Satisfaction level with Web sites falls

Chevrolet saw an increase
in satisfaction.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Enter a Web portal these days and you’ll be able to find pretty much anything under the sun — from stock quotes to online photo storage to instant messaging.

But are massive Web portals such as Yahoo and Google doing enough to satisfy their customers? Or are they trying to do too much?

A survey released last week shows customer satisfaction with so-called “e-business” Web sites falling for the first time since it was first measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2000.

The study, conducted by the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center, also found overall customer satisfaction to be essentially flat at 75.3 on a scale from zero to 100 — an increase of only .1 percent from the previous quarter.

As for the e-business sites, which had been steadily rising in each of previous six years, outsized expectations may be to blame.

Higher expectations

“Consumers are expecting more,” said Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ForeSee Results, which conducted the e-business research. “They have a higher standard every year.”

Such expectations come because Web sites generally do improve — often dramatically — from year to year, as the Internet continues to mature.

But such improvements are not always evident on Web portals, said Freed, citing Google as an example. The company’s ratings fell 3.7 percent from last year to a score of 78 — coming in second to Yahoo for the first time.

Google’s previous scores in the 80s “rival the highest that the ACSI measures in any industry, online or offline,” said the report, but Google may not be effectively advertising its offerings beyond its pared-down search page.

“Google has all these other capabilities but hasn’t done a great job of communicating them,” said Freed, noting that innovative products such as iGoogle, Google Earth and the Picasa photo program are used predominantly by a small percentage of its most tech-savvy users — not the mass search audience.

The largest decline in the e-business category came from America Online, which plummeted 10 percent to an ACSI score of 67 — only two points above the Internal Revenue Service.

Freed attributed AOL’s decline to difficulties in making the transition from a subscription-based service to a free service, as well as poor differentiation and bad publicity about customer service.

But don’t count out AOL just yet, said Freed. “They’ve got the content,” he said, noting AOL’s ties to its parent company, Time Warner, as well as partnerships with companies such as Mapquest. “If they can leverage it, they could be formidable.”

There also was positive news in e-business: Yahoo saw a 3.9 percent increase to lead the category at 79, Ask.com increased 5.6 percent to a 75 score, and MSN’s score increased 1.4 percent to 75.

Automakers closing gap

The study also measured customer satisfaction with automobile manufacturers, showing American carmakers making a significant stride toward closing the gap with Asian manufacturers, though still finishing last behind the Asians and Europeans.

The Asian automobile manufacturers, who fell behind the Europeans for the first time since 2002, were hurt by a 4 percent drop in Toyota’s customer satisfaction score, to 84, and smaller drops by Nissan and Mazda.

On the American side, Ford, Cadillac, Lincoln-Mercury, Chevrolet and Dodge all saw increases.

“American automakers are narrowing the gap with Asian manufacturers, but they’re still coming in last,” said Claus Fornell, head of the ACSI at the University of Michigan. “Though foreign nameplates just passed domestic cars for monthly sales, Detroit’s Big Three might have an opportunity to take advantage of Toyota’s difficulties in maintaining quality as it increases production.”