American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): Annual Commentary on Federal Government 
Citizen Satisfaction with Federal Government Services Rebounds
The Gap Widens Between Banks and Credit Unions
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) rebounds from last quarter?s dip, gaining 0.3% to 74.7 on the 0-100 Index scale. The rise is driven by improvements across all four of the industries in the financial services sector covered by the NCSI: Retail Banks, Mortgage Lenders, Home and Motor Insurance, and Credit Cards. Of the 22 financial services companies, gainers beat decliners by nearly 2 to 1: 55% improve while only 32% decline and another 13% are unchanged from a year ago.
The ACSI continues on the path it has been for quite some time now: in the aggregate, it is going nowhere. In this sense, it not only mirrors the economy, it contributes to its frailty. There are several reasons why customer satisfaction takes on extra importance in a fragile economy. One reason has to do with protection of the customer base. When there is little or no industry growth, the only way for many companies to expand is to take market share from competition. In a weak labor market with tight household budgets, this leads to more price competition, deflationary pressure, and a further weakening of aggregate demand. The best defense a company can have against competitive efforts to take market share is to have satisfied customers.
U.S. Consumption Drops, But Beer and Soda Drinkers Remain Quite Satisfied
Customer Satisfaction Stagnates for Personal Computers, Electronics, and Appliance Makers
After a flat first quarter, the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) falls for the first time in two years. The index dips 0.2% to 74.5 on the 0-100 scale.
The national ACSI shows marginal improvement of 0.1% to a score of 75.7 on a scale of 0 to 100--not enough to make a dent in consumer spending or spur economic growth. Not only is the increase in the nation's overall customer satisfaction minute, its impact on consumer demand weakens in a struggling economy. While demand generally shifts to companies that do a good job of satisfying their customers, aggregate demand in times of economic distress is hampered by other factors such as doubt about the future, job uncertainty, and lack of discretionary income.
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): Report on Internet News & Information, Internet
One year ago, the ACSI began measuring social media websites and the industry's debut was not impressive as inaugural results revealed rather weak user satisfaction. In 2010, the category earned a score of 70 on ACSI's 0 to 100 scale. This year, not much has changed. Overall customer satisfaction stays flat at 70 and the largest sites show only slight improvement. Social media websites remain one of the lowest-scoring categories when it comes to customer satisfaction. Only airlines, cable TV, and newspapers do worse in ACSI. User concern about privacy, including being targeted for advertising, continues to be problematic for social media websites.
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): Report on Transportation, Accommodation & Food Services
Airlines Rank Lowest in Satisfaction; Hotels and Restaurants Please
More Customers
National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) Results Q1 2011
After five straight quarters of improvement, customer satisfaction with businesses in the United Kingdom has stalled, according to the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK). Only 33% of companies improved customer satisfaction, while 55% declined and 17% recorded no change.
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): 2011 Report on the Information Sector
After two quarters of negative change, the aggregate ACSI turns positive this quarter--up 0.4% to 75.6--but only because gains in the utilities and health care sectors, released in April, more than offset a 0.7% drop in the information sector.
This year, ACSI expands its coverage of utilities to include companies within three different categories: investor-owned, municipal, and consumer-owned cooperative utilities. Consistent with several other ACSI industries, smaller appears to be better. The cooperatives debut with the highest ACSI score at 82, followed by investor-owned utilities at 74 and municipal utilities at 73. Among cooperatives, Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, a national alliance of more than 700 local electric cooperatives, have the highest score (83)--not only in their category, but among all measured utilities.
National Customer Satisfaction Index Results: Customer Satisfaction with Retail Improves
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) continues to climb, with a large gain for the retail sector driving customer satisfaction in the UK to its highest level in two years. For the fourth quarter of 2010, the NCSI rises 0.8% to 74.7 on a 0-100 index scale. With the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) stalling at 75.3, the gap between UK and US customer satisfaction is narrowing.
