When it comes to customer respect, Apple does pretty well, if not great, according to a new report from the Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their customers online. On Friday the group released the results of its Summer 2003 Online Customer Respect Study of computer products and services firms that rank among the country’s largest 1000 companies.
The report looks at 25 different attributes that combine to create the entire online customer experience. These attributes have been grouped together and measured as indicators of Privacy (respects customer privacy), Principles (values and respects customer data), Attitude (customer-focus of site), Transparency (open and honest policies), Simplicity (ease of navigation), and Responsiveness (quick and thorough responses to inquiries). Combined they measure a company’s overall customer respect rating. Overall, Hewlett-Packard Company scored highest in customer respect, garnering 9.7 out of a possible 10 points. Apple’s 6.6 score was about average.
In addition to HP, other tech companies that came in ahead of Apple were IBM (9.5), Dell (8.3) and Sun (7.7). Among the companies trailing behind Apple were Silicon Graphics (6.5), Novell (6.5), Oracle (5.7) and Adobe (5.3).