Apple fall behind Amazon as most-trusted company
Apple is no longer the most trusted company in the US, losing out on the top spot to Amazon in the annual Harris Interactive Reputational Quotient survey.
Decided by 14,000 people, the online survey puts Amazon in first place and Apple in second, while other tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook were in positions four, fifteen and fourty-two respectively.
Apple topped the poll last year with the survey’s highest ever score, but it seems this year’s Apple Maps fiasco could well be the cause of them dropping three points. Robert Fronk of Harris Interactive also believes it could be down to Apple’s falling stock price.
“For a number of years, [Apple’s] reputation was driven by their innovation, their products and services almost being ahead of their time and almost driving the market,” Fronk told Yahoo! Finance.
“Now, actually, financial performance is a dominant driver of their reputation and of course financial performance can be somewhat out of your control, as they’re finding.”
As well as Amazon’s wide range of available products and consistent customer service, Fronk also believed that Amazon’s use of customer data is well balanced:
“They use that information to create the right level of intimacy with you, but without going over that fine line of being intrusive. Perceptions are that they’re not giving that information to anyone else to monetize it.”
