Business Week has created a Top 25 Customer Service Elite, their list of companies that are in the top of their class for customer satisfaction. The list is based on survey data from JD Power & Associates. Apple came in at #18, but beat out big-name competitors Dell and H-P, which didn’t make the cut. This is despite a Process Grade of C- and a People Grade of B+.
Because we were interested in measuring customer service, we used only results related to what customers think about a company’s “processes” (its return policies or reservation procedures, for instance) and its “people” (their friendliness, say, or expertise levels).
Apple has been beating the rest of the personal computer industry at this game for quite some time. However, it seems the computer industry as a whole, and Apple specifically, have some distance to go. My experience with Apple customer service has been excellent. The online support is easy to use and usually quite thorough. The Genius Bar folks at the local Apple Store have helped me out on the couple of occasions I’ve had to go in (once for a dead iPod, which they replaced on the spot, and once for an iBook tray mechanism problem) person. But anecdotal evidence varies. Go to any discussion board that covers the topic of Apple service, and you’ll see a wide range of customer reports. Not all of them have a happy tone.
Based on your experiences with Apple (or with other OEMs for that matter), what do you think the company could do to improve its customer support processes? If Apple leads the pack now, how could it lap the field?
2 Comments
apple has offered the worst customer service possible… just today i went in with a problem on my macbook pro, with my airport card disconnecting at random rendering my wireless internet useless. they told me there was nothing they could do for me and that i would just have to go home with a defective product… even the manager of the retail store i was at seconded this, i’m taking this up with people higher in the company
Blake,
It sounds like you had a bad experience indeed. Ratings like these can’t take into account every Apple employee or every location, but I’m sure that doesn’t make you feel any better about Apple’s service.
Have you tried the Apple support forum? I’ve found many very helpful people in the forum who have assisted me with problems. If you can’t fix the problem on your own, it certainly makes sense to take it up the food chain at Apple.