08/16/2005, 7:50am, EDT

Tuesday, August 16th

Apple leads customer satisfaction survey, Dell falls

Apple's customer satisfaction rating remained at its highest levels ever, while Dell's rating fell this year as consumers complained of long-wait times for help and trouble getting questions answered. A poll of 80,000 consumers conducted by the University of Michigan found that customer satisfaction at Dell declined 6.3 percent, falling further behind Apple which remained number No. 1 in the survey, after grabbing the top spot in 2004.Bloomberg reports that Apple's customer satisfaction rating was unchanged at 81, while Dell's declined to 74 from 79 in 2004; among internet companies, Time Warner Inc.'s America Online had the biggest gain (rising to 71 from 67 a year ago), while HP rose 2 points from last year to 73 and Google scored 82 on the index. Apple has managed to keep its constomer satisfaction rating at the highest levels since 1994, while Dell slipped to the lowest levels since 1998, according to the report.

Bloomberg interviewed Claes Fornell, marketing professor and head of the university's National Quality Research Center.

"The satisfaction of customers is pretty much a leading indicator as to whether customers will come back and buy more," Fornell said. "Apple looks good. Dell is facing challenges. If I were a Dell shareholder, I'd look at the results."

Dell Chairman Michael Dell told analysts last week internal surveys showed customer satisfaction "improved" in the past quarter even as PC shipments rose and the number of consumers being served increased. While a Dell spokesperson said the company over the past year has hired additional service staff, offered more training and opened four customer- service centers around the world, he said.

"Though he didn't participate in the survey, Fornell said his wife, a Dell customer, has waited on hold for an hour at a time to get the help she was promised under a paid technical support program. Fornell said he'll probably consider Apple when buying his next PC.

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ogun

an hour on hold

08/16, 8:37am, EDT

You buy a Dell, you get what you paid for. And what you deserve.

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turtle777

...Google scored 82...

08/16, 9:44am, EDT

What ? How does Google customer satisfaction compare to computer manufacturers ? Talk about Apples and Oranges...

-t

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rossco63

apple support

08/16, 11:07am, EDT

I've had good support from Apple on the very rare occasions I've needed it for a Mac. My son's iPod mini is on replacement #2 though...the service is fast but the mini's seem kinda shoddy compared to the big ones.

Anyway...I'm glad Apple hasn't outsourced it's support to India like other pc vendors. It's a big mistake. My own company outsourced some internal support to India, and the employees hate it because they are simply incompetent. I do support myself, and we constantly have to train, and then clean up after, the Indians.

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jimster

Outsourcing

08/16, 11:43am, EDT

Looks like Dell is paying the price for outsourcing customer and tech support to a 3rd world country and employees that really do not care that much about customer satisfaction. Dell had to move it's Business Customer and tech suport back to the US and Canada because business customers were fed up with the lack of "care" they were receiving from the 3rd world call centers. I guess short term savings come at the price of long term satisfaction.

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ogun

re outsourcing

08/16, 4:26pm, EDT

It's worse than that. Dell not only outsourced their call centres because they could pay their workers less outside the US, they made it clear that the only reason why they were outsourcing was to save money and that they had no respect whatsoever for their new employees. (Even less than they'd had for their now-fired American employees, that is.) In an effort to cut costs even further, they paid wages low even by local standards. Need it be said that what few good workers they got didn't stay long, and that those who stayed adopted the 'if they pretend to pay us, I'll pretend to work' attitude, while spending as much company time as possible looking for a real job? I've had some experience with American companies doing outsourcing. Management paid their non-American staff one tenth the pay ($66/week vs $640/week) of their American staff and then wondered why morale was non-existant and production was one-fifth that of the American staff, and falling. (Management also didn't like hearing the reason, which is why I was outta there in three weeks...)

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