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Amazon ups its Smile donations 10x for one day
If you need a good reason to pull the trigger on that Amazon purchase, then try telling yourself it's for a good cause. Today only (through midnight PT), the retailer's AmazonSmile program will donate 5 percent of the purchase price from eligible products to the charity of your choice. It is late in the day, but it is good to remember that you can participate and trigger a contribution anytime, simply by using the AmazonSmile website and selecting a charity to receive the contribution. The increased donation (it's up 10x from the regular amount), comes as a thank you for customers ranking Amazon #1 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) with a score of 86.
Everybody still hates their cable provider
Two of America's independent consumer ratings agencies have revealed something we already knew: our cable providers suck. Picking up where it left off last year, America's Consumer Satisfaction Index has revealed that the pay-TV and internet businesses are the nation's most hated industries. It's not even as if the industry is getting better, since the bottom-rated Time Warner Cable has lost 9 percent of its satisfaction points in just a year. Perhaps, if Charter and TWC's merger goes through, the former can boost the latter's approval rating, which is placed 8 out of 13.
Samsung squeezed past Apple in consumer satisfaction for smartphones
Apple may have owned Christmas, but Samsung won the first half of the year when it came to satisfying shoppers with its phones. The latest stats from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys 70,000 consumers every year, show Samsung slightly beating out Apple by two points with a satisfaction score of 81. Sure, it's not a huge lead, but it's a big jump for the company from last year's score of 76. Apple, meanwhile, saw its score fall more than two points since last year. It's always tough to read much into these numbers (was it the Galaxy S5 that helped, or just Android improvements?), but it's still a decent win for Samsung. Don't be surprised if Samsung ends up marketing the heck out of this during the Super Bowl.
Apple tops ACSI personal computer list for 11th straight year
This shouldn't come as surprising news to anyone who has watched Apple's sales figures over the past decade or so, but the company has just ended up at the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index list for personal computers, laptops and tablets. This marks the eleventh year in a row that Apple has topped the list, but there was a slightly ominous tone to the numbers as the score dropped from 87 in 2013 to 84 this year. Dell is the second single company on the list with a score of 76, dropping from a 2013 score of 79. HP is now at the bottom of the list of major manufacturers, falling from 80 to 74 in just one year. Oddly enough, smaller PC and tablet manufacturers including Samsung, Lenovo and Asus are close behind Apple. Those companies make up a group called "all others" and saw a sizable increase in their ACSI score from 76 last year to 82 in 2014. Overall, customer satisfaction with the personal computer category dropped 1.3 percent. ACSI noted that "as the early enthusiasm with tablets wears off, customer satisfaction dips" with desktop computers leading the satisfaction numbers. The ACSI report is available for free (registration required) here.
Apple tops customer satisfaction survey for 10th year in a row
When you ask an Apple fan why they use the company's products, you're often going to hear "because they just work" as a response. But those people are loyalists -- how satisfied are general Mac users? It turns out Apple has been at the top of the customer satisfaction charts for the last 10 years. That information comes from the American Customer Satisfaction Index's annual rankings for customer satisfaction of personal computers. Apple's score for 2013 was 87, compared to a score of 80 for Hewlett-Packard, 79 for both personal computers and Dell and 78 for Toshiba. Scores are based on a number of factors, including customer expectations, perceived quality of products and perceived value. Apple's score increased 1.2 percent from the 2012 survey results.
Samsung edges past Apple in US smartphone satisfaction study, but reverse is true in Korea
What a difference a year makes. Apple topped American Customer Satisfaction Index's smartphone rankings back in 2012, but Samsung has taken the lead in 2013 by a slim margin. Owners responding to ACSI's national survey gave an 84-point score to both the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, putting the two Samsung phones just past the 82-point iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S. Researchers haven't explained the changing attitudes, although they add that the Galaxy S 4 and other newer phones didn't ship in time to count. It's at least clear that the American sentiment doesn't extend worldwide -- ACSI notes that South Koreans ranked the iPhone 5 higher than the Galaxy S III despite Samsung's home turf advantage. Apple also maintains the lead in ACSI's device-independent scores at 81 points to 76, although Samsung is quickly catching up. It's safe to say that neither smartphone maker can afford to relax.
