Smaaz’s Blog

Ask.com Sets Record Rise in American Customer Satisfaction Index

August 14th, 2007

Ask.com achieved the highest percent increase in customer satisfaction of any online company, according to the University of Michigan’s annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released today on www.theacsi.org.

While the market share leader and search category as a whole declined this year, Ask.com’s level of satisfaction grew from a rating of 71 in 2006 to 75 in 2007. This represents the highest increase year over year among all portals, search engines, and news and information sites measured by ACSI.

In addition to the highest increase year over year, Ask.com’s new score also represents a 21% increase in customer satisfaction since the company was first tested as AskJeeves with a score of 62 in 2002—the largest increase of any online company in the history of the ACSI.

“The latest ACSI scores show that the search category is still evolving, and innovation still really matters,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Ask.com. “Given Ask.com grew our user satisfaction scores more than any other search engine this year—despite the fact that the study was conducted before the release of Ask3D—we’re looking forward to even better results in 2008.”

Using the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, the study measured how well the top search and portal websites delivered the kind of site experience consumers want.

“Ask.com seems to be well-positioned to rival Google in the coming years because it has a strong search technology lauded by analysts and users alike and by developing impressive features to challenge Google’s lesser-known add-ons,” said Larry Freed, President of ForeSee Results, on the ACSI e-business report he authored today. “Ask.com has been more than rewarded by its customers for the changes in functionality and search technology by receiving the biggest increase in the e-business sector this year. The bottom line is, Ask.com is showing that it is hitting on all cylinders when it comes to customer satisfaction and user engagement, and this denotes a mastery of the crucial mix of evolution and revolution.”

Measurement for this particular survey was concluded in June 2007. Since the survey period ended, Ask.com has announced multiple efforts to increase customer usage and satisfaction, including Ask3D, a differentiated three-panel multi-media search interface that has increased engagement on Ask.com, and AskEraser, a product that will give consumers unique and groundbreaking control to prevent retention of their search history.

Entry Filed under: Ask.com