Netflix customer satisfaction tanked in 2011

To say that Netflix hasn’t had a particularly good year would be a pretty big understatement. After hiking up the prices of their instant streaming service and unsuccessfully attempting to spin-off their DVD-by-mail to a separate service, Netflix’s subscriber base has seen a steady decline throughout the year.

Unsurprisingly, an annual report from ForeSee Results, a company that specializes in measuring consumer satisfaction, shows that customer satisfaction for the service has tanked pretty significantly. The survey’s 100-point scale puts Netflix customer satisfaction at 79, which is down seven points from its previous position in the survey.

“Netflix totally misread its customer base and is paying the price, damaging its brand among both consumers and investors,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee, in a statement. “Raising prices by 60% and splitting the baby into separate DVD and streaming services totally undermines Netflix’s cost and convenience advantages. Customer satisfaction is predictive, which means that Netflix’s financial woes may be just beginning.”

While Netflix’s ratings in ForeSee Results’ survey took a big hit, Amazon secured the top spot on the list with a score of 88, up two points from last year and one point from the year before that.

“E-retailers have consistently upped their game since we first started measuring holiday satisfaction in 2005, but Amazon is still the 800-pound gorilla of retail, and it just keeps getting better,” Freed said. “It’s tough for a smaller retailer to compete with this level of dedication to providing an excellent customer experience.”

On the bright side for Netflix, 2012 can only be an improvement for the company – unless they somehow manage to cook up another scheme to cause yet another mass subscriber exodus.

Source: ForeSee