Apple tops satisfaction survey for 8th year

For the eighth year in a row, Apple has come out on top of the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Additionally, no other company got close to touching Apple.

In the 2011 survey, Apple earned the ACSI's highest score ever, with 87 out of a possible 100 points. That's one point higher than last year and nine points higher than Apple's closest rival in the survey, HP, which scored a 78 (which is also the PC industry average in the ACSI survey). The last time Apple missed the top spot was in 2003, when Dell held a one-point margin.

The ACSI conducts over 70,000 interviews to gather its results on over 225 companies and 200 federal or local government services. ACSI then breaks down the results into 10 economic sectors and 47 industries awarding scores of 0 to 100, which measure consumer feelings and customer satisfaction towards companies and products.

In a statement, ACSI founder Claes Fornell summed up Apple's performance which keeps it at the top of the ACSI: "In the eight years that Apple has led the PC industry in customer satisfaction, its stock price has increased by 2,300 percent. Apple's winning combination of innovation and product diversification--including spinning off technologies into entirely new directions--has kept the company consistently at the leading edge."

[via Cnet]