ANN ARBOR, Mich.—American customers are satisfied with the goods and services they buy, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The index for the fourth quarter of 2009 is largely unchanged, dipping a mere 0.1 percent from the previous quarter to 75.9 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, and remains much higher than it was prior to the recession and also slightly higher than this time one year ago.
Because economic recovery is dependent on consumer spending and high levels of customer satisfaction tend to strengthen consumer demand, the latest ACSI is encouraging to current economic woes. “As long as unemployment remains high and credit tight, it is difficult to see how we can get to a sustainable pace of consumer spending growth,” said Professor Claes Fornell, author of “The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference” and head of the ACSI. “But it is not all bad: the ‘will to spend’ is evidenced by high customer satisfaction. The issue is whether or not consumers have the ‘means to spend.’ The recent news about the decline in unemployment and the rise in manufacturing hiring may not only lead to more people working, but may also dampen the fear of job loss. If so, the means to spend will face less of a hurdle.”
As the stock market rebounded in 2009, the rewards have been greater for those companies with improving ACSI scores. On average, companies that did well in ACSI saw their stocks increase by 75 percent, while stock prices for those with declining ACSI scores rose 22 percent over the same period.
Customer satisfaction with the retail sector, which includes specialty retail stores, supermarkets and health and personal care stores, gained 1.3 percent to an ACSI score of 76.2.