7 ms·

Apple Falls Behind Microsoft, Samsung, Sony In New Consumer Experience Survey

23 points by davidsmith8900 13y ago

brudgers 13y ago
From the graph it appears that the change in ranking is more or less a result of Apple's competitors improving their customer relationships while Apple barely changes.
- taylodl 13y ago
  Yeah, they noted Apple actually improved from last year but everyone else improved even more. Meanwhile we the consumers benefit.
dman 13y ago
For me ios 7 has lowered the bar when it comes to expectations from Apple. My Ipad Air crashes multiple times daily when browsing websites, somehow the flash free world seems just as craptastic as the flash filled one.
- bluthru 13y ago
  From what I've seen online, people with the new 64 bit chips have seen more crashes. I'm not sure what's to be expected when such a transition occurs, but it's safe to say the amount of crashes should reduce with each update.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Sigh what a squishy article. What is the methodology? What is the sampling error? What does "OK" mean relative to "Good" ? This reminds me of the anecdotes in "Proofiness"[1] which talk about how the news industry figured out they could manufacture news by taking a poll. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Proofiness-Youre-Being-Fooled-Numbers/dp/0143120077 http://www.amazon.com/Proofiness-Youre-Being-Fooled-Numbers/...
- brudgers 13y ago
  MetaSigh. Why is it only now that there is a contradiction to the accepted narrative of technological merit that squishyness has become problematic?
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    Well for me squisyness is always problematic. When people's reasoning depends on subjective self reporting feedback I don't consider it nearly as persuasive as something done methodically. My sigh was that I can't see how the article even gets to the 'ranking' order they get to. They lead with "The survey measures customer experience, which involves difficult-to-define criteria based on how a customer feels about his or her interaction with a company. Forrester queried 7,500 consumers about their retail and customer support experiences and used the responses to assign each company a customer-experience index score. " So 7,500 respondents, how were they picked? What was their demographic? Were they previous device owners or new device owners? etc etc. And this: "Sony came in second with a rating of 83, while Microsoft and Samsung followed one point behind at 82. Apple scored an 81. All three brands rated below Apple in the 2013 survey. " What moves someone 1 pt up or down in the survey? What is the margin of error? In 2013 Apple shipped 150M iPhones, if they surveyed just iPhone customers who bought a phone last year, 7,500 would be .005% Except the slides mention at least five vendors Amazon, Samsung, Apple, Sony, and Microsoft. So that is why I felt it as non-news. There isn't enough data to say anything about the market, consumer sentiment, or usefulness. So what was your take on the story?
    - brudgers 13y ago
      My take is that the story is that the story is the story. It's contrary to the standard narrative - a narrative which has used Forrester and similarly squishy measurements of perceptions as evidence of Apple's unquestioned superiority for many years. E.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+Forrester https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+Forreste... As for the sample size, 7500 is plenty if properly selected. If the selection process is poor in ways that are not accounted for in the analysis, then a larger bad data set won't make the analysis any more accurate.

From the graph it appears that the change in ranking is more or less a result of Apple's competitors improving their customer relationships while Apple barely changes.

taylodl 13y ago
Yeah, they noted Apple actually improved from last year but everyone else improved even more. Meanwhile we the consumers benefit.

dman 13y ago

For me ios 7 has lowered the bar when it comes to expectations from Apple. My Ipad Air crashes multiple times daily when browsing websites, somehow the flash free world seems just as craptastic as the flash filled one.

bluthru 13y ago
From what I've seen online, people with the new 64 bit chips have seen more crashes. I'm not sure what's to be expected when such a transition occurs, but it's safe to say the amount of crashes should reduce with each update.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Sigh what a squishy article. What is the methodology? What is the sampling error? What does "OK" mean relative to "Good" ? This reminds me of the anecdotes in "Proofiness"[1] which talk about how the news industry figured out they could manufacture news by taking a poll. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Proofiness-Youre-Being-Fooled-Numbers/dp/0143120077 http://www.amazon.com/Proofiness-Youre-Being-Fooled-Numbers/...

brudgers 13y ago
MetaSigh. Why is it only now that there is a contradiction to the accepted narrative of technological merit that squishyness has become problematic?
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  Well for me squisyness is always problematic. When people's reasoning depends on subjective self reporting feedback I don't consider it nearly as persuasive as something done methodically. My sigh was that I can't see how the article even gets to the 'ranking' order they get to. They lead with "The survey measures customer experience, which involves difficult-to-define criteria based on how a customer feels about his or her interaction with a company. Forrester queried 7,500 consumers about their retail and customer support experiences and used the responses to assign each company a customer-experience index score. " So 7,500 respondents, how were they picked? What was their demographic? Were they previous device owners or new device owners? etc etc. And this: "Sony came in second with a rating of 83, while Microsoft and Samsung followed one point behind at 82. Apple scored an 81. All three brands rated below Apple in the 2013 survey. " What moves someone 1 pt up or down in the survey? What is the margin of error? In 2013 Apple shipped 150M iPhones, if they surveyed just iPhone customers who bought a phone last year, 7,500 would be .005% Except the slides mention at least five vendors Amazon, Samsung, Apple, Sony, and Microsoft. So that is why I felt it as non-news. There isn't enough data to say anything about the market, consumer sentiment, or usefulness. So what was your take on the story?
  - brudgers 13y ago
    My take is that the story is that the story is the story. It's contrary to the standard narrative - a narrative which has used Forrester and similarly squishy measurements of perceptions as evidence of Apple's unquestioned superiority for many years. E.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+Forrester https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+Forreste... As for the sample size, 7500 is plenty if properly selected. If the selection process is poor in ways that are not accounted for in the analysis, then a larger bad data set won't make the analysis any more accurate.