Apple continues to lead Dell and HP in customer service quality for phone-based technical support, but Apple’s support satisfaction among surveyed customers dropped significantly over the past 18 months, according to the latest study conducted by Vocallabs (Vocalabs).

In telephone interviews immediately following a support call, 54% of Apple customers were "Very Satisfied" with the experience during the last six months of 2011, compared to 44% of Dell customers and 49% of HP customers. Apple’s satisfaction score is down 19 points from the first half of 2010, while Dell and HP have generally held steady over the past two years.

Looking at common complaints in 2011, less than 1% of Apple customers surveyed complained about the language skills of the support technician; much fewer than the 8% of Dell customers and 10% of HP customers with similar issues. Many customers also complained about the extra cost of out-of-warranty tech support, but Apple saw fewer complaints here, too. About 1% of Apple customers volunteered a cost complaint in this study, as compared to 6% of Dell customers and 6% of HP customers.

"Despite its significant decline, Apple continues to lead our survey in overall tech support quality," says Peter Leppik, CEO of Vocalabs. "But where Apple used to be well ahead in nearly every measure of service quality, there are now areas where Apple is tied with, or even behind, its competitors."
You can download the Executive Summary of the Vocalabs report at http://www.Vocalabs.com/published-research.