The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has registered a marginal increase as customer satisfaction slowed, according to a report released today from the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center. The Index edges up 0.1% to 75.3 on ACSI’s 100-point scale, and is up only 1% since the second quarter of 2006.
Overall customer satisfaction with the PC industry has fallen 3% to a score of 75. Apple and Dell each dropped 5%. Despite the drop, Apple still is the industry leader in customer satisfaction, with a score of 79.
“Apple has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years,” said Professor Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI at the University of Michigan, in the press release. “…It’s not easy to manage quality and customer satisfaction when a company quickly has to increase production or provide service to a larger number of customers.”
A rating above 74 means you’re doing “quite well,” Fornell told CNET News. “‘It’s almost like what goes up must come down,’ he said. ‘They have done so well that they have increased their business by 400 percent in the last five years. That puts a certain strain on resources. With many more customers to service, it’s not that service quality is going down, as much as the reliability of the products.’ Survey results refer only to Apple’s computer products.” Full article here.
After last year’s improvement, Dell’s continuing customer service problems have the company back near the bottom of the PC rankings with a score of 74. Hewlett-Packard’s HP division improved 1% to 76, though its Compaq division is the worst in the industry at 73.
Source: http://theacsi.org/
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jimbo von Winskinheimer” for the heads up.]
Were they able to weed out Zune Tang’s 23,784 bogus complaints from the Troll on a Mission Foundation?
I wonder if the drop is due to a certain product or if its a broad problem. I personally noticed that since a few years, Apple’s software is quite buggy – especially iTunes and Quicktime.
Another 5% drop, and they’d be at the bottom. Please don’t let it happen, Apple. Stop releasing buggy stuff before it’s ready.
Try asking what levels of “product” satisfaction are and Apple would go off the scale compared to everyone else….
All this suggests is that they are producing more, more quickly, pushing the envelope, and you would expect a certain failure rate. I have certainly not detected anyone saying Apple hasn’t given great service when a genuine problem arises.
1: Glossy screens
2: Insecure software.
It’s turning off a lot of people to Apple now.
I know I’m one and so is the “talk”.
Apple can do the following.
1: Return matte screens
2: Fix Open Source components of Mac OS X as fast as the Open Source community does.
Right now, to find a exploit for Mac OS X all one has to do is search the open source community because Apple is substancially delayed in updating the open source components.
As Apple is converting more Windows users, the pool of whiners is growing. Let’s face it, if you’ve been using Window for the last 6 or 7 years, complaining is the status quo. Now they’re in the Apple camp, and complaining is still a knee-jerk reaction.
I wonder if AT&T dissatisfaction had any affect on the Apple numbers.
Must be troll time this morning
Customer satisfaction ratings will inevitably drop as more mainstream users adopt the Mac. I believe the Satisfaction ratings have been artificially inflated by a core Mac community that will forgive Apple just about anything.
The average user is more likely to rate Apple based on actual experience rather than a culturally motivated desire to promote Apple’s reputation at any cost.
@Problems,
You’re just making crap up with the security issue. Sure, there may be vulnerabilities, but vulnerabilities don’t affect users at all. Only exploits affect users, and there still aren’t any that affect anyone outside of a lab.
NSFY, you still don’t get it? ZT is making jokes, not trolls.
Spark, I think you have a point there – Windows users are more prone to complaining about things they can do nothing about, compared to Mac types. They have considerable experience at it, often, and tend to give up trying to get things fixed because such attempts never worked in the past. We deal with such people on PodOmatic all the time … they spam the discussion boards with complaints but never mention their problems to the admins. I pass their complaints along, they get fixed, no comment or thanks from the complainer.
OT: There isn’t a whole lot of difference between the top (Apple) and the bottom (Compaq). It doesn’t seem statistically significant. Of course, Apple has to deal with problems others can ignore – software, AT&T, iPods, iPhones – so there’s no telling where the specific problems might be. It’s also possible the Apple crowd is expecting a higher standard than the PC crowds.
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod-Cast – now featuring the ICWP Pajama Party
@DL…. hey bro.. Man, did you EVER missread NSFY’s post or what!
@DL meyer
You still don’t get it. Nobody’s interested in your stupid link, so please delete it in your posts.
Talk about hitwhore and troll.
“NSFY, you still don’t get it? ZT is making jokes, not trolls.”
I get it, DL. More than you think.
[thanks, Jim – nothing like independent thinking? ; ) ]