Survey says Verizon is best at customer satisfaction... among the big four, anyway
The results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index are in, and parroting a recent study by Consumer Reports, Verizon Wireless is named the front-runner with the most happy subscribers among the big four carriers. The survey takes a number of factors into account, such as call clarity, dropped calls, network coverage, data speeds, helpfulness of in-store staff, diversity of plans and the quality of the carrier's websites. As the dust settled, Verizon notched a three-point gain to chart a score of 73 (out of 100), whereas ACSI's previous front-runner, Sprint, held steady with a score of 71. AT&T is portrayed as "in a statistical dead heat with Sprint," which climbed one point to chart an ACSI score of 70. Meanwhile, satisfaction among T-Mobile customers fell a point, which caused the carrier to pull up the rear with a score of 68. On the whole, ACSI suggests that subscribers are generally more satisfied with regional providers and MVNOs, as the little dogs hold an aggregate score of 78. Speaking in broader terms, the ACSI reports that the wireless industry has reversed its two-year trend of sliding customer satisfaction to hit a benchmark score of 72, which matches the industry's 10-year high. Naturally, improvements still need to be made across the board, but at least things seem to be moving in the right direction.
iPhone waltzes into top spot of US phone satisfaction index, small carriers trump the giants
We know almost too well how smartphones perform in US market share; what we don't usually see is how happy customers are once the shrink wrap's off. Going by a newly-expanded American Customer Satisfaction Index, it's the iPhone that most scratches the itch at a score of 83. Despite having just been added, Apple was noticeably ahead of a three-way tie between HTC, LG and Nokia at 75. You might not want to look if you're a freshly-minted RIM executive: the BlackBerry made its freshman debut on the charts at the bottom, or 69. Big carriers have their own reasons to wince, too, knowing that smaller carriers like US Cellular and TracFone scored higher on the happiness meter than incumbents hiking service fees. While there's definitely some wiggle room for your own experience to have been better or worse, if you were an iPhone owner on a regional carrier in the past few months, you were statistically the most likely to be on Cloud Nine.
Apple tops ACSI satisfaction survey for cellphone manufacturers
Apple has done it again, topping the American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey for cellphone manufacturers and wireless carriers. The company ended up with a score of 83 points out of 100 possible, higher than any other manufacturer. ACSI polls 70,000 consumers each year, asking questions about customer satisfaction with over 225 companies in 47 industries. This year Apple was nine points above the industry average of 74, and eight points above runners-up Nokia, HTC, and LG. Arch-rival Samsung was near the bottom of the satisfaction barrel, with a dismal 71 point total. The formerly powerful RIM, manufacturer of the BlackBerry line of smartphones, was at the bottom. It could only scrape together 69 points, a full 14 points below Apple and five points below the industry average. The survey also listed customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. Sprint came in at the top spot with 71 points, Verizon at 70, and AT&T and T-Mobile at 69 points. Surprisingly, AT&T's score was four points higher than its 2011 score. [via Wired]
Apple tops satisfaction survey for 8th year
For the eighth year in a row, Apple has come out on top of the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Additionally, no other company got close to touching Apple. In the 2011 survey, Apple earned the ACSI's highest score ever, with 87 out of a possible 100 points. That's one point higher than last year and nine points higher than Apple's closest rival in the survey, HP, which scored a 78 (which is also the PC industry average in the ACSI survey). The last time Apple missed the top spot was in 2003, when Dell held a one-point margin. The ACSI conducts over 70,000 interviews to gather its results on over 225 companies and 200 federal or local government services. ACSI then breaks down the results into 10 economic sectors and 47 industries awarding scores of 0 to 100, which measure consumer feelings and customer satisfaction towards companies and products. In a statement, ACSI founder Claes Fornell summed up Apple's performance which keeps it at the top of the ACSI: "In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300 percent. Apple's winning combination of innovation and product diversification--including spinning off technologies into entirely new directions--has kept the company consistently at the leading edge." [via Cnet]
Survey says pay TV customer service is at new heights
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has been tracking the satisfaction of pay TV customers since 2001, and in that time the results have never been as high as they were in the first quarter of 2010 -- thanks to the new players. Verizon's FiOS service lead the charge with a score of 73 out of a 100 with U-Verse close behind at 72. Dish Network was right in line behind those two with 71, while DirecTV moved in the opposite direction, as the rest of the industry, dropping three points to 68 -- which is still above the overall overage of 66 for the entire pay TV business. Not a big surprise that Charter, Comcast and Time Warner brought down the average by bringing up the rear scoring 60, 61 and 61. Although this is a trend headed in the right direction it is hardly stellar as the average for other sectors like wireless, utilities, health care and even motion pictures is considerably higher.
