Hate your toothpaste? You're not alone

A salesgirl takes Colgate toothpastes off the shelves at a supermarket in Hefei in east China's Anhui province Monday, April 18, 2005. [Photo/IC]

Securities trading services, insurance and personal care products, such as shampoo and toothpaste, are among the product categories and sectors with the lowest consumer satisfaction indexes in China, a consumer poll has revealed.

Services offered in the areas received the lowest ratings among all industries and sectors in China, scoring 70 or less out of a total of 100 points, according to the China Consumer Satisfaction Index, which was released on Monday.

The evaluation, conducted by the China National Institute of Standardization and Tsinghua University, found personal care products such as shower gel, liquid shampoos and toothpaste among those with least satisfaction in the index, scoring 70, 70 and 71.

“The index is showing that consumers are becoming more satisfied with the durable consumer goods. However, the consumer satisfaction index for nondurable consumer goods and the service sector is decreasing, which is worthy of our attention,” a statement released by the institute said.

Electronic device makers, especially cellphone producers, are also having major difficulty meeting consumer expectations, scoring an average of 72 out of 100, the index said.

Cellphone products by Apple Inc scored the highest in the category for cellphones, with 75 points, while Samsung and Lenovo scored lowest among all polled brands with only 68 points.

The index was produced after the two institutes polled more than 80,000 consumers aged 18 to 70 in 250 cities across China about their satisfaction with 33 industries. Respondents were required to have purchased or used the products or services by a certain company for a maximum of three years.

Similar surveys are conducted in the United States. The American Customer Satisfaction Index is widely seen as an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the US economy.