Apple beats HP, Dell, others in holiday satisfaction

Apple's holiday customer satisfaction through its online and brick-and-mortar stores remains high this year, leading both sales categories, while experiencing a slight dip since last year. According to a recent study by ForeSee Results, Apple received a 79-percent overall satisfaction rating out of the top 40 companies in the report, showing no loss or gain from last year's numbers. In terms of of satisfaction by sales channel, Apple netted 75-percent satisfaction in the "Manufacturer Direct" sales and 73-percent with its physical retail locations. These numbers are down 1.3-percent and 1.4-percent from last year, respectively, but were still high enough to earn Apple the top spot on the ForeSee study.

Apple was also a top performer in the Computers and Electronics category, achieving 73-percent overall satisfaction, the same score that Amazon received in the "Mass Merchant" category. Apple's comprehensive score of 79-percent was only three points behind Amazon, with the international virtual big-box store coming in at 82-percent.

Apple managed to edge out HP (75%), Dell (74%), Gateway (71%), and Sony (70%) in terms of overall customer satisfaction, with the four latter companies experiencing drops ranging from 1.4- to 4.1-percent.

With customers warming up to the idea of placing orders online, rather than fighting traffic and long lines, internet retail is becoming increasingly popular with shoppers. Satisfaction with online experiences, and overall volume of sales, are outpacing those of brick-and-mortar retail locations, with 72-percent of customers saying that they were likely to do most of their shopping online, and 62-percent saying they will get the majority of their shopping done in physical retail locations.

Filed under: Apple, industry
Other story tags: retail, sales, Online, satisfaction, brick-and-mortar