Microsoft scores highest in customer-respect study

Computerworld - When it comes to treating online customers with respect, Microsoft Corp. tops the list of the country's top 100 companies, according to The Customer Respect Group Inc. in Bellevue, Wash.
The company on Monday is releasing its third annual ranking of the Fortune 100 companies in terms of how they treat their customers online.
"We assess each of the company's Web sites in a uniform way -- looking at over 90 attributes that we've determined correlate to a successful experience of an online user," said Roger Fairchild, president of The Customer Respect Group. "We've put them in one of six categories, and we provide an overall score that we describe as the Customer Respect Index."
Those six categories are simplicity, responsiveness, transparency, principles, attitude and privacy, he said.
The study provides a comparative analysis of all companies within a group or industry and offers a comparison of their Web sites from a user-centric perspective, according to Fairchild.
On a scale of 0 to 10, the Fortune 100 group averaged a 6.2. Microsoft scored highest, with an 8.7, while Supervalu Inc. in Minneapolis scored lowest, with a 2.7. "We saw that the companies at the upper end of the scale were high-tech companies," said Fairchild.
Hewlett-Packard Co. ranked No. 2, with a score of 8.6, and IBM was third, with an 8.5 score, he said.
"What sets them apart from the others is that, across the board, they got high marks -- particularly in the areas of simplicity and the way they're upfront and open about all their policies on their sites," Fairchild said. "At the lower end of the scale, the companies tended to be poorer across the board, and again, they got their highest marks in simplicity of their sites. But they were still below average and generally had low marks ... in the other categories -- responsiveness, attitude and privacy and so on."
Fairchild said the group doesn't seek trends because different attributes are studied.

"Last year, we looked at 25 to 40 attributes when we analyzed the Fortune 100 companies, but this year, [we] looked at over 90 attributes," Fairchild said. "We look at it at a point in time: How do you score, and how do you compare and contrast against best practice leaders in your industry and your competitors?"
Microsoft, like many high-tech companies, pays a lot of attention to site navigation, bringing in high marks for simplicity, he said. In addition, high-tech companies are attuned to what customers are seeking as an overall experience