Skip to content
MyData Login
 

Description & Citation--Study No. 3973

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:3973
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03973
 
Title:American Customer Satisfaction Index, 1994
 
Principal Investigator(s):Claes Fornell, University of Michigan Business School. National Quality Research Center
 
Series:American Customer Satisfaction Index Series
 
Funding Agency:American Society for Quality
 
  CFI Group USA, LLC
 
Grant Number:N004885
 
Bibliographic Citation:Fornell, Claes. American Customer Satisfaction Index, 1994 [Computer file]. ICPSR03973-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03973
 

Scope of Study

Summary:The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a uniform and independent measure of household consumption experience. The ACSI tracks trends in customer satisfaction and provides valuable benchmarking insights into the consumer economy for companies, industry trade associations, and government agencies. It is based on modeling of customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services that are purchased in the United States and produced by both domestic and foreign firms that have substantial United States market shares. The ACSI model is a set of causal equations that link customer expectations, perceived quality, and perceived value to customer satisfaction. In turn, satisfaction is linked to consequences as defined by customer complaints and customer loyalty -- measured by price tolerance and customer retention. Customer expectations combine customers' experiences with a product or service and information about it via media, advertising, salespersons, and word-of-mouth. Customer expectations influence the evaluation of quality and forecast how well the product or service will perform. Perceived quality of a product or service is measured through questions on its overall quality, reliability, and the extent to which it meets the customer's needs. Perceived value is measured through questions on overall price given quality and overall quality given price. Customer complaints activity is measured as the percentage of respondents who reported a problem with the measured companies' product or service within a specified time frame. Satisfaction has an inverse relationship to customer complaints. Customer loyalty is measured through questions on the likelihood that customers will purchase a company's products or services at various price points. The ACSI is produced through a partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the international consulting firm, CFI Group. Background variables include age, education, number of family members, Hispanic origin, race, household income, sex, industry, and sector of the economy.
 
Subject Term(s):advertising, consumer attitudes, consumer expectations, consumer expenditures, consumers, expectations, expenses, marketing, prices, products, purchasing, satisfaction
 
Geographic Coverage:United States
 
Time Period:1994
 
Date(s) of Collection:May 1994 - September 1994
 
Unit of Observation:individuals
 
Universe:American consumers aged 18 to 84 living in households with telephones in the continental United States.
 
Data Type:survey data
 
Data Collection Notes:For additional information, including related publications, visit the ACSI Web site at http://www.theacsi.org.
 

Methodology

Sample:Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult with nearest birthday to date of interview who had purchased or consumed specific products and services within specified, recent time periods varying from three months to three years according to the product or service. The selected adult was interviewed to screen him/her for purchase and use of specific goods and services to qualify as customer eligible for interview. The probability sample selected to represent the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for each company is based on approximately 250 customer interviews.
 
Data Source:telephone interviews
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Restrictions:This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect the data safety, a data set with the variable, company ID, is restricted from general dissemination. To obtain the restricted data file, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement in accordance with existing ICPSR servicing policies.
 
Original ICPSR Release:2004-07-09
 
Version History:The last update of this study occurred on 2005-12-15.
 
  2005-12-15 - On 2005-08-15 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-12-15 to reflect these additions.
 
  2004-08-06 - Corporate subscribers and major corporate and federal agency sponsors have been added to FUNDING.AGENCY1 field. SAMPLING field has been modified.
 
Dataset(s):
  • DS1: American Customer Satisfaction Index, 1994
 

^ top of page