Google Jumps the Hurdle while Yahoo Falls for Customer Satisfaction

Posted by Vaibhav

August 20, 2008

Google has yet again proved its unbeaten dominance in the online world, this time in a consumer satisfaction survey. The search King scored an impressive 86 out of 100, as its satisfaction level soared 10 percent over previous year. So far, this is the highest score ever for a service firm in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey generated by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. On the other hand, archrival Yahoo sunk 3 percent to 77, while Microsoft’s MSN managed to score 75.

President and CEO of ForeSee Results, Larry Freed said that consumers are exploiting the internet differently than they used to in this changing marketplace. ForeSee Results is qualified in measuring online customer satisfaction and is a sponsor of the ACSI e-business and e-commerce surveys. Freed opined that people are switching directly to the website or using bookmarks in case they know what they’re looking for, instead of using a portal, and would use a search engine if they don’t know where to locate it.

With Google being closely associated with search over other search engines, it is best positioned to gain from this trend, while the rest are in doldrums trying to find out a solution to this.

Consumer satisfaction with e-business escalated 6 percent to 79.3 in the second quarter. As per ACSI, e-business refers to web portals, search engines, and online news and information Web sites. Overall, consumer satisfaction, which includes consumer views of over 200 offline along with online companies, plunged a tenth of a percent in Q2 to 75.

Head of the ACSI at the University of Michigan, Claes Fornell said that the shoot-up in overall e-business satisfaction is fostered largely by a remarkable jump by search major Google, however tough economic conditions may be contributing to better satisfaction with the sector. He added that in an environment where dollars are tight and gas is $4 a gallon, people gain more satisfaction from services which will help them save their money instead of getting in their car.

Also as per ACSI, online retailing registered a score of 83 in the most recent survey, with Amazon leading in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, with the score of 88.

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