In a recent study conducted by the University of Michigan for the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), it reported Google and Yahoo were running almost tied for customer service on e-business websites.
Search engine Google with and 82 and portal Yahoo with and 80 are both in the top-scoring tier of the ACSI, which measures customer satisfaction over 200 companies across 41 industries.
They also said that neither MSN nor AOL did moderately well but the study tied the improvements in customer service with revenues saying that the better customer services generated the higher revenues.
“The lines between e-business companies are being drawn more in terms of content facilitators and content providers,” said Larry Freed, online satisfaction expert and President and CEO of ForeSee Results. “Google, Yahoo! lead the way with MSN, AOL and Ask Jeeves trailing, but closing the gap.”
The study said that Google and Yahoo have led their categories for the last three years though Google seems to come out a bit ahead and while Google leads, Yahoo is coming up from behind and gaining ground.
“Google is clearly the company to beat,” said Freed. “They’ve got the most satisfied and loyal customers of any e-business company measured by the ACSI, and it has translated into the biggest market share in the sector and huge revenue growth. But Yahoo! is going to battle, and web users are the biggest winners in the competition between the two.”
The study also discussed AOL and its improving customer service. They said AOL ranked poorly in 2000 with a measly 56 up to a 71 this year. They suggested AOL will continue to improve as they’ve diversified and moved away from being strictly a pure portal/ISP.
“AOL’s meteoric rise comes in large part from their continued leverage of their exclusive content available through Time Warner,” said Freed. “AOL is also making the most of their popular AIM instant messenger and beta testing free web-based email and a non-proprietary web based interface. These changes seem to be resonating with its user base, and a company that was down for the count just a few years ago will give the leaders a real run for their money if their scores continue to rise at this rate.”
They also discussed MSN and while they did score a 75, they didn’t really improve over the past year, which doesn’t bode well if they want to climb ahead of the pack. Part of that reason was the lack of innovation and new products for their services.
Jeeves also climbed dramatically over the last couple of years moving to a score of 72. They did mention that Jeeves has remained true to its search engine roots.
“The test for Ask Jeeves will be to leverage the resources of its new parent company, IAC Corporation, which also houses the major brands Ticketmaster and HSN,” said Freed.
All in all, this shows what most folks have known for years. If you provide good customer services, your customers will be happy and they will return to your site.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.