LG Electronics has raised the bar on customer satisfaction when it comes to major appliances.
The company topped the charts in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index study (ACSI), based on interviews with 35,000 consumers.
Scored on a scale of 0 to 100, LG copped a category- leading 85 — a 4 percent increase from last year, when it tied GE for first place.
Tying for second place this year with ACSI scores of 84 each was Bosch and Samsung. Bosch rose 6 percent from last place in 2015 thanks to “innovation in the Internet of Things (IoT) and investment in the user experience,” ACSI said, which “have improved customer perceptions of value.”
Samsung rose 4 percent from last year, concomitant with its U.S. market-share gains.
GE/Haier followed in third place (flat at 82), and tying for fourth place in customer satisfaction were Whirlpool, Electrolux and “all others” at 81.
The solid increases by Bosch, LG and Samsung helped pushed the overall home appliance category up 1.2 percent to 82, landing it in third place among all industries, just behind automobiles/light vehicles.
And look who came in first: video — comprised in this report of TVs and Blu-ray and DVD players — soared 6.1 percent to a top ACSI score of 87, leading all industries by a margin of 5 points. ACSI said smart functionality, a plethora of streaming apps and low prices lifted customer satisfaction to an all-time high for the category, although no brands were rated.
Also rated in the report was the personal computer category, which ranked 15th among all industries, just behind athletic shoes and just ahead of ambulatory care. ACSI said desktops, laptops and tablets together rebounded 1.3 percent to a score of 78, up from 77 last year.
Topping the brand charts was Apple, flat at 84; Samsung, up 6 percent to 83; and Amazon, ahead 3 percent to an ACSI score of 80 on the strength of its budget-friendly Fire tablets.
ACSI’s Household Appliance and Electronics Report 2016 is based on interviews with 3,500 consumers who were asked to evaluate their experiences with recently purchased products. Respondents were chosen at random between June 17 and June 30, 2016.
