The “Cult of Apple” seems to be growing exponentially these days. The company is riding high on the success of the iPod, the iPhone, and the reputation that their personal computers have for reliability and ease of use. Now Apple can add another feather to its cap: best customer support.
Consumer Reports National Research Center released the results of its annual tech support survey Monday. The report reveals that only 60% of customers’ technical problems are successfully resolved by customer support representatives, showing that there is vast room for improvement in the tech support divisions of most computer retailers.
Interestingly, laptop users reported more problems than desktop computer customers. On average, a full 40% of laptops have to be repaired within three years of purchase — and in some cases, even need to be replaced. To put that into context, consider the report’s findings that only 10% of digital cameras require repairs within the same three-year period.
But even though the tech support industry in general scored low marks on the annual report, Apple’s customer service ranked quite high. In fact, Apple tech support successfully solved customer’s problems in more than 80% of the cases reported during the last year, the highest success ratio in the business.
Specifically, Apple scored 83 out of 100 for its tech support of laptops, and 81 out of 100 for desktop support. Other big-name PC manufacturers didn’t do nearly as well, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sony. For example, Dell’s customer service rated 60 on laptop computers (compared to Apple’s 83).
Companies like Hewlett-Packard and Compaq scored the lowest among the major computer manufacturers, with Compaq scoring an abysmal 47 points for its tech support of desktop computers.
Although Apple computers are generally more expensive than their PC counterparts, the consumer reports survey (and others like it) lend credence to the idea that Mac computers are worth the extra money. Especially when you consider that the instance of computer viruses for Apple computers is very low, and that all new Macs come bundled with a variety of useful and easy to use software applications, so that the purchaser can get started right away, without the need to download drivers, uninstall “bloatware” or other hassles.
Sales-wise, Macs have been steadily gaining on PCs for the last five years. The success of Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials have contributed greatly to Apple’s reputation as the more reliable, practical and fashionable computer.
The “Cult of Mac” seems unstoppable at the moment, with more and more Windows users “defecting” to Mac all the time, leaving some critics to speculate that Apple will eventually overtake Windows as the dominant computing platform. Granted, this could take years — but if current trends continue, we may all be joining the “Cult of Mac” before too long.
