SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc scored in the bottom 5 percent of a customer-satisfaction survey, below Internet rivals Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc, as the social-networking site’s frequent changes rankled users.
Facebook received 64 on a 100-point scale, while Google scored 80 and Yahoo got 76, according to a report based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which was developed by the University of Michigan’s business school. Concerns about privacy, design changes and aggressive advertising hurt Facebook’s status, the report found.
Facebook has grappled with user complaints this year, while still attracting advertisers and millions of new members. In May, the company simplified privacy settings to make it easier for people to protect their personal data. Its US users climbed to 141.6 million last month, up 84 percent from a year earlier, according to Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc.
“They’ve had this great growth — you can’t say anything negative about that,” said Larry Freed, chief executive officer of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based ForeSee Results Inc., a sponsor of the survey. “Low satisfaction means you’re starting to put that growth at risk.”
Facebook ranked in the same range as airlines and cable companies, two groups that typically score low on satisfaction surveys, according to the report.
“We haven’t reviewed the survey methodology in detail, but clearly we have room to improve,” Facebook said in a statement.
“Building a simple, useful service is the best way to earn and sustain the trust people put in us. That’s why we spend so much of our time and energy focused on improving the products we offer and introducing new ones.”
The nonprofit site Wikipedia.org ranked the highest among social-media companies, with a score of 77. Google’s YouTube site got a rating of 73, and News Corp.’s MySpace came in below Facebook, with a score of 63.
Facebook, which started as a college-networking site, is now attracting older users. They may not be as comfortable with the site’s frequent changes, Freed said.
“Satisfaction is a combination of what you get and what you expect,” he said. “Expectations play a major, major role in satisfaction.”