search technology reviews, news, features, group tests
Popular Searches:   video , dell , dvd
 |  Register
 |  Newsletters  | 
Sitemap  |  RSS
RSS
Monday November 23, 2009 1:24 AM AEST
Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > 2008 Awards > How we test

How we test

An insight into PC Authority's testing process.
Star ratings

We take the same rigorous approach to testing customer satisfaction that we do when we test new products in a group test. While other magazines call their surveys 'customer satisfaction', all they really ask is 'who is your favourite manufacturer?'. We ask a series of in-depth questions to discover the realworld truth of tech buyers' experiences.

Most of the time, the scoring we use is simple and reflects your ratings: we asked whether you were Very satisfied, Satisfied, Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, Unsatisfied or Very unsatisfied with key aspects for each product or service. Check each category for the key aspects, but usually they include Customer Support and Overall Satisfaction – importantly, we ask whether you would buy the same product again. This makes up two thirds of the satisfaction score, with the other third made up of your rating of value for money.

We analyse all the data to create a set of satistically valid results, which we convert into a set of star ratings. The overall rating is an average of the three key aspects in each category, but may vary due to rounding.