Apple Falls Behind Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony in New Consumer Experience Survey

[KdParker]

Because Windows 8.x currently has more users than the entire user base of OS X. Since 8.1 its only been here I've seen negative reaction to Windows 8, which is understandable since most users use OS X here.

In reality, Microsoft are doing fine and many people are adjusting to their newer interface just fine.

Agreed, and the same will be said about i0S7+ as time moves forward.

There was the same outcry when Windows 8 first came out, but people adjusted.

 

[Plutonius]

This has to be the most useless survey I have ever seen. We can't quantify things but this is what we believe the customers thinks.

 

[jkichline]

Sad but true

Sadly, this report doesn't surprise me. I've had a number of issues with Apple on both the developer and customer side of things this year. They made a fault policy change that revokes your ownership of an app when a refund is granted. They applied this retroactively too which created a customer service mess for me. For instance, some users received a refund a year ago for my app (Apple suggested I do this because they made me launch a new version of the app because they did not support transferring the app to another company at the time). Then, after a year of these users receiving free updates, they stopped and were required to purchase the app again!

I gave up sending my users to Apple for help. They are not helpful. They would refund the purchase, requiring the users to repurchase again to get the update! I have just been giving out promo codes left and right. This is two years after we launched the original app.

When talking to Apple developer support, they had and continue to have no resolution for this issue. I mean, seriously? They create their own problems.

I've had and still have big issues with iTunes Music Match. For instance, I've purchased Adele's 19 and 21 albums from iTunes. Only a few songs appear on my iTunes and devices. There is no way to download the music. None. I bought the album and can't even listen to the track, download or even buy it again. Dumb. This is still not resolved. I've just given up.

Apple has big problems here. I say this as a stockholder and developer. I've even emailed Tim Cook (knowing that wouldn't get very far, but hey...)

 

[Elbon]

Who actually interacts with Samsung?

I have to wonder how many people in this survey actually "interacted" with Samsung. As far as I know, they don't have any retail stores, and I'd guess that most Samsung phone owners bought their device from a mobile carrier, not the Samsung website. Any follow-up interaction (e.g. support) was probably also via the carrier. So the quality of their interaction would be pretty tough to gauge.

 

[slu]

Makes sense to me. The Apple Store is an awful place. It is packed with people who have no intention of buying anything, it is difficult to find someone to check out with, and you have to wait for service, even when you have an appointment. I avoid them at all costs.

 

[paul4339]

I'd say my (like most people's) only real interaction with Apple is when I go to the Apple store.

I used to like it, but it has become such a soul destroying experience going to a store and trying to get hold of someone or going in for an appointment and standing around waiting for it that I don't even go near the place unless I have no other option.

I agree. The article isn't about the iOS or Windows 8 or Kindle etc. It's about the quality of the interaction with the company (ie, customer service).

I'm not sure about everyone else, but I don't know of many people interacting with MS, Samsung or Amazon customer service. With MS, I don't even bother. With Amazon, the service works well, so I don't need to interact with them.

With Apple, I interact with customer service at the store. And IMO, it's Ok, but not as good as before because it's just too crowded and too hard to get hold of someone for service.

I haven't been to an Samsung or MS store to comment, but I'm guessing they don't have that problem.

.

 

[jamezr]

Without a good look at their methodology, this really fails the sniff test. On what measure does Microsoft go up so significantly considering the marketplace's continued rejection of windows phone and windows 8?

The same measure that all the rest was help up to.........

 

[Vanilla35]

Their rating has improved since last year, so iOS 7 must be a success.

That would be a very limiting factor. You would expect growth from one year to another with apple, the other portion of comparison would be the factor that other companies improved moreso. This brings about questioning the two aspects of products, which are hardware and software. You can also assume that most (if not all) companies are improving hardware equally (Apple a little more with their A7, however a little less with their camera), therefore that leaves software, where apple made a dramatic change recently.

Not coincidental

 

[nazaar]

This doesn't surprise me. Going to the Apple store is always a crowded mess. And the fact that employees seem to have narrow job descriptions means that there are generally a handful of them doing nothing while I wait for someone who can help me do something simple (ie exchange broken earbuds).

