Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Jack M. | Delivered August 2, 2021

Activision Blizzard Customer Experience Insights

Goals

Provide insights about Activision/Blizzard's customer experience and how they view the company, as well as insights on their recent issues and scandals, that have given them a negative image:
More specifically, provide customer satisfaction statistics about the company, as well as for their competitors.
Find and provide stories or descriptions of customer experiences covering the purchasing process, dealing with the support team, and other issues.
Finally to provide some insights related to the recent scandals and lawsuits.

Early Findings

Data AvailabilityThe data availability on this topic is adequate.

We started our research by looking at the information available in specialized reviews websites such as Sitejabber and Trustpilot.
Sitejabber Customer ReviewsIn Sitejabber, Activision Blizzard received 11 negative reviews out of 13.
Their customer service/support was directly criticized in 5 of those reviews.
Customers/fans mainly complained that they did not receive answers to their queries, and that the company had changed for the worst, and is now perceived as a "money-grabber".
A customer mentioned that Activision Blizzard stopped releasing the number of their subscribers due to a drop.
Trustpilot Customer ReviewsIn Trustpilot, Blizzard Entertainment received 87% of negative reviews out of 1,138, with an average rating of 1.3/5.
 Customer service is yet again targeted by customers in their negative reviews, calling it "absolute garbage", "awful", "worst", "horrible" and "disgusting".
The company itself has been accused of lacking respect towards its customers, not treating them with respect, and providing the worst customer service experience ever.
Many complaints have been lodged due to the complexity of getting a refund, as well as getting banned easily.
Everything Sucks ReviewsThe main complaints have been that the company became too greedy and that the price of their games had risen excessively.
Another complaint was that there were many server issues despite the price rise, and that there was an absence of customer services for many countries.
COMPARISON WITH COMPETITIONElectronic Arts (EA) has also received a majority of negative reviews on TrustPilot with a score of 1.1/5 out of 2,748 reviews, 97% of them negative.
On Sitejabber, 34 out of 79 reviews are negative for EA with an average rating of 3.06/5.
Ubisoft was also rated negatively on TrustPilot, with around 92% of negative ratings out of 837 reviews, and an average of 1.2/5.
DROP IN SUBSCRIBERSActivision-Blizzard (AB) has lost 11 million active monthly players between Q1 2018 and Q1 2021. 
This is equivalent to 29% of the total active monthly players.
A drop of 2 million happened just between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. 
SUMMARYAfter one hour of research, we managed to find some information about customers' experience of Activision/Blizzard. We have found that most customers have a negative opinion of the company, and that they are losing a large number of loyal customers. This trend has been backed by data with a sharp drop in subscribers in Q1 2021, and in the last two years. However, a comparative research also found that their competitors are viewed negatively as well. Given the time constraint, and given instructions not to focus mainly on the lawsuit, we focused first on providing information about customer perceptions. However, if there is a need for additional research on lawsuits/scandals involving Activision/BLizzard, please indicate it in the proposals below.