The holidays may not have been all that merry for Apple.com customers, according to Michigan-based customer experience analytics firm ForeSee. The firm, which released the results of its annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, says Apple.com customers were less than impressed with the site's services, resulting in a 3 percent drop in overall customer satisfaction from 83 percent out of 100 in 2011 to 80 percent this year. The score is Apple.com's lowest in four years, and pushes the company out of the top five.
ForeSee's Satisfaction Index collected data from 24,000 customer surveys on the top 100 online retailers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The No. 1 spot went to Amazon.com, which has held the position for several years and posted a score of 88 out of 100, the same as last year's.
ForeSee says customers based their overall satisfaction on four categories: price, merchandise, website functionality and content. As AllThingsD points out, Apple's drop in customer satisfaction is surprising considering that its prices have remained relatively flat across the board with respect to new product costs. Its merchandise is also refreshed yearly, which means it can't have a stagnant product line, and its overall website functionality has remained, for the most part, unchanged.
On the plus side, Apple.com's 80 score does keep the site two points above the 78 average. But something tells us Tim Cook won't be pleased with being just slightly above average.
via: ForeSee, AllThingsD
