Apple wins in Mac-vs-PC satisfaction study

According to a new report, people who buy a Mac are more satisfied with their purchase and their purchasing experience than Windows PC buyers.

The study, performed by the Temkin Group, looked at 842 participants who had recently purchased a new computer, and broke them into a Mac group and a PC group.

The PC group included people who bought either an HP or a Dell model.

Participants were asked to rate every step in the buying process, on a scale of one to seven. Specifically, they were told to score how satisfied they were with:

– Information for selecting the right computer model

– Process of purchasing the computer

– Ease of initially setting up and using the computer

– Helpfulness of the company’s customer service

– The computer

Temkin then considered any answer of a “6” or a “7” as a positive response, and anything else as a negative response. For every one of the steps, the Mac group gave more positive responses than the PC group.

The biggest gap between the two was with the customer service question – 77% of Mac buyers ranked Apple’s customer service as a 6 or 7, while only 64% of PC buyers said the same about their respective manufacturer’s customer service.

When it came to ranking the computer itself, the results were 82% positive for Mac buyers and 79% positive for PC buyers, a negligible difference.

What the study really shows is Apple’s command in making consumers understand its products. Participants were also asked specific questions about the process of buying a computer, and the majority said buying direct from the manufacturer was the prefered method.

And, of course, Apple has the strongest direct-to-consumer channels, so in that light, the results make sense. When it comes down to using the computer at the end of the day, though, there isn’t a huge difference.