Dive Brief:
- Customer satisfaction with household appliances and electronics fell in 2026, driven by eroding service quality, the American Customer Satisfaction Index found Tuesday. Satisfaction with televisions, household appliances and vacuum cleaners dipped 1% year over year, while satisfaction with personal computers dropped 4% year over year.
- Satisfaction with televisions scored 81 on a 100-point scale, household appliances scored 80, and personal computers and vacuum cleaners scored 78 each.
- Across industries, customers expressed less satisfaction with service and reliability. Ease of arranging a repair for both televisions and personal computers fell 7% and for vacuum cleaners 5%.
Dive Insight:
Customers expressed less satisfaction with service throughout their product’s lifetime, dragging down household appliances and electronics overall score, despite improvements in product quality.
The findings show manufacturers can no longer win satisfaction on product quality alone and need to support customers throughout the entire ownership journey, according to Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.
“Consumers increasingly assess the entire ownership journey, from setup and connectivity to service, maintenance, repairs, and long-term reliability,” Morgeson told CX Dive in an email. “The post-purchase experience has become a major driver of satisfaction.”
When issues do happen with a product, customers expect a friction-free process — whether that’s arranging service repairs or calling customer service.
“As these products become more connected and software-driven, customers increasingly interact with apps, websites, call centers, self-service tools, and repair networks,” Morgeson said. “Those touchpoints are becoming more important to overall satisfaction, with some manufacturers struggling to keep pace.”
Unfortunately for customers, ease of arranging service fell in every category except for household appliances. And among customers calling call centers for issues with their personal computer, satisfaction dropped 4%.
“These gaps suggest that companies often excel at designing products but struggle to support customers throughout years of ownership,” Morgeson said. “At the same time, consumers are making larger investments in connected devices and appliances, often expecting seamless software performance, proactive support, and easy access to service. When those expectations are not met, the ownership experience suffers even if the product itself performs well.”
