American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) - Financial definition
Concise definition of the term American Customer Satisfaction Index
The ACSI is a national cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction in the United States. It measures the satisfaction of U.S. household consumers with the quality of products and services offered by both foreign and domestic firms with significant share in U.S. markets.
Comprehensive definition of the term American Customer Satisfaction Index
The ACSI serves business, researchers, policymakers, and consumers as a national indicator of the health of the U.S. economy. It also is a tool for gauging the competitiveness of individual firms and predicting future profitability.
About 250,000 customers are surveyed each year about the products and services they use the most. The survey data serve as inputs to an econometric model that benchmarks customer satisfaction with more than 380 companies in 46 industries and 10 economic sectors, as well as various services of federal and local government agencies.
ACSI’s scientific model provides key insights across the entire customer experience. Its results are strongly related to a number of essential indicators of micro and macroeconomic performance.
At the micro level, companies that display high levels of customer satisfaction tend to have higher earnings and stock returns relative to competitors.
At the macro level, customer satisfaction has been shown to be predictive of both consumer spending and gross domestic product growth.