Compare this to Amazon, who doesn't have a physical presence but goes out of its way to make customers happy, and it makes sense that they are leading this survey.

Totally agree here. The Apple retail experience is a nightmare (over crowded, low inventory on new products, over crowded, finding help within the store when needed).

Did I mention that the stores are overcrowded?

I hate going to an Apple store, but had to venture in 2x within the last 2 months because the battery on my year old iPhone 5 kept shutting down between 10% - 20%. I was punctual for my 1st genius appointment, but was told I'd have to wait 10mins. After the appointment I was told to go home and try a restore; I did this, but the problem continued (as I knew it would).

My 2nd genius appointment had me waiting 7 minutes, but then 90 mins while they swapped out the battery. Did you know it's $70 for Apple to swap out the battery?!? Good thing I was still under warranty!

In any case the retail experience is dreadful, I purposefully steer clear of Apple stores. (this may or may not reflect other locations... I can only speak to my experience in the Toronto area)

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Steve was right when he said that people don't know what they want until you show them, but he could have gone further. Once people get what they want, few of them will actually make an effort to learn how to use what they purchased. This is why Apple's ratings are lower– because people project their inadequacies in product knowledge upon Apple, rather than themselves. Consumers blame Apple for the problems they have with their devices, when 95% (a trumped up percentage) of a user's problems arise from incomplete/incorrect product/technical knowledge. Don't blame Apple; make an effort to learn.

That doenst work because if you compare it with samsung, then thats saying that samsung is easier to learn.

The point is you shouldnt have to "learn" anything, it should be intuitive. The more intuitive the better.

 

[neilmacd]

Good.

I've felt let down as a customer a few times over the past year. And for the first time in a while I've explored the possibility of breaking out of the ecosystem.

Apple are getting too complacent, relying on that little apple logo to make a sale.

 

[sirozha]

I can tell you that the Apple store near where I live has mediocre customer service. Most employees there are arrogant and condescending. I have to take crap from them just to have any business done even though I make as much money as 7 of them combined and my technical skill is much superior to their "genius-level".

The Apple store that I used to frequent in another state, on the other hand, was close to perfect for customer experience. I think this depends on the manager and the geographic location. My only interaction with an Apple store was based on the other location, so when I moved to my current state, I was shocked at the lack of customer care and the arrogance of the employees. It's not hard to beat this type of customer service.

Some people working in this store are middle aged men who should not be making retail salaries at their age. They are obviously failures that no decent IT department would hire them. So, they go and work for Apple retail. They are not completely useless, and they are making more than they would at Best Buy or Fry's so they think they are some sort of upper crust of IT, whereas in reality they are a sorry bunch of failures.

Students working at an Apple store is a different story, but when you see a bunch of 40-50 year olds working there, and you have to take their arrogant attitude, you never want to come back.

My 3-year-old son loved the first Apple Store. We couldn't get him to leave it. He hates this one, and we can't even drag him into the store without him starting to scream. This by itself pretty much tells the story. By the way, I'm in my forties myself, and I love Apple tech, but I wouldn't work at an Apple store unless I had to because there were no other tech jobs available. If I were in my late teens early twenties, this would be a great place to work for a few years while in college.

Also, take note that none of the companies listed above Apple this year in customer satisfaction has a significant retail presence. To keep customer satisfaction high in retail, you have to pay people well and compete for the employees with other non-retail companies. Neither Apple nor any other company is going to do this. You can't base a satisfying retail business model solely on underpaid students.

 

[RedOrchestra]

"The point is you shouldnt have to "learn" anything, it should be intuitive. The more intuitive the better."

This is the crux of the problem for me and iOS7 and where my user experience with Apple has faltered - up until 7, I found the iOS to be very intuitive, 7 sucks in that category.

 

[KdParker]

Software that runs on a large variety of hardware with much better backwards compatibility and customisation/flexibility for the user. In a single word, choice, but not at the expense of usability.

What?

Those are some generalize statements being thrown around.

