Making customers happy, some experts say, is the fine art of balancing experience and expectation. Based on that, the feeling of Microsoft Corp. customers is starting to edge ever so slightly toward the disappointment end of the spectrum, according to the results of an annual survey by the University of Michigan released on Tuesday. Microsoft scored 70 out of 100 on the latest Q1 results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index released by Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. That's down from 74 for the same period in 2006, the first year Microsoft was ranked.
"Very small differences count for a lot," said Claes Fornell, a University of Michigan professor and director of the ACSI. The overall customer satisfaction rating with companies in the ACSI, which surveyed 80,000 people nationwide via the Web during the first three months of the year, was 73, according to Fornell. The approval rating for all software vendors (including Microsoft) assessed in the survey was 75. Microsoft still ranked higher than many big, successful companies such as McDonald’s Corp., Cingular Wireless LLC and hotel operator Ramada. It also ranked higher than Comcast Corp. and most other cable and satellite TV providers, and virtually all of the airlines surveyed by the ACSI. At the same time, Microsoft ranked below most delivery firms such as FedEx Corp., hotels, full- and fast-service restaurants, even most energy utilities such as Southern Co. and Sempra Energy.
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News source: ComputerWorld
"Very small differences count for a lot," said Claes Fornell, a University of Michigan professor and director of the ACSI. The overall customer satisfaction rating with companies in the ACSI, which surveyed 80,000 people nationwide via the Web during the first three months of the year, was 73, according to Fornell. The approval rating for all software vendors (including Microsoft) assessed in the survey was 75. Microsoft still ranked higher than many big, successful companies such as McDonald’s Corp., Cingular Wireless LLC and hotel operator Ramada. It also ranked higher than Comcast Corp. and most other cable and satellite TV providers, and virtually all of the airlines surveyed by the ACSI. At the same time, Microsoft ranked below most delivery firms such as FedEx Corp., hotels, full- and fast-service restaurants, even most energy utilities such as Southern Co. and Sempra Energy.
View: The full story News source: ComputerWorld
The only reasons I see putting people off of Windows Vista are lies and FUD being spread from certain communities. Windows Vista isn't slow and bloated, it isn't crippled with DRM and you don't need a top end machine to run it. In fact we trialled it at work on a 1GHz CPU (AMD) with 512MB RAM it ran as good as XP installed on the equivalent machine. I might add it isn't a RAM hog either. All these RAM nazi's bitching about how much free RAM they have is stupid, free RAM isn't exactly speeding up your machine is it? The only problem with Windows Vista is the lack of driver support, and this is purely down to hardware vendors. Nothing like blaming it on Microsoft though!
Hahaha. We get maybe one customer in every 20 that asks for XP - and we rudely tell them to come out of the past.
Good luck to you... Enjoy living in 2001. I'll be enjoying the piles of enhancements that 2007 brings me and the other people who can learn to use Vista (like my mother).
Sign, I'm tired of seeing these type of posts on every single article
Sounds like your using the word 'tech' loosely to me.
Just because there is no dire need for Windows Vista right now, as soon as more DirectX 10 games are out and vendors start utilising its features (and making working drivers ) XP will begin to seem more and more redundant in comparison as a primary desktop OS. Sure XP will never be a bad OS (its superb) but Windows Vista is a significant improvement, many people are just yet to see it.
Hahaha. We get maybe one customer in every 20 that asks for XP - and we rudely tell them to come out of the past.
<snip>
keep the discussion mature
Last edited by Chad on 16 May 2007 - 13:43
Hahaha. We get maybe one customer in every 20 that asks for XP - and we rudely tell them to come out of the past.
Exactly. Way to run a business.
Last edited by Chad on 16 May 2007 - 13:44
Sounds like your using the word 'tech' loosely to me.
Just because there is no dire need for Windows Vista right now, as soon as more DirectX 10 games are out and vendors start utilising its features (and making working drivers ) XP will begin to seem more and more redundant in comparison as a primary desktop OS. Sure XP will never be a bad OS (its superb) but Windows Vista is a significant improvement, many people are just yet to see it.[/quote]
Step back to 2000:
[quote=ziadoz said,#1.7][quote=Yogurth said,#1.4]Super Mega Odd, since all my tech oriented friends(~10) that bought XP or got it through MSDN are now back on 2000, including me.[/quote]
Please notice the small differences. Point? This is the same **** people ranted about for months after XP came out. In about a year, you are upgraded and shut your mouthes. Albeit, I am waiting for Vista SP1 before I make my decision, but give it up with the pointless arguing. You will all be at Vista in a year anyway.
You and your firneds might not need there tech jobs anymore if you can't get vista to run well. I haven't found a machine it hasen't run well on yet. But I assume you also recommend celrons to people so that might be why.
Piles of enhancements like the downgrading of video quality for "premium content" with DRM?
Or perhaps that UAC is implemented in such an annoying way that most users end up disabling it, thus defeating the entire purpose of it?
Or perhaps that if you have two different types of video cards and you want to stretch your desktop across both, often Vista won't let you? (personal experience here using a Matrox card and the onboard Intel video. XP doesn't mind, why does Vista?) LOVE that enhancement.
Enjoy those enhancements.
