is up 1 percent from the year before.
Lenovo inches up 1 percent to an ACSI score of 77, matching the industry average. Acer is right behind at 75, unchanged from a year ago.
Registering the largest drops among PC makers, Dell falls 4 percent to 73 and Toshiba plummets 5 percent to 71, its lowest mark to date. According to users, these manufacturers aren’t competing well on value. Although Dell’s desktop models are well liked, users are largely unimpressed with the company’s machine designs. Meanwhile, Toshiba users say the company’s models struggle with speed and reliability in terms of system crashes.
Most aspects of the PC industry have deteriorated in the eyes of its customers. Design slips 1 percent to 82. Accessories, software and apps, and graphics and sound all fall 1 percent to 80. Ease of operation held steady at 79, but an increase in the frequency of system crashes along with features losing some of their appeal, triggered drops in both these categories to 77. Processor speed also dips 3 percent to 76.
Important customer touch-points show considerable signs of strain. Website satisfaction retreats 5 percent to 78, and call centers, which made progress last year, completely reverse course, plummeting 14 percent to 67.
“It’s hard to pinpoint why customer satisfaction in call centers fell so much, but the PC industry’s increased emphasis on web and mobile as it scales back on call centers is a big piece,” said VanAmburg. “If you’re downsizing your operations, especially with anything related to customer service, you’re going to see a drop in satisfaction as wait times increase and it’s harder to get a person on the phone.”
For more information, visit www.theacsi.org.
MacDailyNews Take: Whenever we see some poor bastage toting around a Dell or Toshiba laptop, a pang of pity almost breaks through our utter contempt.
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Apple sweeps PCWorld Satisfaction Surveys for desktops, notebooks, smartphones, and tablets – December 7, 2011
Apple Mac tops American Customer Satisfaction Index customer satisfaction for 8th consecutive year – September 20, 2011
American Customer Satisfaction Index: Apple Mac dominates for seventh straight year – September 21, 2010
ACSI: Apple Mac again leads Windows PCs by wide margin in consumer satisfaction – August 18, 2009
Study: Apple beats Dell and HP in customer satisfaction – June 26, 2009
J.D. Power: Apple iPhone ranks highest in smartphone customer satisfaction – April 30, 2009
Survey: Apple Mac users report highest level of satisfaction by far – February 19, 2009
ChangeWave: Apple Mac holds its corporate share; clearly leads in corp customer satisfaction – December 31, 2008
ChangeWave: Apple iPhone’s ‘very satisfied’ rating more than double that of RIM’s BlackBerry Storm – December 22, 2008
J.D. Power: Apple iPhone ranks highest in business wireless smartphone customer satisfaction – November 06, 2008
ACSI: Customer satisfaction rockets for Apple’s Mac; rest of Windows PC industry drops again – August 19, 2008
ChangeWave: Mac OS X Leopard satisfaction far outpaces Vista; Apple Mac strong despite PC slowdown – March 26, 2008
ChangeWave: Apple iPhone maintains big lead in customer satisfaction; top choice among likely buyers – February 07, 2008
ChangeWave survey shows big Apple Mac sales, very high Mac OS X Leopard, very low Vista satisfaction – January 17, 2008
ChangeWave: Apple’s iPhone races to huge lead in customer satisfaction – October 18, 2007
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – September 18, 2007
Survey: Apple iPhone nabs unprecedented 92% satisfaction rating (plus likes and dislikes) – August 16, 2007
Study: Apple iPhone owners ‘off the charts’ satisfied with device – July 13, 2007
Microsoft’s customer satisfaction drops following Windows Vista launch – May 17, 2007
Apple’s secret ingredient? A large group of very satisfied customers – April 10, 2007
Apple Mac desktops, notebooks top PC Magazine’s Annual Reader Satisfaction survey – again – August 22, 2006
Apple Computer tops PC satisfaction study – August 15, 2006
Apple Mac desktops, portables top PC Magazine’s 2005 Reader Satisfaction survey – August 24, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Apple Macintosh leads in personal computer customer satisfaction – August 24, 2004
Apple Macs top PC Magazine’s ‘17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey’ – August 10, 2004
Apple continues to lead customer satisfaction with personal computers AS LONG AS they’re not professionals.
There, fixed the headline.
Exactly! …
Very few professionals have recently purchased an Apple computer, since they’re all hobbling along on old hardware waiting for next year to see the new Pro (or they’ve left the Mac ecosystem already). So they wouldn’t be included in this sample.
Imagine all the years worth of unnecessary customer dissatisfaction for neglected Mac Mini and Mac Pro users? (There might be some MBP dissatisfied customers out there too with faulty keyboards and lackluster Touch Bar®.)
But…
Apple presently is at a 0% satisfaction rating with their current Mac Pro offering!
“Whenever we see some poor bastage toting around a Dell or Toshiba laptop, a pang of pity almost breaks through our utter contempt.”
Back in the latter part of the Dark Days Guy Kawasaki (who was once again for a short while the chief Mac Evangelist) would go up to people he saw with Wintel laptops and ask them point blank, “Is your work place *making* you use that machine?”
Im denied latest OS on my mid 2011 Mac mini (16 GB ram, 512GB SSD, quad core i7), but if I buy a new Mac mini today, i gain USB 3 (no benefit to me for how it’s being used) but loose my quad core processor. Hope we see a new Mac mini soon.