How satisfied are Microsoft customers?

 "We did those classic customer satisfaction surveys -- I won’t even tell you how much money we spent on them -- and then they would land like a brick on people’s desks," she said.

Bliss, who now consults large corporations on customer satisfaction, said that wasn’t because Microsoft, after years of hearing its software criticized for its reliability or insecurity, had developed a thick skin. On the contrary, it cared deeply.

"If people don’t like your software, it’s like them calling your baby ugly," Bliss said.

In 2003, Microsoft changed its customer service strategy again. It created the CPE to be a small, independent umbrella organization that unifies all the product groups under a single strategy while reporting to the highest levels of Microsoft.

The CPE is headed up by Kathleen Hogan, corporate vice president of worldwide customer service, support and customer and partner experience, and Jon DeVaan, senior vice president of the Windows core operating system division.

Richards meets directly with chief operating officer Kevin Turner and Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft’s business division, once a quarter. He also meets directly with CEO Ballmer once a year.

That ensures that the CPE not only gets a seat at the executive table, but insulates it from lower-level executives looking to meddle in surveys to guarantee glowing results for their products, said Richards. The top 800 executives at Microsoft are held accountable for customer and partner satisfaction, with results "affecting a fairly big part of their bonus," he said.

Better than you think?

What areas related to customer satisfaction is Microsoft most interested in continuing to improve? According to Richards, they include broader questions such as product quality and security as well as specific issues such as how Microsoft reacts to problems like this year’s change in the start date for daylight-saving time.

Liz Roche, a former Meta Group analyst who now consults firms on CRM software and other customer service-related issues, said that Microsoft already does a better job than outsiders give them credit for.

"With Windows Vista, people are buying new HP PCs and calling HP for Vista support," she said. "The customer doesn’t really care which service center he or she is calling -- to them, it’s just a problem with Windows."

But Fornell said that customers already give high-tech firms, such as Microsoft, a break because of the nature of the industry and of the products.

"If cars were only as reliable as PCs, our roads would be pretty messy," he said.

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