Good luck to you... Enjoy living in 2001. I'll be enjoying the piles of enhancements that 2007 brings me and the other people who can learn to use Vista (like my mother).
People, I don't know why you get off on acting superior simply because you are running windows vista over Xp. Part of consumerism is choice. If people want to run XP over Vista, then so be it. Perhaps they need XP for a specific purpose. My Girlfriend's sister needs XP specifically for a test she is writing, as the software needed for the test will only run on XP , with specific conditions met. And, this article says satisfaction is still at 70%, so most people are still satisfied with them. It isn't as if they have a 0 rating...
Piles of enhancements like the downgrading of video quality for "premium content" with DRM?
Or perhaps that UAC is implemented in such an annoying way that most users end up disabling it, thus defeating the entire purpose of it?
Or perhaps that if you have two different types of video cards and you want to stretch your desktop across both, often Vista won't let you? (personal experience here using a Matrox card and the onboard Intel video. XP doesn't mind, why does Vista?) LOVE that enhancement.
Enjoy those enhancements.
You talking twaddle. DRM will only downgrade premium content if the content provider deems it should, either way your anger should be directed at the movie and entertainment industry for this genius invention, not Microsoft. DRM does not affect the speed and effectiveness of Windows Vista, and it doesn't downgrade or prevent you from using any of your existing content either. Also UAC isn't aimed at everybody and your graphics issue sounds more driver related than anything too.
There are no enhancements your right though, no integrated desktop search, no new audio stack, no IPv6 support, no kernel patch protection, no bit locker encryption, no DirectX 10, no improved mobility support, no new speech recognition system and no new power management features. Yes its just a bloated XP.
If this topic was about Apple/Dell/IBM, I'm 100% sure you or someone else would have said the same as you did. And besides for fighting stupid fanboy wars, how is it relevant to always compare the same few companies?
ps.: It's Neowin.net
And yeah, I would like to see the same statistic about other companies too...
ps: It's about technology, not just MS/Windows.
Take a look at what they use to run this site. This along with PHP and a MySQL backend... not for MS centric, is it? Remember these are just tools. MS is just a technology tool maker. Nothing more and nothing less. If you want to worship something, then may I suggest finding a religion?
<snip>
let's keep this mature
Last edited by Chad on 16 May 2007 - 13:40
What else don't you know about Vista? There's lots of people on NeoWin who can help you.
I'm planning switch to Mac with bootcamp and ubuntu dualboot
I'm planning switch to Mac with bootcamp and ubuntu dualboot
Satisfied with Mac price enough to switch to it?
Vista (and every other OS) is as good as you are good in using it.
Only Mac OS assumes everyone's a newbie, which is why it's more intuitive.
My suggestion is this, even though I know half of you wont care, if Vista runs slowly for you, SWITCH and never look back. If it runs great for you, keep it and don't bash people for having different views. Now I ran all off topic, damn.
Anyway, this is good news being as though they beat out alot of great companies. I would love to see the full list.
But we predominately cover Microsoft here, so that portion is the most valid here.
And you are right...Vista is a hot-button issue right now so people automatically go right to it.
But we predominately cover Microsoft here, so that portion is the most valid here.
And you are right...Vista is a hot-button issue right now so people automatically go right to it.
Agreed. Sometimes tech-savvy people will go through with blinders on and not see the bigger issues. I know that happens to me more often than I will admit to.
The amount of bad press Vista is getting is only due to how "loud" the internet is. I think of it as a shout that never stops echoing.
...I'm waiting for SP1.
I think they're taking a poll on what people expected and what they're getting from the companies... like McDonalds shows this juicy hamburger, with crisp lettuce, tomato, etc... but what you get is a smashed down greasy slop hamburger, so the satisfaction of your expectation isn't there...
same thing with microsoft and vista, they promised this perfect security world with all these super awesome enhancements over XP, but what we got was the same security bug ridden software as XP...
the expectation was high, which wasn't met, which means the satisfaction is lower...
I think they're taking a poll on what people expected and what they're getting from the companies... like McDonalds shows this juicy hamburger, with crisp lettuce, tomato, etc... but what you get is a smashed down greasy slop hamburger, so the satisfaction of your expectation isn't there...
same thing with microsoft and vista, they promised this perfect security world with all these super awesome enhancements over XP, but what we got was the same security bug ridden software as XP...
the expectation was high, which wasn't met, which means the satisfaction is lower...
A satisfaction survey would be more than just the burger, it would be more about the cleanliness of the store, courtesy of the counter representative, the correctness of the order, among other things. Food presentation isn't high on my list. My burgers at home don't look perfect like the pictures either. Does it do what I paid for it to do? Is my hunger satisfied? If so, then I am pleased. My overall satisfaction is decreased if the store is a health hazard, or the counter person is rude, or I don't get what I ordered. If we focus on just one aspect we lose the overall big picture on how a company is doing. Using the OS as a focus and Microsoft as the company, how many of us are happy with XP right now? How about Vista? If you are happy with XP but not with Vista do you give them a 50%? How about their keyboards, webcams, mice, other software, web presence? Does that raise or lower your satisfaction? See where I am going with this. Don't just focus on one aspect of a company, look at the bigger picture.
I would think their deal with Novell would have had more of an impact.
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