As honeymoon periods go, the Apple customer satisfaction one has lasted a remarkably long time. However, you might be forgiven for thinking that honeymoon is now over, given some headlines I have seen online. Forgiven but, I would maintain, as wrong as wrong can be.
Google might not like Apple very much any more, and the EFF are none too pleased with the company either, but your average punter is more than happy.
Headlines declaring that amongst the top tier PC vendors only Apple has seen a dip in customer satisfaction rates would appear to suggest that all is not well at Chez Apple. However, read behind the strap and get into the meat of the story and you will soon discover that this just simply is not the case.
The attention catching headlines have come about courtesy of a consumer satisfaction survey carried out by the American Society for Quality which looked at customer happiness over the last year. This does, indeed, show that satisfaction rates amongst Apple users have dipped during the second quarter, but only by one point from the previous year. In contrast, neither Dell, HP, Compaq or Acer showed a drop in customer satisfaction.
So, it is bad news for Apple then? Well I doubt they will pleased to have dropped a wee bit, but it really does need to be viewed in the proper perspective which means looking at where Apple sits when compared to the other vendors overall for customer satisfaction. And the answer is still right there sitting at the top of the happiness league table. To put it into even more perspective, Apple has held that particular position for six years now.
The real clincher is by how much Apple leads the pack, even allowing for that one point drop it sits on a satisfaction score of 84. The nearest rival is Dell on 75.
So there we have it, the Apple happiness honeymoon is far from over if you ask me, or more importantly if you ask most Apple users it would seem.
