Greater satisfaction among social media users led to higher overall customer satisfaction with e-business (e-commerce) in the US, according the 2015 American Customer Satisfaction (ACSI) E-Business Report.
In terms of US customer satisfaction, e-business conducted through social media under-performed for some five years, ranking near the bottom of ACSI’s rankings of 43 industry sectors. That has changed this year, with social media e-business customer satisfaction scores rising across the board, ACSI highlights in a news release.
Social Media Satisfaction
Facebook posted the biggest gain in ACSI e-business customer satisfaction scores in the social media category, which rose 12 percent to 75. The gain leaves Facebook in the middle of the pack among its industry peers. LinkedIn, whose ACSI e-business customer satisfaction score rose 1 percent to 68, remains in last place.
At the top of ACSI’s latest rankings is Pinterest, which maintained its number one ranking by posting a 3 percent gain to finish with an ACSI e-business customer satisfaction score of 78. Wikipedia followed closely, posting a 4 percent improvement, while Google Plus’s ACSI e-business customer satisfaction score rose 6 percent.
Ranked by ACSI for the first time, Instagram posted an above industry average ACSI score of 76. At the other end of the scale, Twitter posted a 3 percent gain with its ACSI e-business customer satisfaction totaling 71. Also ranked for the first time, Tumblr was second to last at 69.
Search and Information Website Satisfaction
Turning to search-and-information websites, Google continued to top the ranks of ACSI’s e-business customer satisfaction rankings. Its overall ACSI score dropped 6 percent to 78. That’s still well ahead of its industry segment peers, however.
Yahoo, MSN and AOL’s latest ACSI e-business customer satisfaction scores clustered around 74-75, while Bing’s came in at 72. About.com scored a 71, while Answers.com scored 67.
Also of note, mobile searches exceeded desktop searches, ACSI points out.
News and opinion sites fared worst when it comes to ACSI’s 2015 e-business customer satisfaction ranking. In ACSI’s 2013 rankings, news and opinion sites´ ACSI e-business scores topped social media’s by 5 points.
No more. As a group, news and opinion sites’ e-business customer satisfaction ratings dropped and now lag those for social media, dropping 1.4 percent to a group average 73.
Facebook is the sole social media site competing with the group by providing news and current events reporting, ACSI points out. Facebook’s satisfaction level comes close to that of the best news and opinion sites, researchers said.
I find it astonishing that Facebook's rating from businesses went up. I checked who was surveyed & ACSI says it was business Facebook users. I've heard all sorts of complaints from people who use Facebook to promote events, concerts, etc. about how Facebook delivers only a small fraction of their posts to followers unless it gets paid to do so. Seems like there's a lot of discontent to me. Some people are going so far as to say Facebook is doing a "bait & switch."