Apple Beats Windows Competitors by 12% in American Customers Satisfaction Index

August 18th, 2009 at 4:30 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin

Apple is crushing its Windows-based competition in consumer satisfaction according to the latest American Customers Satisfaction Index (ACSI) results for the June quarter released Tuesday. Apple had a customer satisfaction grade of 84 (out of 100), which compares to 75 for #2 Dell, a 12% difference that the ACSI characterized as, "one of the largest gaps between first and second place for any industry."

The ACSI is a project of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and CFI Group, and its quarterly reports are based on lengthy surveys of customers in different industries throughout the year.

Apple's score of 84 represents a decline of 1 point, but, according to the ACSI, "the decline has done little to hurt the large lead Apple has enjoyed for six straight years over the Windows-based manufacturers."

The overall satisfaction score in the computer industry was 75, thank in part to gains from Gateway (up three points to 74), HP (up one point to 74), and Compaq (up six points to 74). Dell's 75 was unchanged from the previous ACSI computer survey results.

Apple has long lead most customer satisfaction surveys amongst its PC brethren, but the ACSI results have consistently shown Apple to have the most satisfied customers in the industry.

Still, other industries see higher results. For instance, the auto industry rose two points to get a satisfaction score of 86, much higher than the PC industry's, and the average is higher than even PC-leading Apple's score of 84. Interestingly, American auto makers all posted significant gains in customer satisfaction even while sales plummeted.

Cadillac and Lexus both lead the auto industries with scores of 89, while Buick, Honda and Lincoln Mercury tied for second at 88. Even the lowest scored automaker - Nissan, with a score of 78 - got a better score than any PC maker, other than Apple.

6 Observer Comments

Sir Harry Flashman said on August 18th, 2009 at 4:12 PM:

Yes, but as the laptop hunter ads tell us “If you find it you keep it!”

geoduck said on August 18th, 2009 at 4:46 PM:

I’ve worked on Dells
I’ve used Dells
My current employer has a number of Dell desktops, laptops, and servers.
I’m astounded Dell was #; I would have guessed much much lower.

geoduck said on August 18th, 2009 at 4:49 PM:

That should have read
I’m astounded Dell was #2;

MaxW said on August 19th, 2009 at 6:48 AM:

Well, in my experience, Dells have been pretty decent computers. They’re utilitarian for sure, and aren’t as well designed as Apples (of course), but all the ones I’ve used have proven to be reliable and robust.

The real pain in the rear is Windows.

geoduck said on August 19th, 2009 at 9:55 AM:

Yeah decent is all I would give them. Reliability is about average. Customer service is WAY below average. I also keep running into odd Dell custom parts that cost far more than they should. I just had a cooling fan fail on a server. A nice low voltage muffin fan, should cost $12 at the electronics store. No it was in a Dell custom bracket and the Dell part cost $75. I used the $12 part, moved the bracket to my fan and made it fit with a file, drill, tape, and some ingenuity. I’ve also run into a fair number of video/audio/ethernet cards that should take normal drivers but will only work with the Dell custom driver.

I’ve had better luck with HP, MPC, Shuttle compact systems from BoldData, even Compaq. I can see Dell in the top 10, maybe in the top 5. But number 2? That surprises me a lot.

Rocketdun said on August 19th, 2009 at 10:20 AM:

I got my wife a laptop with Windows Vista (regrettably), after several hours I was able to configure the beast operating system to work on my wireless connection. By the same token I got a new Mac Book Pro, out of the box powered up and on line in about 25 minutes. Ya wonder why people hate Vista and Windows.

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