Apple tops the US charts in customer satisfaction… again

Apple has cemented its place atop the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a sort of Michelin guide for customer service, for the eleventh straight year. In a new report released by ACSI, Apple continued its lead over big name rivals such as Dell, Acer, Hewlett-Packard and the catch-all “All Others” when it comes to satisfaction with computing devices – including desktops, laptops and tablets. Scores are based on everything from pre-sale customer expectations, to perceived value and quality, customer complaint incidents and overall consumer loyalty.

Apple has once again retained its top spot in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index in the personal computers category – though three points down on its 2013 score. Apple has now held top billing for eleven straight years. The ASCI continues to lump computers and tablets into the same category, so the scores reflect satisfaction with both Macs and iPads. Scores reflect customer expectations pre-sale, perceived quality, perceived value, customer complaint incidents and customer loyalty. While Apple’s score has fallen, the biggest threat to its ranking comes not from the big name Windows PC manufacturers like Dell, Toshiba and HP – all of whom have seen their scores drop even further – but from the ‘Other’ category. This includes Asus, Lenovo and Samsung. Apple is of course no stranger to the top slot in customer satisfaction tables, the iPhone taking the #1 position in the JD Power Smartphone Satisfaction index back in April, and the iPad doing the same in the tablet category in May.