Customer Satisfaction Weakens; Economic Recovery Remains Fragile - Strong Showings for Amazon, Netflix, Newegg, Publix, Nordstrom, Kohl's; Improvements for Macy's, Staples, Office Depot and Whole Foods; Large Drops for Gasoline Industry, OfficeMax, CVS Caremark, and Priceline
American Customer Satisfaction Index Results: U.S. Federal Government
Citizen Satisfaction with Federal Government Services Plummets. Citizen Satisfaction Still Lags Private Sector; Contact Channel Impacts Satisfaction and Agency Trust; Satisfaction With Government Websites Remains Strong
CFI Group's Restaurant Monitor Study (RMS) investigates the factors that influence our choice of dining fare when we decide to satisfy our urge to eat while "on the run." The study asked 1,200 people from across the US to dissect their most recent experience with a limited service restaurant. We defined "limited service" as any establishment where the customer orders from a counter or drive-thru lane. Over ninety percent of the time this experience covered what we traditionally call "fast food," with the balance including a few other categories such as coffee houses and pizza parlors.
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) increases for a fourth straight quarter, up 0.1% to 73.8 on the 0-100 Index scale. Following stronger gains of 0.5% in the previous quarters, the pace of improvement has slowed. The increase is due in large part to higher customer satisfaction with banks, credit cards and mortgages. Home and motor insurance customers are less satisfied than last year.
Government Contact Center Satisfaction Index 2010
Government contact centers play an important role during these difficult times. With increased economic pressures for many U.S. citizens, people rely all the more on government contact centers to provide the service and support citizens need. Fortunately, government contact centers have risen to the occasion to deliver higher satisfaction scores among citizens who contact a call center. Our 3rd Annual Government Contact Center Satisfaction Index (GCCSI) study addresses citizens' experiences both with government call centers and online channels such as websites, email, interactive chat, and social media.
Optimizing Satisfaction to Drive Action: The ACSI Advantage for Government Agencies
Government agencies need action-oriented metrics to optimize service levels, leading to outcomes such as increased trust, compliance, positive word-of-mouth, and perceived transparency. By applying the proven science of the ACSI, agencies can know specifically where to make improvements that will provide the greatest reward in terms of customer satisfaction and behavior. The approach can be applied at an aggregate level to understand where the overall need is greatest, or at a lower level such as a geographic area, an individual office or service location, a call center, or a specific customer segment.
National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK Results for Q2
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) gains for a third straight quarter, rising 0.5% to 73.7 on NCSI's 0-100 scale, the highest level since the NCSI introduced a national score for customer satisfaction in 2008. The increase is driven by improved customer satisfaction with carmakers and restaurants.
2010 Contact Center Satisfaction Index
Consumers are increasingly forced to deal with companies remotely through centralized contact centers or the Internet. Although companies continue to offer more online functionality each year, the call center remains the last - and most personalized - option to resolve problems. Thankfully for consumers, the Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI) continues to rise, improving 2 points over the past year, and a total of 6 points since 2007.
National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK Results for Q1
After the UK economy shrank by 5% in 2009, there are signs, however small, that better days may lie ahead. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) improved for the first time. The slight gain coincided with the first positive growth for the economy since 2008. In 2010, the Index trends upwards, this time making its largest gain to date, up 0.5% to a score of 73.3 on the NCSI?s 0-100 point scale. This is the highest level for the NCSI since national scores for the economy were first released, and the uptick coincides with a second straight quarter of small, but still positive, GDP growth.
National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK Retail Results for Q4
After three straight quarters of small declines, the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI UK) inches up very slightly for the first time, in the fourth quarter of 2009. The Index improves 0.1% to a score of 72.9 on the NCSI-UK?s 0-100 point index scale. This coincides with a 0.1% fourth quarter growth in GDP, which though rather anaemic by absolute standards, nevertheless represents the first positive growth for the economy since the first quarter of 2008. Retail was among the categories behind the small uptick in GDP, with improving customer satisfaction driving stronger sales - overall, retail sales were up 3.3% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. Still, consumers have remained cautious amid an uncertain economy. While nearly one quarter planned to spend more during the 2009 holiday shopping season, an equal number indicated they were scaling back their spending, and nearly half of all shoppers planned to put little to none of their holiday purchases on their credit cards.
