“PC giant Dell Computer recently got some bad news, when the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released its yearly ratings of PC maker customer satisfaction. Dell customers rated the company just a 74, down from its 79 rating a year ago, because of poor customer service (Dell’s products, meanwhile, were rated very highly). By comparison, the darling of the report, Apple Computer, rated 81, and once again took the top spot in the survey, though Apple’s insanely loyal customer base probably skews those numbers,” Paul Thurrott writes for WindowsITPro.
Full article here.
So, using “Thurrott Logic,” would it be safe to say that Dell’s complete lack of an “insanely loyal customer base” probably skewed those numbers, too? By the way, DellDailyNews, DellMinute, DellNN, DellSurfer, DellCentral, etc. domain names are all still available.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Thurrott: Microsoft’s ‘iPod killer’ just ‘ain’t going to happen’ – August 12, 2005
Apple.com remakes online ‘Switch’ section (and quotes Windows IT Pro’s Paul Thurrott) – August 08, 2005
Thurrott: Sony Network Walkman is abysmal, get ‘near perfect’ Apple iPod shuffle instead – July 27, 2005
Thurrott: Apple Macs offer a safer computing experience than Microsoft Windows PCs – July 20, 2005
Thurrott: ‘I don’t see how Microsoft will ever stem the flow of iPods coming out of Cupertino’ – July 15, 2005
Thurrott on spyware: ‘we should have paid more attention to those Apple Switcher ads after all’ – July 08, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
Thurrott: ‘Longhorn is in complete disarray and in danger of collapsing under its own weight’ – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 2005
Doesn’t loyalty result from customer satisfaction?
We may be loyal, and that might be due to the great computers and serviice, but we do let Apple know when we are pissed about something.
Oh, I get it. So, you have to be a luke-warm customer to give unbiased feedback. INSANELY LOYAL is the point, you moron. High levels of customer satisfaction will garner loyalty. Even higher levels might garner insane loyalty. I don’t think it works the other way around — insanely loyal customers generating a higher than reasonable customer satisfaction rating.
Thurrott — another village idiot.
Interesting to hear that satisfied customers can “skew” a customer satisfaction rating. I wonder what rational people think when they read that kind of stuff.
The survey on customer satisfaction is probably skewed because Apple customers are “insanely loyal” about the product??? WTF?
Please don’t click on the link to the article. Thank you.
Why is this guy always have hard time believing anything positive about Apple?
“By the way, DellDailyNews, DellMinute, DellNN, DellSurfer, DellCentral, etc. domain names are all still available.”
That’s hysterical.
Anyway, this is just some sour grapes, and if Thurott took the time to read the Apple chat boards, he would see the Apple community is very demanding and critical of Apple. They are loyal–and give Apple high stats–because they deliver. No call centers across the world with people you can’t understand.
What an Oxy-Moron!
-To infinty and beyond
Maybe now he can see why absolutely NOBODY is insanely loyal to Dell. That would certainly explain their recent drop in customer satisfaction. You actually have to sell great products in order to get a great customer service rating and inspire loyalty in the first place. And that is something Dell has obviously never done with their Wal-Mart junkware.
“if Thurott took the time to read the Apple chat boards, he would see the Apple community is very demanding and critical of Apple.”
Oh believe me, Turdrott reads this Apple chat board religiously for sure. He loves the attention that he gets on here for the drivel he writes. Why do you think he alternates between bashing and praising Apple on a near daily basis? It’s just to see how much attention he can generate for himself and his pitiful website (that likely doesn’t get 1/10th the number of hits that MDN does). He’s nothing more than a troll, plain and simple.
One has to be insane to be loyal to the likes of Dell and Microsoft – hardware & software examples of slipshod quality. People still mindlessly follow these two companies even after being clobbered by yet another virus attack.
Alec – well put. ROFL – such great comments on this article!
I love the potential headline:
“Satisfied customers skew customer satisfaction survey!”
Still laughing…
So what if the customer base is loyal? Doesn’t disqualify the results. No matter what Apple did to earn the high marks, they earned them. Apple should be pround of the “insanely loyal” customer base.
MDN: doubt
Thurrott: Apple’s customer satisfaction rating ‘probably skewed by insanely loyal customer base’
Apple Fans: Thurott’s brain rating is ‘proably skewed by the fact that he is a son of a retarded chimp whore’
good to see Paul is back at it again!
Typical liberal view of I’m misable so misery should be spread around equally. Or, the Apple insanely loyal are right-wing kooks!
The ONLY reason Mac users are so satisfied, is that they are so satisfied!
Who would want to be part of that? Better use Windows and be pissed at your computer all the time.
I wonder why Apple has an “insanely loyal customer base” and Dell doesn’t
I think any rational person reading these posts would realize that yes, Apple does have an insanely loyal customer base. Some are pretty honest about their criticisms, but many are willing to twist their perceptions in order to agree with whatever Apple says. The fact that many are so quick to defend Apple against any type of attack, real or imaginary, just shows how insanely loyal some of them are. Face it, a company or product that affects roughly 2% of your life does not deserve the worship that some of you give to it.
??? SO let me get this straight, the only reason the results of happy customers is SO high is because the customers are SO happy? …thanks again Paul, real in-depth.
“By the way, DellDailyNews, DellMinute, DellNN, DellSurfer, DellCentral, etc. domain names are all still available.”
Classic.
And, what everybody else said.
This guy should be drug into the street and beaten with hammers.
MW: zipper. As in, hope Thurrot doesn’t cut his lip on Dell’s zipper. Ba-zing! I’ll be here all week, folks.
Face it, a company or product that affects roughly 2% of your life does not deserve the worship that some of you give to it.
Pardon me if I think your last line is complete hogwash. I have to say that my switch to Mac has affected MUCH more than 2% of my life. I *know* that the switch has freed up a lot of time I would normally be using to run maintenance on my old PC, or trouble-shoot a new problem. With the Mac, I get to work, finish my work, and get done quicker than I used to on my old PC. That means I can go for a walk with my daughter, or take her out shopping, or spend more time cooking a good meal, or do other chores around my home. That’s a big part of my life that used to have to be put on hold when my old PC would go wonky. So to say one company’s products can only affect 2% of a person’s life is seriously understating the matter.
Also, I had hopes for Thurrott, he seemed to be making a turnaround, but I guess everyone slips now and then. I would like to point out that these surveys are done at random, and no matter how many “insanely loyal” fans Apple has, unless you are called and surveyed, you cannot stuff the ballot Box for Apple. Thurrott should have known this before he penned that asinine phrase.
Good job Captain Obvious.
Whenever the idiot needs hits on his site, the stupidity factor gets kicked up a notch.
I wish I could get rid of this crappy Power Mac and get one of those fantastic Dell machines–but if I do that it will hurt my beloved Apple!
Yeah, that makes sense.