14 DAY TRIAL // Apple may not be a perfect company, but as far as consumer satisfaction is concerned, it’s very close. The Mac maker has nabbed the first spot in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the eighth year in a row, ACSI announced today.
ACSI says that the situation in the electronics market has evolved a lot over the past two years, and Apple seems to be the company with the tightest grip on these changing times.
The economic indicator observes that, “As the demand for traditional desktop PCs weakens, the tablet computer market is skyrocketing—led by Apple’s iPad.”
Their latest report reveals that “Apple’s record of customer satisfaction preeminence in the personal computer industry continues unabated in 2011, as the company adds another point to its already exceptional score.”
ASCI calls Apple’s winning streak “unstoppable.” In fact, Apple outpaces its nearest competitor by 9 points, with a total of 87 points.
Commenting on their findings, Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and author of The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference, remarked:
“In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300%. 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.”
As far as other PC vendors were concerned, ASCI found no major changes in the scores of Compaq and HP (the companies tracking Apple closely in the ASCI rankings), which saw only incremental gains (+1%) this year.
The tracker actually expect HP results to drop next year, as its market share is increasingly threatened by tablet computers.
According to ASCI, “the company may soon abandon the PC market altogether.”
But the American indicator doesn’t only track computer makers. They also keep an eye on the appliance industry (washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, ranges and ovens), where Whirlpool remains unbeaten albeit a minimal decrease in customer satisfaction (-1%).
The appliance company is keeping a solid lead over General Electric and Electrolux, its closest competitors.