ANN ARBOR, Mich., (August 27, 2013) – Weakened customer satisfaction for durable products reins in growth for overall U.S. customer satisfaction, according to a report released today by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The national ACSI benchmark drops a razor-thin 0.1% to 76.5 on a 100-point scale in the second quarter of 2013, halting the long climb in aggregate customer satisfaction that began in 2010.
Customers are less satisfied than they were a year ago with durable products such as autos or major household appliances, which prompts a slight deterioration in national customer satisfaction. At the sector level, durable products lapse 1.2% to an ACSI benchmark of 82.0, down from 83.0 in 2012.
“The positive effect of high customer satisfaction on household demand was tempered by weak consumer discretionary income growth leading into the second quarter,” says Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and Chairman. “The outlook on spending, however, has improved and retail sales have been fairly strong. Shrinking household debt has lessened the burden of consumer debt service. Although aggregate customer satisfaction stopped growing, it remains quite high and the outlook for spending to pick up in the second half of the year seems reasonably strong.”
In addition to the quarterly update of overall U.S. customer satisfaction, the ACSI report includes annual results for the automobile and light vehicle industry, including new scores for a multitude of foreign and domestic nameplates. Next month, the ACSI will release a separate report on customer satisfaction with major appliances, personal computers, and televisions & video players/recorders, rounding out coverage of durable products for 2013.
This press release is also available in PDF format.