Microsoft vs. Apple -- Which has the most loyal and satisfied customers?

When you think of the great tech rivalries, it’s unquestionably Microsoft vs. Apple that springs to mind -- after all the two firms have been battling it out for close to 40 years. Microsoft was the dominant force for much of that time, until Apple surged ahead to become the most valuable company in the world.

Both tech giants have massive, and incredibly loyal fan bases. When we write something negative or overwhelming positive about either company’s products on BetaNews, the fanboys come out in force, accusing us of bias or being on one of the firm’s payrolls. So surely it’s time to find out which company has the most loyal and satisfied customers -- will it be Microsoft or will it be Apple? Place your bets now…

SurveyMonkey has launched a new Benchmarks product that is designed to let businesses of any size understand how they stack up to their closest competitors when it comes to key metrics. And to show off its capabilities, SurveyMonkey looked at the Customer Loyalty and Customer Service Satisfaction data for Apple and Microsoft.

According to the results, it was an overwhelming win for Apple, which shows the Cupertino, Calif.-based company scoring 28 in Custom Loyalty (this is measured using the net promoter scores (NPS) metric which looks at whether or not customers are recommending a product or service), Microsoft suffered badly here, with a score of -8.

Apple also managed 41 percent in Customer Service Satisfaction, ahead of Microsoft on just 19 percent.

The chart doesn’t just look at those two companies though, it also includes Samsung, Adobe and Intuit, all of which apparently have more loyal customers than Microsoft, and most of which (with the exception of Adobe), have more satisfied customers too.

You can view the full infographic here. Feel free to pour scorn on the findings in the comments below.