In the new Customer Experience Index of 133 companies compiled by Forrester Research, Apple and its iTunes music service are ranked in places 35 and 46, respectively. While this placed Apple above its PC competitors HP (62nd place), Toshiba (71), Acer (79), Compaq (89), and Dell (97), iTunes fell below rivals Barnes & Noble, which came in first, and fourth-place Amazon.
iTunes' performance relative to other online services was specifically noted to BusinessWeek by Bruce D. Temkin, VP and principal analyst of customer experience with Forrester.
Even if iTunes doesn't rank as high as Amazon in terms of "customer experience," it is still the premier destination to download movies, music and other content online. Last year, it was found that 25 percent of overall U.S. music sales come through iTunes. In terms of online music sales, iTunes is the undisputed leader with 69 percent of the market.
Also in the Forrester study, AT&T Wireless, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the US, was ranked below competitors T-Mobile and Verizon, but bested mobile carrier Alltel. AT&T saw a similar result in a study released in December, in which consumers ranked the carrier last in terms of customer satisfaction.
The Forrester study was comprised of 133 companies across 14 industries including PC manufacturers, wireless carriers and retailers. Retailers took 12 out of the top 20 spots, while healthcare and Internet, TV and cable providers were found toward the bottom of the list.
The only industries to receive a overall good rating (average score of 80 percent) were retailers, hotels, and parcel delivery services. Barnes & Noble retained its first place ranking from last year's survey with both Charter's cable and TV services taking last place.Â
The Index was based on the responses of 4,653 US consumers made in November 2009. The companies were rated on three main questions:
- 1. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how effective were they at meeting your needs?
2. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how easy was it to work with these firms?
3. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how enjoyable were the interactions?
In a similar study of customer experience done in April of 2009, Apple took the top spot among its peers, besting the competition by a considerable margin, being the only computer manufacturer to earn a "good" rating. In fact, Apple consistently outperforms its peers in the computer industry when it comes to customer satisfaction and service.
47 Comments
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Apple is rearchitecting iTunes to be less of a fat client app and wore of a webapp?
It's now possible to listen to music previews using only a web browser. Soon, it will be possible to buy music over a web browser.
Perhaps that will help the consumer ratings.
I don't know much about Amazon or B&N, but compared to what it orignally was, iTunes has become cluttered junk. Apple really needs to retool it from the ground up.
I believe a completely rewritten client is needed. The interface changes should be minimal, but the underpinning code needs to be largely scrapped and written with speed in mind.
Additionally, when is iTunes going to get 64-bit support on Snow Leopard???
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Apple is rearchitecting iTunes to be less of a fat client app and wore of a webapp?
It's now possible to listen to music previews using only a web browser. Soon, it will be possible to buy music over a web browser.
Perhaps that will help the consumer ratings.
While I like some of the changes in iTunes 9, especially the home sharing feature which works extremely well for us, the new store layout is certainly not one of them. Album and movie covers are much too small now - on a high density screen they are almost indistinguishable, artist names and titles are cut off everywhere - especially helpful when you are on a TV show detail page and it lists 10 seasons under "More Seasons" all having exactly the same name ending with "..." (and of course the season number being included in the "..." part).
I have started to buy some music on Amazon, because the iTunes 9 store is so annoying - at least they have a better presentation than an impressive but useless collection of ellipses.
Maybe some people like it, but for me they have made it much worse.
Additionally, when is iTunes going to get 64-bit support on Snow Leopard???
What would that be good for? I have never seen iTunes using more than 200-250 MB of RAM... and it is not really doing any fancy calculations.
I really hope they work on Final Cut, Aperture, etc. instead.