Customer Satisfaction with UK Financial Services
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) drops slightly for a second straight quarter. For the third quarter of 2009, NCSI-UK falls 0.1% to 72.8 on a 100 point scale. The decline is the result of eroding customer satisfaction with companies that provide a range of financial services to consumers. Retail banking, mortgage lending and credit card services all show weakened customer satisfaction, while home and motor insurance remains steady. Even though each quarterly drop at the national level is quite small, the trend is not encouraging for an overall recovery of the UK economy.
In today's competitive marketplace, customer satisfaction is critical to long-term profitability. Customers whose needs and desires remain unmet will take their business - and their wallets - elsewhere. When it comes to financial performance, most companies look hard and often at tangible assets, but the balance sheet neglects their most valuable intangible asset - the customer. Improving financial performance requires understanding current levels of customer satisfaction, what it means for the future, and identifying ways to optimize it profitably.
CFI Group Smartphone Satisfaction Study 2009
We are now in a world of cell phone ubiquity where smartphones represent one of the last remaining areas for growth and expansion for wireless companies. Once the dominion of business users, consumers are adopting smartphones in large numbers. Apple's iPhone is largely credited for spurring consumer interest in smartphones, which are being used more like mini-computers than cell phones.
National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK Results for Q2
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) retreats slightly in the second quarter, falling 0.1% to 72.9 on a 100 point scale. The small drop is largely due to declining customer satisfaction with the automobile industry - despite sharply falling sales over the past year, new vehicle purchases still make up a sizeable proportion of overall consumer spending. Customer satisfaction also declines for full-service, sit-down restaurants, but the fast food industry remains flat.
2009 Contact Center Satisfaction Index (CCSI)
In the midst of a recession, companies continue to search for ways to cut costs while maintaining customer satisfaction. This is certainly the case for contact centers, which are challenged to achieve high levels of customer service while operating in a "leaner" manner than ever before.
National Customer Satisfaction Index - UK Results
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) releases its annual results for utilities, mobile phone service and airlines as well as the first ever national customer satisfaction score for the UK economy. The national index debuts at 73.0 on the NCSI-UK's 0-100 point scale.
The Cobalt Citizen Satisfaction Survey (CCSS)
Currently, state and local governments across the country are struggling to balance budgets in the face of an economic slowdown, a weakening housing market and rising unemployment, all key factors in the revenue they collect. In the coming months, local governments will be forced to make a number of difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce resources across an array of public programs and services and/or raise taxes to generate more revenue. Incorporating input from community residents into local policy decisions is vital to the democratic process and necessary to ensure a successful program of change. Good government depends on strong public support and a citizenry that is invested in the development and growth of their community.
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State of Texas
1. Get the fundamentals right. With the ever-increasing rate of technological change, companies are more inclined to continually offer bigger, improved, feature-rich products or services, convinced that the latest and greatest will put their customer over the moon. Often times this is done at the expense of getting core service/product delivery done correctly and to client specifications. Providing product/service on time - to specifications - will win the hearts and minds of your customers every time, over giving them more than they want (or need) half the time.
How Retailers Can Make the Most of Customer Satisfaction Data
As recent retail news clearly indicates, the economic downturn is rapidly and drastically changing consumers' perceived needs and spending behaviors. Customers are seeking more value for their hard-earned money and pursuing creative ways to stretch their dwindling budgets. In turn, under the pressure of unprecedented revenue losses, many retailers are nervously attempting to cut operating costs and remain competitive by slashing prices, reducing staff levels, and trimming inventories.
Credit Unions: Making the Most of Membership Growth
These are anxious times for both providers and consumers in the financial services industry, especially banking. Market valuations of the major national banks are plummeting and the FDIC is taking smaller regional and local banks into receivership at the rate of two or three per week. But even amidst the turmoil, Credit Unions have found themselves in a rather more positive position.
