14 DAY TRIAL // Forrester, a well-known market research firm, released a report measuring customers' overall satisfaction with computer manufacturers last week. According to the analysis based on answers gathered from over 4,500 individuals, Apple leads the pack (by quite a margin) in consumer satisfaction.
Forrester Research is an independent research company that offers pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Working with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies, it has been providing proprietary research, consumer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs for more than 25 years now.
“Forrester asked nearly 4,600 consumers about their interactions with a variety of companies, gauging the usefulness, usability, and enjoyability of those experiences,” the research firm says. “Based on these consumer responses, we calculated the Customer Experience Index (CxPi) for 113 firms in 12 different industries. In this document, we examine the five large PC manufacturers in the CxPi: Apple, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard (HP). The summary: Apple leads and Dell lags.”
According to a Macworld report, Apple's overall customer satisfaction rating was at 80 percent, 14 points above the closest competitor, Gateway – 66 percent. Close with a 64-percent and 63-percent customer satisfaction rating were HP and Compaq, respectively, while Dell had a satisfaction rating of just 58 percent.
Forrester based the ratings on three categories, according to the same report. Those were: Useful, Easy to Use, and Enjoyable. Needless to mention, Apple killed in each category. Forrester has shown that Apple products have it all, scoring 82 percent as Useful, 86 percent as Easy to Use, and 72 percent as Enjoyable.
As for the rest of the companies surveyed by Forrester, each received at least one score in the 50-percent range, with Dell being the only one to get a mark below average, being seen as Enjoyable by just 47 percent of the surveyed individuals.