Amazon tops customer satisfaction survey for eighth straight year

A new report from ForeSee reveals that Amazon is once again the most popular online destination with regards to customer satisfaction. The store that claims to have everything from A to Z is no stranger to being in first place in the online shopping survey as they have earned the honor for eight straight years.

Amazon was awarded a score of 88 out of a possible 100; the same score they earned in 2011. The survey company noted that Amazon has done so well due to their general appeal and the overwhelming variety of products they offer customers. In fact, ForeSee president and CEO Larry Freed said they have been dominate for so long and have such a history of focusing on the customer that it’s hard to imagine anyone else coming close.

That of course isn’t to say that others didn’t fare well in the survey. LLBean.com earned a score of 85, QVC.com and Vitacost both tallied 84 points and Esteelauder.com scored a respectable 83. Other well-known companies that have scored high in previous surveys didn’t rank as well this year, however.

Apple.com dropped four points with an overall satisfaction score of 80, good for their worst showing in four years. Dell also lost four points over last year’s score, coming up with only 77 points for 2012. But it was JCPenny.com that suffered the largest drop with six points, finishing 2012 with a score of 78.

Data in the ForeSee survey was collected from more than 24,000 customer satisfaction surveys taken between Thanksgiving and Christmas and included more than 100 different vendors.

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Customer satisfaction with Apple online store falls

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Apple Falls to Four-Year Low in Online Customer Satisfaction SurveyDecember 27, 2012 at 4:34 am PT

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The post-Ron Johnson era did not begin well for Apple. Earlier this year, the company ousted Johnson’s successor, John Browett, as head of its retail operations following a series of rare and embarrassing cockups. Initially, those missteps appeared to be largely operational, fomenting unrest and criticism among Apple Store employees: Freezing hiring and other moves intended to scale back payroll expenses, deferring facilities repairs. But new research from analytics firm ForeSee suggest that Browett’s brief tenure at Apple may have had some negative effects on the customer-facing side of its retail operations as well. Could that really be the case?

According to ForeSee’s annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, compiled from 24,000 customer surveys gathered between Thanksgiving and Christmas, customer satisfaction with Apple’s online store slipped three points this year, falling to 80 from the 83 points it captured in 2011. That decline was among the biggest Foresee charted this year, and it left Apple with its lowest score on the firm’s consumer satisfaction index in four years. (Ironically, J.C. Penney — where Ron Johnson is now CEO — was another of Foresee’s big decliners this holiday season).

Why the sudden drop? There’s no simple explanation, though it’s easy enough to lay the blame on Browett. Following his tenure, the company not only forfeited its second place ranking on the Foresee index, but fell out of the top five as well. Sure, the decline was measured after his ouster, but not so far after that he doesn’t bear some responsibility. That said, there are obviously other factors at work here as well.

ForeSee’s surveys measure four elements of customer satisfaction: Merchandise appeal, competitiveness of price, Web site functionality and Web site content. Clearly, not all of those elements were under Browett’s control. And it’s not evident where, exactly, Apple suffered declines. ForeSee says only that “Web site functionality” is a top priority for improvement at Apple. It’s worth noting, though, that that functionality isn’t so different from what it was last year, when Apple placed in ForeSee’s top five.

Keeping that in mind — and our perceptions of price and product appeal, as well — Apple’s diminished customer satisfaction score seems more the result of consumer caprice than anything else. Have the company’s prices and the appeal of its products really changed that drastically from 2011 when it scored higher on the ForeSee index?

“The luster of Apple is fading a bit,” Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee told AllThingsD. “Keeping up with consumer’s rising expectations of the online customer experience is no easy task, but not keeping up can lead to decline in loyalty, word of mouth and revenue growth. In particular, even though Apple gets top dollar for their products, price is an area weakness for the company when it comes to satisfaction. Apple’s site might be due for some changes, and the usefulness, convenience and variety of features on the site presents the biggest opportunity for Apple to improve the customer experience.”

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Tagged with: Apple, customer satisfaction, ForeSee, Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, John Browett

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Apple and Lenovo desktop PCs tops in satisfaction

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In our 2012 reader survey of tech satisfaction, reliability, and service, the results for desktop PCs painted a somewhat different picture than our poll in the laptop category. Here, performance clearly remains a critical feature, although softer issues such as design and peripheral quality are still areas of discussion.

Compared with laptops, desktops saw a slightly wider spread of satisfaction scores. Apple desktops scored highly on average and took top marks for design and peripheral quality, but surveyed consumers dinged them for relatively poor expandability. The picture gets muddier from there, with most competitors clustered together. HP for Home and Dell for Home landed around the average for satisfaction with desktop features; Sony and eMachines ran significantly behind the pack in that regard, with several average scores below 8.

HP for Home and Dell for Home rated just below average for ease of use, while Dell for Business rated slightly above average.

Interestingly, Lenovo for Home and Asus took the highest score (8.8 out of 10) on performance for the price. HP for Home even outscored Apple in this measurement, earning an 8.6 (Apple received a mark of 8.5), and Dell for Home also posted an 8.5. The average score for this measurement among all brands was 8.4.

Looking at overall satisfaction levels, we found that survey respondents were happiest with their desktops' operating noise and performance for the price.

Although desktops have a reputation for being more reliable than laptops are, this turned out not to be the case when we looked at users' responses: A mere 0.01 point separated laptops and desktops on users’ ratings of overall reliability.

Of course, some things don't change. As with laptops, hard-drive failure issues were readers’ primary desktop reliability complaint. On the other hand, motherboard failures, relatively uncommon on laptops, were tied for the second-most cited problem with desktop computers. Graphics-card hassles and OS glitches also wound up on the list of reliability complaints.

BrandOperating noiseDesignQuality of included peripheralsPorts and connec- tivityExpand- abilityPerfor- mance for the priceChart notes: Each listed number is the average response from surveyed readers on a 1-to-10 scale where 1 is “extremely dissatisfied” and 10 is “extremely satisfied.” Brand ranking is based on the average scores across all feature-satisfaction measures. Acer for Home includes the Aspire and AspireRevo lines. Dell for Home includes the Inspiron and Studio lines; Dell for Business includes the Vostro, Optiplex, and Inspiron lines. HP for Home includes the Pavilion and TouchSmart lines; HP for Business includes the HP Pro 3000 line. Lenovo for Home includes the IdeaCenter, Essential, and other lines; Lenovo for Business includes the ThinkCentre and other lines.

BrandAny significant problemsSatisfaction with reliabilityChart notes: A “significant problem” is one that stops or seriously impairs operation of the PC during the first three years of ownership. Satisfaction scores are on a 1-to-10 scale where 1 is “extremely dissatisfied” and 10 is “extremely satisfied.” The average score is 8.5.

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