Top 10 Customer Satisfaction Survey Best Practices
You probably already have a very good idea of what drives customer satisfaction. Customer service professionals can generally create surveys that, on the surface, might closely resemble those created by survey methodologists. However, the words generally, might, and closely are crucial. Familiarity with the day-to-day needs of customers can well inform the content of a survey, but even the best intentions can have unintended consequences on question design.
2008 Telecom-Cable Industry Satisfaction Report
Telecommunication and cable companies have operated as virtual monopolies for decades, each with their own domain. Telecom companies provided phone service; cable companies provided video. But as technology rapidly evolves and converges, telecom and cable companies increasingly find themselves encroaching on each other's turf. Innovations in communications technology - like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) - are leading these industries into a head-to-head battle for the same customer.
2008 Contact Center Satisfaction Index
As consumer spending weakens and the economy takes a downturn, organizations must focus more on customer retention and less on costly customer acquisition. Because they are at the frontlines of the customer-supplier relationship, contact centers assume a large portion of the burden in making sure a company can keep its customers.
Addressing Cross-Cultural Comparability in Survey Data
Companies with an international footprint often wish to compare the satisfaction of customers in one country vs. those in another country. This is typically not a wise allocation of scarce research resources. Firms tend to be much better off by focusing on the optimization of customer attitudes and behaviors within each country rather than the comparison of customer sentiment across countries.
Six Costly Customer Satisfaction Myths and Misunderstandings
Executives at most companies believe they understand the meaning and importance of customer satisfaction: "Satisfied" customers are not only more likely to spend more money on their products and services - and probably more frequently - but they're also more likely to recommend their company to others, producing even greater profits. But it's not quite that simple.
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Call Center
Optimizing Customer Satisfaction and Maximizing Financial Performance
Many organizations, especially those with successful customer satisfaction measurement programs, ultimately ask "When is enough really enough?" Their measurement-inspired action plans and ongoing investments yield an assessment of customer touch points that indicates continued improvement. But, overall customer satisfaction and desired financial outcomes remain elusive.
Customer-Focused Strategies in the Multi-Channel Marketplace
As firms increasingly invest in systems and technologies that create greater flexibility in building customer relations, managers need better tools to measure and manage those relationships. Absent a more precise understanding of the value of the customer asset in this environment, managers will be left to try to manage these new customer-driven relationships with piecemeal “business as usual” and silo-based approaches.
Customer Asset Management: A New Paradigm for the Modern Business Firm
Because of the massive shift in economic activity from manufacturing and mass production toward service and information exchange, the modern economy is quite different from the one about which most economic theory and measurement were developed. Economic growth, for firms and for nations, is no longer simply a matter of producing more with fewer resources (i.e. productivity), but rather a matter of better matching supply to a progressively heterogeneous demand...
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Technology: A Methodological Primer
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has a proven relationship with customer spending, shareholder value, cash flows, business performance and GDP growth. The technology upon which it is based is backed by over 70 years of rigorous scientific inquiry in the fields of consumer psychology and psychometrics, coupled with advanced analytic techniques from statistics, econometrics, and chemometrics.
In the private sector the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has a proven relationship with customer spending, shareholder value, cash flows, business performance and GDP growth. The technology upon which it is based is backed by over 70 years of rigorous scientific inquiry in the fields of consumer psychology and psychometrics, coupled with advanced analytic techniques from statistics, econometrics, and chemometrics...
2003 Consumer Satisfaction with the Mortgage Lending Process
The mortgage banking industry presently faces many challenges and opportunities as the realities that have defined the housing market in the past few years begin to change. Interest rates are beginning to rise from their historic low levels, precipitating a shift in the share of origination volumes away from refinancings toward purchases of new and existing homes.
How Customer Satisfaction Impacts Telecom and Cable's Battle for the Consumer
To provide insight into howcustomer satisfaction impacts competition between telecomand cable companies, CFI Group conducted a survey of over 1,200 households to contrast customer satisfaction between the two industries and gauge how it will determine the winners and losers in the battle for the consumer.
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