The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national economic indicator of customer satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available to household consumers in the United States.
The Index is produced through a partnership among the University of Michigan Business School, the American Society for Quality, and the CFI Group. The University of Michigan Business School’s National Quality Research Center, which developed the methodology used, compiles and analyzes the ACSI data.
Each quarter, scores for one or two sectors of the U.S. economy are updated. Quarterly results include scores for individual firms, industries, economic sectors, and the U.S. economy as a whole. The ACSI uses a 100-point scale.
ACSI measures satisfaction with 164 companies and 30 government agencies. The U.S.-owned companies produce about 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Their goods and services sold in the household market account for approximately 30% of GDP. Additionally, ACSI includes customer evaluations of foreign-owned companies with large market shares in a number of the industries, and an aggregate satisfaction index for smaller and emerging companies in each industry.
Sources: American Society for Quality (ASQ), CFI Group, University of Michigan Business School
Subjects: Consulting / Analytical Tools, Customer Related
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Faculty research at the University of Michigan Business School shows that Market Value Added (MVA), stock price, and return on investment are highly related to ACSI. For example, in the most recent year for which ACSI and MVA data are available, firms with the top 50% of ACSI scores generated an average $24 billion in shareholder wealth while firms with the bottom 50% of scores created only $14 billion. Since 1994, changes in ACSI have correlated with changes in the Dow Jones Industrial average.