Frequently Asked Questions

The American Customer Satisfaction Index provides answers to frequently asked questions about its history, development, methodology, and benefits to business, investors, and policymakers. If you can’t find the answer to your question below, JLIB_HTML_CLOAKING .

What is the American Customer Satisfaction Index?
Why was a customer satisfaction index developed?
What can the ACSI tell us?
Who benefits from the ACSI? How is the Index used?
How is the Index constructed?
How are ACSI data collected?
How are company brands measured?
How are the measured companies selected? Do they change over time?
When are ACSI results publicly released?
Is the information behind the measured company scores available?
Can a company not included in the ACSI get its own customer satisfaction index?

What is the American Customer Satisfaction Index?
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is an economic indicator based on modeling of customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services purchased in the United States and produced by both domestic and foreign firms with substantial U.S. market shares.
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Why was a customer satisfaction index developed?
The Index was developed to provide information on satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to consumers. Prior to the development of the ACSI, no national measure of quality from the perspective of the user was available. The ACSI was designed to measure the quality of economic output as a complement to traditional measures of the quantity of economic output.
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What can the ACSI tell us?
Some ACSI findings from nearly two decades of data include:  

• Customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of company financial performance. Stocks of companies with high ACSI scores tend to do better than stocks of companies with low scores.
• Changes in customer satisfaction affect the general willingness of households to buy. As such, price-adjusted ACSI is a leading indicator of consumer spending growth and has accounted for more of the variation in future spending growth than any other single factor.
• Because consumer spending accounts for 70% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), changes in customer satisfaction as measured by the ACSI also correlate with changes in GDP growth. As GDP is a measure of the quantity of economic output and ACSI a measure of its quality, economic growth is dependent on producing not only more, but also better, products and services.
• Manufactured goods tend to score higher for customer satisfaction than do services. For example, food items and household appliances show better ACSI benchmarks than banks, airlines, or subscription TV service. Typically, the more service required, the lower the customer satisfaction.
• Quality plays a more important role in satisfying customers than price in almost all ACSI-measured industries. Price promotions can be an effective short-term approach to improving satisfaction, but price cutting is almost never sustainable in the long term. Companies that focus on quality improvements tend to fare better over time with regard to customer satisfaction (ACSI) than companies that focus on price.
• Mergers and acquisitions have a generally negative effect on customer satisfaction, particularly among service industries. ACSI-measured service companies that have engaged in frequent, large acquisitions typically experience significantly lower ACSI scores in the period following a merger when the ‘customer as asset’ often takes a backseat to reorganization and consolidation via cost cutting. (back)

Who benefits from the ACSI? How is the Index used?
The ACSI benefits corporate managers who need to know how to improve their company’s current condition by allocating scarce resources to maximize the strength of their customer relationships. Companies use the ACSI as a tool to optimize customer satisfaction, which in turn drives customer loyalty and thereby corporate profitability. The Index also is used for competitive and cross-industry benchmarking.

The ACSI benefits investors who need to understand the relationship between a company’s current condition and its future capacity to produce wealth. In capitalistic free markets, sellers that do well by their customers are rewarded by more business from buyers and more capital from investors. Likewise, when businesses fail to satisfy customers as effectively and efficiently as competitors, both customers and investors will turn elsewhere.

The ACSI benefits government, which needs to know how best to encourage economic growth and living standards for its citizens. The Index benefits consumers who need to have a voice in measures that reflect those economic living standards.
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How is the Index constructed?
The ACSI uses a multi-equation, econometric model to produce four levels of “indices” (referred to as ACSI scores or benchmarks): a national customer satisfaction score, 10 economic sector scores, 43 industry scores, more than 230 company scores, and scores representing over 100 federal or local government services, programs, and websites.
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How are ACSI data collected?
The ACSI surveys customers of companies and users of government services randomly via telephone and email. Potential respondents are asked questions about their purchase and use of specific products and services bought within specified, recent time periods (these periods vary according to the product or service). Those who qualify as respondents are then asked from which company or which brand they have purchased, and responses to the ACSI survey questions are coded as a customer interview for that company. The ACSI score for each company is based on a sample of 250 customer interviews, with more than 70,000 interviews conducted annually.
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How are company brands measured?
Customer satisfaction is measured at the company level. When a customer identifies a specific brand, the respondent is coded as a customer of the company that produces that brand. The ACSI maintains lists for over 5,000 different product brands of its measured companies.
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How are the measured companies selected? Do they change over time?
The ACSI measures customer satisfaction with the products and services of more than 230 companies in 43 household consumer industries, two types of local government services, and over 100 programs, services, and websites of federal agencies. Within each industry, companies are selected on the basis of total sales. The measured companies represent a significant proportion of the overall market share of the industry. Individual companies are added or deleted from the Index as their market position changes or as a result of mergers and acquisitions. Industries are added as new types of consumer products or services emerge and grow over time like cellular telephones or Internet service providers.  
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When are ACSI results publicly released?
The ACSI was first published in October 1994, with updates released each quarter. Starting in May 2010, ACSI data became available to the public on a more frequent basis, with results released each month. This change allows stakeholders to focus more in-depth on different segments of the economy over the entire calendar year. The national ACSI index continues to be updated quarterly on a rolling basis, factoring in data from 10 economic sectors and 43 industries.
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Is the information behind measured company scores available?
Only the customer satisfaction (ACSI) score for each company measured in the Index is published. The ACSI’s array of products and services are available to companies that want to obtain the full story behind the published scores. ACSI clients gain access to confidential, detailed results, including 30 data points that encompass the complete arc of their customer’s experience. The ACSI’s patented modeling and analysis software helps our clients benchmark their own results against industry peers and best-in-class companies.
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Can a company not included in the ACSI get its own customer satisfaction index?
Companies not included in the ACSI can obtain an index of their own. Although not part of the publicly released ACSI scores, these companies receive custom research using the same methodology and can benchmark their results with best-in-industry and best-in-class companies.
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