Some would say that i0S and Mavericks gives all of those charactersistics to the end user, while saying Samsung, Sony and MS dont.

I was simply looking for a more details about what was released by these companies that could fall under the heading 'all types of awesomeness'.

 

[MiesVanDerRobot]

Something is fishy here.

It was the only manufacturer to garner an "excellent" rating of 91 for Kindle customers.

(emphasis added)

If Amazon's score is for a specific product/product family, then it is likely that the entire graph is showing not companies' overall customer experience, but the customer experience of specific product lines.

Of course, the underlying report (and its methods) are behind a $499 paywall, but hey, here's a blog about the release of the report. Let's read, shall we?

The top spot this year went to Amazon, but not for its score in the retail category. Amazon earned an Index-leading score of 91 for its debut in the consumer electronics manufacturer category (for the Kindle). I guess that’s what happens when one of your company’s core principles is to obsess about customers. (It’s also worth noting that our study happened to coincide with the launch of the Kindle’s innovative ‘Mayday’ feature and corresponding ad campaign.)

(emphasis added)

Well, what do you know? Yep, that's not Amazon's overall rating. It's their rating only for the products they manufacture themselves: Kindles. Oh, and by the way. they just happened to be hotly advertising customer experience at the time Forrester took this survey. Oops.

So what do those lines for Sony, Samsung, and Apple represent? Are those also limited to specific product lines (e.g. Playstation, Galaxy, iPhone) and/or specific categories of business (e.g. retail sales experience, customer support experience)?

We may never know, because hey - the "science" is behind a paywall. We don't even get a key enabling us to properly understand and interpret the graph.

But gosh, isn't it fun to take a graph out of context and talk about it as if it has the weight and significance of holy scripture?

Dear internet media, stop with the innumeracy and the lack of skepticism. You're hurting America.

 

[Renzatic]

That doenst work because if you compare it with samsung, then thats saying that samsung is easier to learn.

The point is you shouldnt have to "learn" anything, it should be intuitive. The more intuitive the better.

The fact is, with anything electronic, there's no such thing as immediately intuitive. You always have to learn something.

The reason most of us here took to iOS almost intuitively is because we're already comfortable using computers and computer-like devices, and even then we had to find out where everything was, and all the extra gestures we could use to navigate around. People who aren't will face a learning curve even with iOS.

 

[Bilbo63]

I've personally had very good service at AppleStores. I did have one associate that had zero people skills and was actually a bit rude. Apart from that one time, generally it's been quite good.

This is not surprising as Apple gets larger with more employees, it becomes harder to hire people who are always a going to be a good fit. Also other companies have had to step up their game in many different ways. If Samsung, Microsoft and Sony have made improvements, it's a good deal for their customers.

 

[JPSaltzman]

Steve was right when he said that people don't know what they want until you show them, but he could have gone further. Once people get what they want, few of them will actually make an effort to learn how to use what they purchased. This is why Apple's ratings are lower– because people project their inadequacies in product knowledge upon Apple, rather than themselves. Consumers blame Apple for the problems they have with their devices, when 95% (a trumped up percentage) of a user's problems arise from incomplete/incorrect product/technical knowledge. Don't blame Apple; make an effort to learn.

It might help if Apple would go back to providing printed documentation manuals with every product, inside a pretty 3x10 foldout sheet showing the whiz-bang things the product can do -- and if you want more, go to their support site.

Have you seen their redesigned support web pages lately? It's a mess. You really have to dig deep to find out information about the iDevice or computer you just purchased, let alone figuring out the new tricks the OS does.

Again, Apple is lousy with documentation. (Hence, market for the Missing Manual series.)

 

[theheadguy]

Glad this thread has held true to common MR protocol:
-Article praising Apple as the best: GO APPLE!!!!
-Article suggesting Apple being beat by competition: question the accuracy of the statistics.

LOL!!!!!!!! Couldn't be more accurate, with the exception of....

-Article suggesting Apple being beat by competition: omggg MR what have u turned into?!?!?! troll!!!!!

