Apple customer experience second to none, study finds

Apple customer experience second to none, study finds
Apple has won a second award for customer satisfaction in as many days.Beyond Philosophy, which assists companies in improving customer experience, announced today that Apple delivers the "most admired customer experience" in the marketplace, besting Amazon.com, Zappos, Starbucks, and Disney, respectively, in the top 5."Apple has married all the elements of its experience and connected with its customers in a deeply emotional, irrational way," Steven Walden, senior head of research and consulting at Beyond Philosophy, said in a statement. "Amazon put a stake in the ground when it announced it would become the world's most customer-centric company, and Zappos claims to be a customer service organization that happens to sell shoes."Amazon acquired Zappos in 2009 for about $850 million in cash and stock.Related stories:• Apple tops in customer satisfaction for 8th year• Apple, Samsung top J.D. Power satisfaction survey• Secrets of Apple's customer successBeyond Philosophy's findings come just hours after the American Customer Satisfaction Index awarded Apple a related distinction late yesterday. That organization, which conducted interviews with over 70,000 consumers, found that Apple's Macs have, for the eighth year in a row, satisfied more customers than any other company's computers, earning Apple a score of 87 out of 100 on the organization's scale.Apple's win in Beyond Philosophy's study was not determined by customers. Instead, Beyond Philosophy conducted 53 in-depth interviews with customer experience executives and experts. In addition, Beyond Philosophy's findings are bolstered by research it conducted on 8,000 customer experience executives and over 2,100 "customer-experience-active" companies in 239 countries and regions around the world.Earlier this month, Apple took the top spot in a J.D. Power study on customer satisfaction among smartphone makers. The iPhone maker has also been cited as delivering one of the top online-retail experiences to consumers.