The American Customer Satisfaction Index developed at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is a cause and effect model measuring customer satisfaction on customer loyalty to a given brand. The drivers of satisfaction are grouped into indices against outcomes of satisfaction that the model can then measure the impact of these indices on customer satisfaction helping users determine which drivers of satisfaction have the most effect on customer loyalty. You can find a full explanation of the ASCI methodology here.
The results for Q2 of 2008 have just been released. Here’s a list of the top 10 companies ranked by ASCI score. 8 of the 10 top scores are held by auto manufacturers with Google and Apple making up the other two spots at number 3 and 6 respectively.
If we look at the previous year percentage change we can see who’s improved or worsened in their rankings. Here are the top gainers and losers over the last year.
Google tops the list of gainers with an increase of 10.3% and Apple coming in just behind with a 7.6% increase over last year. It’s no small wonder that both these companies have performed well after riding high with all the publicity and good news following the announcement of Google’s domination of search traffic and Apple’s successful release of its iPhone 3G.
The biggest losers compared to last year are Whirpool and HP with a -4.8% and -4.1% change over last year. Yahoo! and Ask.com round out the bottom rankings of biggest losers suggesting their troubles to keep pace in the competitive search portal category.
4 of the top 10 biggest losers over last year are auto manufacturers or their subsidiary divisions suggesting there may be a link between customer satisfaction and the recently reported slump in car sales in the U.S.
