ANN ARBOR–Officials at the American Customer Satisfaction Index announced that in the second quarter, consumer satisfaction in the United States skyrocketed, gaining 0.7% to 74.1 on a 0-to-100 scale, the largest one-quarter increase in the index in 15 years.
The upswing, after three straight quarters of small gains, offered a glimmer of hope for the economy. For nearly four years, ending in the second quarter of 2022, customer satisfaction sank, reaching its lowest level in almost 20 years.
The positive movement this past quarter is being driven by gains in several large consumer industries, including automobiles, household appliances, and personal computers. There have also been improvements in categories such as search engines and, to a lesser extent, social media platforms.
The jump in satisfaction is good news for consumers, as the ACSI is a strong predictor of economic performance. Accordingly, the 0.7% improvement in ACSI is accompanied by solid gross domestic product growth of 2.4% and moderate consumer spending growth in the second quarter.
“While the large gain in ACSI coupled with slowing inflation bodes well for future growth in the U.S. economy, satisfaction still remains below pre-pandemic levels, as evidenced by the more moderate growth, just 1.6%, in consumer spending last quarter,” said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and the Distinguished Donald C. Cook Professor (emeritus) of Business Administration at the University of Michigan. “To drive more robust consumer spending growth, greater improvement in aggregate satisfaction is needed.”
The national ACSI score (or ACSI composite) is updated each quarter based on annualized customer satisfaction scores for all sectors and industries. For more, follow the American Customer Satisfaction Index on LinkedIn and Twitter at @theACSI or visit www.theacsi.org.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) has been a national economic indicator for 25 years. It measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with more than 400 companies in over 40 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies. Reported on a scale of 0 to 100, scores are based on data from interviews with roughly 500,000 customers annually. For more information, visit www.theacsi.org.
