Apple tops customer satisfaction index once again

A poll of 70,000 consumers by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows that Apple continues to hold on to a comfortable lead over computer OEMs when it comes to consumer satisfaction.

Here are the results:

This score puts Apple one point up on 2011, and it holds a nine point lead over the closest competitor.

Which begs the question ... why does Apple hold such a commanding lead? Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI, had this to say

“In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300%. Apple’s winning combination of innovation and product diversification—including spinning off technologies into entirely new directions—has kept the company consistently at the leading edge.”

This is an interesting point, but I'm not so sure that it's innovation and diversification which makes the difference. Sure, there's a halo around pretty much everything that Apple does, but I'm not sure that extends to people's satisfaction with the company. No, I think people are giving Apple a high satisfaction rating based on two things:

• Reliability
• Customer service/support

PC OEMs need to take a serious look at this list and come up with ways to make their customers happier, because, as Apple has proved, happy customers come back!