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The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the
U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
. It is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI LLC) based in
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
. The ACSI interviews about 350,000 customers annually and asks about their satisfaction with the goods and services they have purchased and consumed. Respondents are screened to ensure inclusion of actual customers of a wide range of business-to-consumer products and services, including durable
goods In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
, services, non-durable goods, local government services, federal government services, and so forth. Customer satisfaction (ACSI) scores are released monthly throughout each calendar year. ACSI data is used by researchers, corporations, government agencies, market analysts and investors, industry trade associations, and consumers.


History

ACSI began in 1994, developed by researchers with the National Quality Research Center at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, in cooperation with the
American Society for Quality The American Society for Quality (ASQ), formerly the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC), is a society of quality professionals, with more than 30,000 members, in more than 140 countries. History ASQC was established on 16 February ...
an
CFI Group, Inc
The model was originally designed in 1989 for the Swedish economy (the Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB)). Both the Swedish version and the ACSI were developed by Claes Fornell, Donald C. Cook Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at the University of Michigan, and
chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...
of CFI Group.


ACSI score calculation

A company's ACSI score is derived from three manifest variables (i.e. survey questions) within the ACSI questionnaire, each rated on a 1-10 scale by the respondents interviewed for that company, government agency, or other organization: The 0-100 ACSI score is estimated using the mean for each variable from the ''n'' responses for that company (X1, X2, X3), along with the weights for each question as calculated within the ACSI structural equation model (W1, W2, W3): (((X1*W1)+(X2*W2)+(X3*W3))-1)/9*100


Sector, industry and company-level findings

ACSI data show that certain sectors, industries and companies have consistently high customer satisfaction, while others are almost always below average (with the National ACSI score reflecting the average). At the sector level,
manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...
— including both durable and non-durable goods — typically Some industries that are measured performed well over the years in ACSI include:
e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
, personal care products,
soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...
s,
beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
,
consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...
,
automobiles A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
and household appliances.
Cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
,
airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...
s and
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
usually have lower ACSI scores.


Macroeconomic findings

One set of findings discovered by academic researchers involve predictions of
macroeconomic Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output/ GDP ...
growth as functions of changes in aggregate customer satisfaction. For example, ACSI is predictive of
Gross Domestic Product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...
(GDP) growth and
Personal Consumption Expenditure The PCE price index (PCEPI), also referred to as the PCE deflator, PCE price deflator, or the Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption Expenditures (IPD for PCE) by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and as the Chain-type Price Ind ...
(PCE) growth.


Stock market findings

In a 2006 paper published in the ''Journal of Marketing'', it was shown that a portfolio of stocks chosen based on their customer satisfaction outperformed the market. A 2016 article in the same journal, examining returns from a fund trading exclusively on ACSI data, found that strong satisfaction companies significantly outperformed the S&P 500 (518% to 31%) during the study period (2000-2014).


International adoption of the ACSI model

Research groups, quality associations and universities in several countries are using the ACSI model to create customer satisfaction indices for their own national economies. The list of governments that have adopted the ACSI model include
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
,
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
,Sipher-Mann, Leah
"Ross Professor Recognized as Top Influential Scholar."
Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
,
Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
,
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
, and
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
. The development of an international system of customer satisfaction measurement founded on a common methodology allows for comprehensive cross-national satisfaction benchmarking.


ACSI licensees

In addition to ACSI LLC, CFI Group LLC is licensed to apply the methodology for individual companies. ACSI Funds, which manages an
exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...
(ETF), uses ACSI data for trading under the ticker symbol "ACSI".Cowan, Gerrard. "An ETF That Tracks Happy Customers," ''Wall Street Journal'', March 5, 2017.


References

{{Reflist


External links


The Australian Customer Satisfaction Index

The American Customer Satisfaction Index


(self-description, includes the ACSI)
National Business Research Institute

The South African Customer Satisfaction Index
1994 establishments in Michigan Public opinion research companies in the United States