Although Americans love social media – regularly checking Facebook (many of us multiple times a day), posting pictures on Instagram and posts on Twitter – they aren’t necessarily satisfied with social networking sites.
In fact, social media scored just 71 out of 100 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings, placing them fourth on a list of the worst-performing companies in the U.S., with only airlines (69), subscription television (65) and Internet service providers (63) scoring worse. That’s according to a recent report from the ACSI.
Social media users are unhappy about advertisements and worried about privacy, wrote Herb Weisbaum, a contributor to CNBC. Weisbaum reported:
“We have very high expectations for these sites,” said ACSI director David VanAmburg. “We love them, but we also hate them.”
ACSI interviewed more than 6,000 consumers to compile the scores. Overall, customer satisfaction with social media increased by 4.4 percentage points from 2013, but 71 is still a dismal score. According to an ACSI press release:
“Even with improvements across the board, e-business — and social media in particular — doesn’t do well in terms of user satisfaction,” says Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder. “It is rare to see strong growth in an industry with such low customer satisfaction. However, several of the major players seem to have realized that their long-term prospects may be in jeopardy unless they do better.”
Pinterest was the highest-ranked social media site, followed by Wikipedia, YouTube, Google, Google+ and Twitter. Facebook and LinkedIn were tied for last place with 67 points.
“Pinterest is easy to use; they’ve done quite a bit in recent months to improve the functionality of the site; and they’re definitely head and shoulders above some of the other really big guys out there,” VanAmburg told Weisbaum.
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