The latest American customer satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows that Google reigns supreme in the search engines and portal industry when it comes to customer satisfaction. This isn’t hard to believe considering Google’s share of the search market.
There’s a reason why Google dominates the arena. Users are generally satisfied with the results they get, and see no reason to switch engines. That is why Microsoft has its work cut out for it with making Bing a true competitor.
“Google is unquestionably king of search, so the only competition is for second place,” says Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, who released the ACSI along with the University of Michigan. “The research was done before Bing entered the market, so we don’t know what effect its entry will have. But Google’s customers are pretty happy and have little reason to try something new, so Bing has a real uphill battle ahead.”
Google got an 86 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale for the second year in a row. That’s 9 points higher than Yahoo, Google’s nearest competitor. AOL has reason to be happy though, because it is the only one in the search engines and portals category whose numbers actually went up. Everyone else stayed the same, but AOL gained 1% to reach a score of 70.
According to the index, the eBusiness sector is up on the ACSI by 2.8%, which is an all-time high for the category. It scored an 81.5.
Newspapers
The online news and information industry didn’t do quite as well, decreasing by 1.3% to a score of 74. USAToday.com was the only site in the category to go up, while ABCNews.com reached an all-time low, dropping by 5% to a 71.
“With a number of major newspapers shifting operations online, it’s surprising that news and information websites have not seized the opportunity to provide customers with the quality of news they’ve come to expect,” says Freed. “Online customer satisfaction has a proven impact on reader loyalty and therefore on advertising revenues, and the battered industry needs any help it can get.”