I'm not sure what narrow slice of "exprience" this is supposed to be, but it fails the sniff test. I'll take this with major salt, as my Android-loving, Apple-hating friends curse at their flagship Android phones trying to do simple things and tolerating major problems like a lack of software updates.

You're very kind to have friends who can't do simple things with their phones...

 

[EvilEvil]

Apple needs to hire better Genius Bar and sales people.

 

[nagromme]

The fact is, with anything electronic, there's no such thing as immediately intuitive. You always have to learn something.

The reason most of us here took to iOS almost intuitively is because we're already comfortable using computers and computer-like devices, and even then we had to find out where everything was, and all the extra gestures we could use to navigate around. People who aren't will face a learning curve even with iOS.

But the curve, in my experience, will be amazingly gentle. FAR less than with Android, Mac or Windows. "Immediate" as in zero seconds may not be true, but obviously that extreme is not what is meant by "intuitive."

Non-tech savvy people I know, who struggle with the complexities of Android and Mac and Windows (I'm thinking especially of a non-tech-savvy Windows-using friend with an Android phone and hand-me-down iPad) find the iPad to be a whole different can of worms. They are able to do more with the iPad--entirely on their own--than I ever thought could be true of any computing device. They ask me questions all the time about Android and Windows stuff, but their iPad "just works." They did have to learn each app of course, but it was easy to do so. Best of all, the multi-app workflow (which people say iOS isn't ideal) for works for them (Copy and Paste!) and they are using multiple apps together to produce creative output, in a way they never did in years of using Windows and Mac.

 

[KdParker]

Totally agree here. The Apple retail experience is a nightmare (over crowded, low inventory on new products, over crowded, finding help within the store when needed).

Did I mention that the stores are overcrowded?

I hate going to an Apple store, but had to venture in 2x within the last 2 months because the battery on my year old iPhone 5 kept shutting down between 10% - 20%. I was punctual for my 1st genius appointment, but was told I'd have to wait 10mins. After the appointment I was told to go home and try a restore; I did this, but the problem continued (as I knew it would).

My 2nd genius appointment had me waiting 7 minutes, but then 90 mins while they swapped out the battery. Did you know it's $70 for Apple to swap out the battery?!? Good thing I was still under warranty!

In any case the retail experience is dreadful, I purposefully steer clear of Apple stores. (this may or may not reflect other locations... I can only speak to my experience in the Toronto area)

When the store is crowed, there will be a wait, as in any store. There is sometimes a feeling of WTF when waiting for an appointment, but I haven't found it to more or less time than waiting at any other stores.

 

[prowlmedia]

All Utter Rubbish. Not a Apple agains anyone else thing - just the entire 'Survey'

Sonys stores are awful and the sales people pushy as hell and have little to no knowledge.

Samsung and Microsoft don't have any stores at all.

Even if this is an overall customer service for the company it's almost impossible to quantify. They all do different products. Samsung do white goods and TV's for example and Sony make bluray players and PS4.

from the original article
"The survey attempts to quantify the somewhat squishy and hard-to-define criteria of customer experience. Forrester assigns each company a customer-experience index score based on a survey of how 7,500 U.S. consumers responded to these three questions:

How enjoyable were they to do business with?
How easy were they to do business with?
How effective were they at meeting your needs?"

WELL THATS CONCLUSIVE - WELL DONE RESEARCHERS.

The ONLY reason I can see for higher score which is obvious when you look at it is people are grumpy bar steward and if they can buy online and it turn up fast they are happy.

Therefore amazon wins.

Unbelievable. Utterly pointless

 

[jt73]

If Microsoft had consumer experience with their software like they have with company interactions, they might actually have a business. Working directly w/ MS hasn't really been their problem. It's using their products that can get aggravating.

 

[Daveoc64]

If Amazon's score is for a specific product/product family, then it is likely that the entire graph is showing not companies' overall customer experience, but the customer experience of specific product lines.

Why is that a problem?

If you're comparing the experience of owning a Kindle Fire and the experience of owning an iPad, it's not really relevant to know about the bad experiences Amazon shoppers have had with Kitchenware.

Kindle support is separate from Amazon's regular support.