Microsoft has key competition like Google searching for answers on at least one critical metric—overall customer satisfaction.
Microsoft’s most prominent competitors, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) sector, are Google and Oracle. In a 2016 Interbrand study, Google ranked as the world’s second best brand, beating Microsoft at number 4. Oracle placed 17th.
But results from the benchmark study by Collaborative for Customer-Based Execution & Strategy (Collaborative for CUBES™) show Microsoft trumps Google on overall customer satisfaction among B2B customers, which comprise a large part of the revenue stream for both companies.
Researchers have long sought to understand the extent to which overall customer satisfaction is associated with executive-relevant outcomes like pricing power, customer loyalty, willingness to recommend, and financial performance. Collaborative for CUBES, a research collaborative that helps executives design and execute strategy via a customer-based perspective, measured overall satisfaction among B2B buyers in its benchmark study.
The Collaborative for CUBES study used the survey data to rate Google, Microsoft, and Oracle on the following key strategic areas that drive overall customer satisfaction:
- Sales and bidding.
- Product/service quality.
- Pricing and billing.
- Communication.
- Project management.
- Safety.
- Sustainability and social responsibility.
- Ongoing service and support.
The ratings were placed on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the highest possible score, and 0 the lowest. Results from the benchmark Collaborative for CUBES study show:
- Microsoft (77.6) is way ahead of Oracle (51.64) and Google (20.49) in terms of overall customer satisfaction.
- Pricing and billing, along with project management, are the two most important areas for customers in the computer service sector, with respective weights of 20.3% and 20.4%. Ongoing service and support is also important at 15%.
- Collaborative for CUBES determined how Microsoft performed relative to Google and Oracle in each of these areas, with scores scaled from 0-100:
- Microsoft scored a 64.10 on pricing and billing, compared to a 39.10 for Oracle and a 25.64 for Google.
- On project management, Microsoft scored a 75.96, much higher than Google’s 25.64 and Oracle’s 39.10
- Google also lagged behind on service and support with a 45.19. Microsoft scored a 72.12, while Oracle was at 60.58.
In addition to measuring overall customer satisfaction and performance in the eight key strategic areas, Collaborative for CUBES determined these metrics’ association with financial outcomes. Collaborative for CUBES Insights Series Volume 1, “Busting the Value Trap,” details the association of overall satisfaction with sales. The research concludes: “For the average firm in the sample, sales jump from $26.7 billion to $45.9 billion when clients go from ‘somewhat satisfied’ to ‘extremely satisfied.”
Applying this econometric model to the computer service sector shows Microsoft is poised to gain much more in sales via its customer satisfaction strategy than Google or Oracle, at least in the B2B sector.
The “customer satisfaction effect,” whereby satisfied customers benefit firms in both financial and non-financial ways, is not limited to consumer companies. Collaborative for CUBES shows, it applies just as forcefully for B2B firms.
Companies that increase overall satisfaction also enjoy a higher-quality customer base, and Microsoft is way ahead of Google on that measure. Only by addressing this gap can Google ensure it does not fall behind.
