American Customer Satisfaction Index: Satisfaction with online

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Feb 20, 2008

User satisfaction with online commerce is at an all-time high, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index.

On a 100-point scale, e-commerce achieved a ranking of 81.6, a 2- percent jump from 2006.

This sector outperformed all other service industries measured by the index, whose results were released Tuesday by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results.

Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI program at the university, said the upswing in satisfaction in e-commerce is impressive, given the downward trend in the overall index.

"E-commerce is the only sector to improve this quarter, and in fact reaches an all-time high in customer satisfaction while some other industries start to struggle," Fornell said.

Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, said that e- commerce is a bright spot against a backdrop of weakening consumer spending and talk about recession.

"Companies have to excel in their online channel," said Freed. "Survival in this economy depends on customer satisfaction, because switching costs are low and an alternative is just a mouse click away."

Online retail scored highest in the ASCI fourth-quarter report, scoring an 83 for the second year in a row, outperforming the offline sector by 12 percent.

Scoring an 88 out of 100 points, Amazon.com led both the e- retail and e-commerce sectors, achieving the second-highest score in the ACSI, behind only Heinz. Computer/electronics online retailer Newegg and Netflix came in just below Amazon, at 87 and 84, respectively.

ForeSee Results is a marketer of online customer satisfaction management that specializes in converting such data into user- driven Web development strategies.

Another survey found that individuals who use the Net spend almost twice as much time online as watching television.

The study by IDC determined that online users spend 32.7 hours per week surfing the Web.

They take up only 16.4 hours a week watching television, and only 3.9 hours reading newspapers and magazines.

Karsten Weide, program director of digital media and entertainment for IDC, said the time spent using the Internet will continue to rise at the expense of television and, to a lesser extent, print media.

"This suggests that advertising budgets will continue to be shifted out of television, newspapers and magazines into Internet advertising," Weide said.

The study reveals that consumers tend to use the media with which they grew up, with older consumers more likely to spend time with TV, newspapers and magazines.

About 84 percent of respondents said that using search engines is their most frequent online activity, followed in descending order by mapping and navigation services (83 percent), personal research (77 percent) and using e-mail (76 percent).

Study results were based on a sample of 992 U.S. residents 15 years of age and older who frequently use the Internet.

IDC is a provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.