PCs and TVs received high scores from consumers in a report released Tuesday by the US Customer Satisfaction Index.

The ACSI Home Appliances and Electronics Study for 2021-2022, based on interviews with more than 9,000 consumers, rates a range of products on a scale of zero to 100.

Customer satisfaction with the TVs is “sky high,” ACSI noted in a news release, pulling the score down to 80.

“Television – and consumer electronics more broadly – has been one of the more satisfying industries measured at ACSI,” said ACSI Research Emeritus Forrest Morgesson.

“When you consider the never-ending wave of technological innovations being introduced into the industry, as well as the ever-decreasing prices for these goods – despite recent inflation – it is not hard to understand why, Morgeson, who is also an assistant professor of marketing at Michigan State University, told TechNewsWorld.

streaming satisfaction

It should come as no surprise that overall consumer satisfaction with TVs is so high, said Mark N. Venna, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in San Jose, Calif.

“For nearly a decade, TVs with embedded ‘smart’ interfaces have been gaining in overall share, allowing users to more easily and intuitively change settings, as well as content in an intuitive manner through an ‘app’ orientation. can reach,” he told TechNewsWorld. , “Consumer satisfaction is up as TVs get easier to use.”

Streaming programming has also contributed to consumer satisfaction with TV. “With TV streaming, they’ve become far more capable over time, and they’re relatively problem-free, in terms of devices,” said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore. .

“With streaming, TV is again the center of in-home entertainment, and people are pleased with improvements over time and not worried about premature obsolescence,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Desktop Outscore Laptop, Tablet

PCs, which include desktops, laptops and tablets, also scored higher on the index with 79. In form factor, desktops, at 80, scored higher than laptops and tablets, which both posted 79, although the tablet satisfaction number was three points. More in 2022 than in 2021.

“It’s little surprise that PCs recorded higher customer satisfaction than laptops and desktops,” Morgesson said. “Of course, it’s important to note that PCs have a much smaller market share than the other two, and there are different consumers of PCs who are looking for different features and functionality in their computers. These differ in needs. explains the large amount of difference in product types.”

Neither Vena nor Enderle, however, were surprised by consumer satisfaction with the desktop.

“Tablets and laptops are often used to penalize mobile settings that make them more prone to accidental damage,” explained Vena. “Due to their fixed nature, desktop PCs — especially all-in-one models — tend to have a stronger reliability assumption because they don’t move around.”

“Desktops generally don’t need to be carried around, the bigger the screen you can afford, the fewer connectivity issues there are, and there aren’t much battery life issues,” Enderle said.

Apple tops in popularity

Among PC makers, Apple had the highest customer satisfaction rating with 82, although Samsung came second with 81.

“Apple PCs have long been popular with their customers, and have often outperformed other PC makers,” Morgesson said.

“For many years,” he continued, “this popularity was driven by the niche market created by Apple, appealing to web and graphic designers. More recently, the strong popularity of the Apple iPhone, and with Apple’s PC Its seamless integration – like the MacBook – has attracted a broad set of customers who have come to really like the product.

Apple is a leader in overall consumer satisfaction because they control the total hardware and software “stack,” explained Vena.

“This allows Apple to manage the overall user experience in a very strict and cohesive manner, which is something Microsoft cannot do because it relies on an OEM model,” he said.

“Apple products ‘just work’ because they are not open, generally speaking, like Microsoft-based products from a third-party peripheral and device perspective,” he continued.

“Microsoft focuses more on backward compatibility with the tools that enterprise customers demand,” he said.

stellar customer service

Customer service is another way Apple attracts customers. “Apple has great service,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm in Campbell, Calif.

“Over the past 20 years, they have developed a top-notch service model that includes physical service at Apple Stores and Genius Bars,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“When you have an issue with an Apple product, you know how to deal with it,” he continued. “It has a great online service for handling problems and if you are in a city with an Apple Store, you can make an appointment with Genius Bar and 90% of the time, this will help you take care of the problem.”

“It’s a really big difference for Apple,” he said. “None of the other companies have the same kind of network to handle customer service as Apple does.”

In contrast, surveyors found that satisfaction with Microsoft’s software dropped four points to 73.

“Microsoft offers its customers a wide range of very different software solutions, and so it’s hard to attribute their decline to any one software product,” Morgesson said.

“Nevertheless,” he continued, “the increasing availability of competing alternatives for many of their products – including low- or no-cost apps now available to consumers – is potentially influencing consumer perceptions with software offerings. “

LG is the leader in the domestic category

“Microsoft’s bread-and-butter apps like PowerPoint, Outlook, Word and Excel keep getting new features that create a notion of bloat that doesn’t necessarily mean ease of use,” Venna said.

Then there’s Windows 11. “Satisfaction usually goes down when new OSes come out because people don’t like to upgrade, even though the process has improved a lot over the years,” Enderle said.

Consumer satisfaction with the major home appliances in the survey – washer, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator, oven and microwave – also rose one point year-on-year to 79. LG Corp led all companies in the domestic category, jumping three points to 81.

“Our performance in the 2022 ACSI Rankings indicates that LG is an innovative brand that delivers products and features with real consumer benefits, but more importantly, without sacrificing product quality,” said the CEO of Home Appliances Product Management. LG Vice President Brandt Warner said.

“As we continue to listen to the customer and prioritize their recommendations, the quality of our product remains our main focus so that consumers know that their LG device will offer excellent performance while meeting their needs, ‘ he told TechNewsWorld.