Blogger Blog Tell Why Microsoft Is 3X Better Than Apple For Customer Support 2011

The Apple versus Microsoft product debate has been a constant, four-decade campaign. There are proponents on both sides. While recently Apple has emerged the trendier of the two, does having trendier products translate into superior customer support?

After tallying the results, Microsoft is the clear winner with a 3-1-1 (win, tie, loss) outcome. Which for our purposes is a 3X victory for Microsoft.

Summary on Apple
While Apple has a better design and user experience, it does not measure up to its rival’s content and social infrastructure. Their belief appears to be that they want to tell you how you need to be supported. Which aligns with my experience with the team.
Apple is also behind on its Social construct. As far as I can tell, they do not have a single employee solving customer issues on Twitter. Moreover, their lack of customer feedback mechanisms are a glaring weakness. They just can not seem to get social right (via Business Insider/CNN).
Still, they have one of the best support sites on the web. Apple lets their products do the talking but don’t model your social strategy after them.

Summary on Microsoft
Microsoft admits they need to learn from their customers, and they have built a support site to match. While not perfect, they do an excellent job overall in providing support across their numerous and diverse product lines.

Microsoft has numerous support professionals monitoring Twitter and other social outlets. Their approach to social is superior to Apple’s and their MVP program is best in class.

Microsoft needs to improve their design and make their support sites more homogeneous. They also need to keep pushing the social boundaries and continue to add more social features. But in the end, they probably still have the best online support site on the web. Most technical communicators agree.