Windows 7 helps Microsoft hit record customer satisfaction score

Network World ^ | May 18, 2010 | Jon Brodkin

[SmokingJoe]

Windows 7 has fueled a surge of goodwill toward Microsoft, with the company's customer satisfaction ratings reaching a record high in Q1, according to a new American Customer Satisfaction Index survey.

Microsoft's reputation among customers plunged after it released the widely criticized Windows Vista, but Windows 7 helped Microsoft achieve an increase of nearly 9% in its customer satisfaction score between 2009 and 2010.

When Vista was released in 2007, "customer satisfaction plunged 4% to an ACSI score of 70, well below the industry average, where it remained for the next three years," University of Michigan business professor Claes Fornell writes in analysis of the new ACSI numbers.

But when Windows 7 was introduced in October 2009, the software reached 4% market share within just three weeks, whereas it took Vista seven months to reach that milestone.

As a result, Microsoft's customer satisfaction score rose from 70 to 76 in 2010, an 8.6% increase.

"By March 2010, more than 90 million Windows 7 licenses had been sold," Fornell writes. "Microsoft has achieved high volume sales from a big boost in customer satisfaction -- its ACSI score is Microsoft's highest ever."

Although the computer software industry has hundreds of companies, Microsoft is the only one large enough to be included as a stand-alone entity in the ACSI rankings, which otherwise rates the software industry on an aggregate basis.

Microsoft's score of 76 is based on a 100-point scale, and is virtually identical to the national score of 75.9, which takes into account all major industries including cable TV, phone service, healthcare and energy. Microsoft's 2010 improvement also brings the company in line with the rest of the software industry, which achieved an aggregate rating of 76

[antiRepublicrat]

My response to Windows 7 is stick with XP pro

I'd go Windows 7 if you can. It really is that much better, and even faster on the same hardware. I might not have switched to Mac a few years ago if this had been out. However, it's not enough to make me consider switching back.

[antiRepublicrat]

As a Vista 64 user, I was "supposed" to be able to do an "upgrade",

Windows rule #1 since the beginning: Never, NEVER do an in-place upgrade. You will be sorry.

[benewton]

That’s what we’ve done, with our four home machines running XP Pro, while my new road machine came with 7.

I haven’t seen any real benefit for adopting it, especially since I’d have to spend hours doing a “clean” install on our machines. Hell, I’ve a decade’s worth of design info on my 670, and who would want to take chances with that?

While my machines are used for work and communication, as opposed to games and so forth, I’ve seen zero reason to pay even the OS cost to update our home network.

[shorty_harris]

I have less exposure to Windows OS's than most people. The last one I used regularly was Windows 2000 Pro. I have used XP a little, but never tried Vista.

I just bought a Dell mini 10, with Windows 7 starter installed. It's been easy enough to use, although a little slow (the hardware, no doubt). It's "blue screened" on me 3 or 4 times, which I take is something all OS's do at one point. Other than that, I like it. I'd say it's on par with my Mac laptops.

I consider it disposable, though. First time it develops a problem I can't figure out, I'll install linux in it's place.

[Texan Tory]

I have Vista Home Premium on an HP desktop that I purchased from Best Buy about a year ago, just a few months before Windows 7 came out. In order to migrate to Windows 7, is it best for me to back up all my data, then reformat the hard drive and do a clean install completely from scratch? I paid extra for Geek Squad service, and they supposedly tweaked and optimized my machine at the time they installed Vista, and I’m sort of afraid of messing everything up, but everyone I know who has Windows 7 likes it so much better.

[Durus]

If you are having problems with W7 then the likely culprit is HW not software. We have 7 rolled out to a few hundred users in an ongoing beta and it has been like a dream come true in terms of support. Machines running faster with a new OS! Who ever heard of such a thing?

[jazminerose]

Oh please. We are fed up enough with Windows to eventually convert to Macs. Never tried one, but it couldn’t be less stables than Windows.

[wbill]

Vista is likely the one thing that Microsoft would most like a do-over on.

Oh, I dunno. Bill Gates also released Microsoft BOB.

[Ingtar]

You have a point on BOB. They still keep trying to go that way, so I’m not so sure that it is a regret as much as it should be.

[wbill]

good point. :-) MS is notorious for throwing NOTHING away, though. They just repackage it, and stop supporting the “old” version.

