iPhone Loses Ground to Galaxy Lineup on Customer Satisfaction

Satisfaction with the wireless phone industry is making a comeback this year, gaining 2.9 percent after a two-year decline, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Satisfaction with wireless service landed at 72 on a 100-point scale, and while that was an improvement, it's still "well below" the national ACSI average.

"Barriers to switching, including contracts with cancellation fees, make the wireless industry less competitive," ACSI director David VanAmburg said in a statement. "ACSI research shows that customer satisfaction is almost always lower when consumers have less choice and more headaches when it comes to switching to another seller."

Verizon was the top provider at 78, followed by Sprint (71), AT&T (70), and T-Mobile (68).

According to the ACSI, the aggregate of smaller carriers — Tracfone, Cricket, and MetroPCS (acquired by T-Mobile after the index research was completed) — tops the four national companies, rising 3 percent to a score of 78. Their secret: They don't lock customers into contracts, and therefore are perceived as being a better value.

Apple continued to dominate the smartphone scene with a score of 81, but it still dropped 2 percent despite the iPhone 5. On PCs, Apple was at 86.

The opposite is true for the impact of the Galaxy S III for Samsung, the ACSI said. After launching last year, the smartphone helped push the company's score up 7 percent to 76 — the largest improvement for any cell phone manufacturer.

Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S 4 has earned massive sales, but the Korean company can't seem to break out in the world of customer satisfaction, where it ranks behind leaders Apple and Motorola, landing in a third-place tie with Nokia.

HTC has made a recent splash with its launch of the revamped HTC One, but the ACSI reported that it still fell 4 percent in customer satisfaction, landing just above LG Electronics, which dropped 5 percent this year. BlackBerry remains stagnant with the same score of 69 is earned last year.

But the ACSI focuses on more than cell phones; it also covers subscription television service, Internet service providers, fixed-line telephone service, and computer software. As a whole, the national customer satisfaction benchmark gained 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year — a small but critical upswing that points to greater customer demand in this slow economy.

"Customers satisfaction with the Information sector is improving, but none of these industries score higher than the national average," ACSI founder Claes Fornell said in a statement. "Limited competition combined with high consumer expectations for information services are a formula for relatively weak buyer satisfaction, despite the gains."

ACSI surveyed more than 9,500 customers in each of its six industries, asking participants to evaluate their recent purchase and consumption experiences with various products or services.