Foundations of the American Customer Satisfaction Index

How do we know if an economy is performing well? How do we know if a company is performing well? The fact is that we have serious difficulty answering these questions today. The economy-for nations and for corporations-has changed much more than our theories and measurements. The development of national customer satisfaction indices (NCSIs) represents an important step towards addressing the gap between what we know and what we need to know. This paper describes the methodology underlying one such measure, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). ACSI represents a uniform system for evaluating, comparing, and - ultimately - enhancing customer satisfaction across firms, industries and nations. Other nations are now adopting the same approach. It is argued that a global network of NCSIs based on a common methodology is not simply desirable, but imperative.

[1]  J. Mill.  Principles of Political Economy , 2011, Forerunners of Realizable Values Accounting in Financial Reporting.

[2]  Principes de législation et d'économie politique , 1888 .

[3]  A. Marshall.  Principles of Economics , .

[4]  Arthur Cecil Pigou,et al.  Wealth and Welfare. , 1913 .

[5]  J. Hicks,et al.  Value and Capital , 2017 .

[6]  N. Kaldor.  The Philosophy of Economics: Welfare Propositions of Economics and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility , 1939 .

[7]  John Hicks,et al.  The Four Consumer's Surpluses , 1943 .

[8]  P. Samuelson,et al.  Foundations of Economic Analysis. , 1948 .

[9]  L. A. Goodman,et al.  Social Choice and Individual Values , 1951 .

[10]  Icinqsley Laffer..  THE FOUNDATIONS OF WELFARE ECONOMICS , 1951 .

[11]  A. Hirschman,et al.  Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States , 1970 .

[12]  A. Hirschman,et al.  Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States , 1971 .

[13]  P. Green,et al.  Conjoint Analysis in Consumer Research: Issues and Outlook , 1978 .

[14]  Bruce L. Stern,et al.  Research for Marketing Decisions , 1978 .

[15]  R. Oliver.  A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions , 1980 .

[16]  William R. Darden,et al.  Causal Models in Marketing , 1980 .

[17]  P. Chattopadhyay,et al.  Value and Capital , 1982 .

[18]  F. Bookstein,et al.  Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory , 1982 .

[19]  W. Bearden,et al.  Selected Determinants of Consumer Satisfaction and Complaint Reports , 1983 .

[20]  David Mazursky,et al.  A Longitudinal Assessment of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction: The Dynamic Aspect of the Cognitive Process , 1983 .

[21]  F. M. Andrews.  Construct Validity and Error Components of Survey Measures: A Structural Modeling Approach , 1984 .

[22]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  Defensive Marketing Strategy by Customer Complaint Management: A Theoretical Analysis , 1987 .

[23]  R. B. Woodruff,et al.  Expectations and norms in models of consumer satisfaction. , 1987 .

[24]  V. Pareto.  Manuel D'Economie Politique , 1988 .

[25]  Claes Fornell,et al.  A Model for Customer Complaint Management , 1988 .

[26]  J. E. Swan,et al.  Consumer perceptions of interpersonal equity and satisfaction in transactions: A field survey approach. , 1989 .

[27]  H. Wold.  Theoretical empiricism : a general rationale for scientific model-building , 1989 .

[28]  J. Farley,et al.  Determinants of Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis , 1990 .

[29]  F. F. Reichheld,et al.  Zero defections: quality comes to services. , 1990, Harvard business review.

[30]  Paul E. Green,et al.  Conjoint Analysis in Marketing: New Developments with Implications for Research and Practice , 1990 .

[31]  Paul E. Green,et al.  Conjoint Analysis in Marketing Research: New Developments and Directions , 1990 .

[32]  C. Fornell,et al.  A Framework for Comparing Customer Satisfaction across Individuals and Product Categories , 1991 .

[33]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  A Multistage Model of Customers' Assessments of Service Quality and Value , 1991 .

[34]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The balanced scorecard--measures that drive performance. , 2015, Harvard business review.

[35]  C. Fornell.  A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience: , 1992 .

[36]  E. Anderson,et al.  The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms , 1993 .

[37]  V. Zeithaml,et al.  A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions , 1993 .

[38]  R. Rust,et al.  Return on Quality: Measuring the Financial Impact of Your Company's Quest for Quality , 1993 .

[39]  D. Aaker,et al.  The Financial Information Content of Perceived Quality , 1994 .

[40]  R. Rust,et al.  Return on Quality (ROQ): Making Service Quality Financially Accountable , 1995 .

[41]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  A Dynamic Model of the Duration of the Customer's Relationship with a Continuous Service Provider: The Role of Satisfaction , 1994 .

[42]  C. Fornell,et al.  Customer Satisfaction, Market Share, and Profitability: Findings from Sweden , 1994 .

[43]  C. Fornell.  The Quality of Economic Output: Empirical Generalizations About Its Distribution and Relationship to Market Share , 1995 .

[44]  E. Anderson.  Customer satisfaction and price tolerance , 1996 .

[45]  Claes Fornell,et al.  Quality and Productivity: Contradictory and Complementary , 1996 .

[46]  C. Fornell,et al.  The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose, and Findings , 1996 .

[47]  R. Rust,et al.  Customer Satisfaction, Productivity, and Profitability: Differences Between Goods and Services , 1997 .

[48]  E. Anderson.  Customer Satisfaction and Word of Mouth , 1998 .

[49]  J. Mart́ın,et al.  Now are you satisfied? The 1998 American Customer Satisfaction Index. , 1998, Fortune.