[SmokingJoe]

We are fed up enough with Windows to eventually convert to Macs

You and who exactly?
The report at the top of this thread says “Hello!”.
Consumers are very happy with their Windows 7 machines.

” Never tried one, but it couldn’t be less stables than Windows”

Windows 7 is at least as stable as Snow Leopard, if not better.

[reagan_fanatic]

I’ve had Windows 7 for about 6 months now - I love it. It’s been extremely reliable and I’ve had no crashes or issues with it. Very nice.

[quesera]

I am a die hard Microsoft fan. Don’t ask me why, maybe I like a challenge, for the most part I’ve been very lucky with Microsoft products and Win 7 is the best and most stable than previous Microsoft OS. I can’t say the same for their mobile OS, it is too slow and needs a lot of work compared to the OS on the iphone.

My daughter on the other hand recently gave up on windows and on Sunday dragged me and my wallet to Bestbuy and purchased a MacbookPro, she has been smiling since then. There is very little learning curve for her as she has had the iphone since it came out.

Now Apple has the Ipaq and if you ask me it is a sleeping giant. If Microsoft does not recognized the threat the ipaq represents, the company is doomed. Microsoft is now flanked on both sides, Google and Apple. Microsoft, as much as I like using their products, needs to realize that not everyone is technical and that they need to design their interfaces more user friendly so that any moron can use their products, that is where Apple will beat them. My wife learned to use her iphone in just about 2-days and she is getting proficient at it, believe me that says a lot for the the iphone’s interface design. Everything is in the interface design and if microsoft can master that then they will be ok, if not then look for google to team up with apple and really kick ass.

[longtermmemmory]

DAYS!

you should be able to pick up a phone and use it in seconds, minutes at most.

[SmokingJoe]

I can’t say the same for their mobile OS, it is too slow and needs a lot of work compared to the OS on the iphone

Windows Phone 7 is out in a few months. Looks good so far.

“Now Apple has the Ipaq and if you ask me it is a sleeping giant. If Microsoft does not recognized the threat the ipaq represents, the company is doomed”

I think Apple had better start worrying about the new Google Android tablet computers that re coming out starting next month, to take on the iPad.
As for the iPad, taking out Windows 7 laptops and desktops, not gonna happen. They serve different markets, plus Win 7 laptops are cheaper then the iPads, and have far more features and bigger screens, and run vastly more apps.

[quesera]

you should be able to pick up a phone and use it in seconds, minutes at most.

LOL, this is my wife we're talking about.....

But seriously, to make a call, sure in seconds.....I was really talking about the other fun stuff like browsing with safari, checking her mail which I had to setup for her but after that she was good to go, and the most of the other stuff......

[dayglored]

Win7 is a great OS. I'm really enjoying it.

But mainly, I am glad to see that Microsoft responded to a) the Vista disaster, and b) the Apple/Mac growth, by putting out a solid operating system instead of crap, for a change.

Granted, Win7 is basically "Vista Done Right" -- it's just NT6.1, after all -- but nevertheless, it is a very good balance between convenience and security, something Microsoft has struggled with for a decade.

I'm not a Microsoft fanboy any more than I'm an Apple or Linux fanboy, but I gotta say, MS really earned the praise in this article.

[dangerdoc]

Apple is excellent until you find something it just won’t do. When you hit that wall, it is very frustrating. My wife is a Microsoft hater but uses a Win7 netbook because her Mac simply will not attach documents to her school’s extended learning network. Mac genius, school IT dept and I never found a solution.

I think she is actually learning to like Win7.

[longtermmemmory]

that is my problem with mac.

since windows is the standard of business, and graphic abilities are no longer a barrier, in order to go to a niche system like mac (over windows and linux) is to take a chance that at an 11th hour deadline some ability will not exist and there will be no non-apple vendor with a solution.

I am just have the hope a padd type device will come out for the windows platform.

[SmokingJoe]

Apple is at 84% and has the second-biggest lead of any industry (I believe an airline has the distinction of the biggest lead).,/i>

Well, 63% of Windows users are still on XP.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10

Just an 11% user base share for Win 7 sent Microsoft's ratings up by 8.6% to 76%. Let Win 7 usage hit say, even 25%, and lets see if Apple can be ahead of Microsoft, with that 84% ratings shall we?