Search sites edge out portals in customer satisfaction
USA: It's rare to see Google command anything less than a large presence in just about any given e-business study these days, and the latest annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) from the University of Michigan is no exception: ACSI scores for e-business rose 5.5% to 79.3 on ACSI's 100-point scale. That jump can largely be attributed to Google's own 10% climb to a score of 86.
"Google continues to separate itself from the crowd not only in terms of market share but also in satisfaction," Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, told CRM Buyer. ForeSee managed the survey for the university.
To put this rating into context, there have been only three service companies in the entire 14-year history of the ACSI that have topped a score of 86, and they were all online retailers: Amazon, Newegg, and BarnesandNoble.com. Furthermore, Google's 10 percent climb from last year is the second largest year-over-year increase ever recorded in the e-business survey, following Ask.com's 11% increase from 2002 to 2003.
Where this particular survey differentiates itself from other chroniclers of Google's fortunes is its explanation for at least some of the search engine's success: Customers' loyalties are shifting to the search engines - and not portals.
