The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference

by Claes Fornell

In a world where consumers have access to an abundance of free information about purchase alternatives, business managers must adapt to a startling new reality. What businesses and investors must realize, says Fornell, is that customers know something that Wall Street has yet to figure out. The Satisfied Customer makes the case that global market forces are all pointing towards one inevitable the cost of poor service will soon be borne by the companies that serve it - not the customers that receive it. The Satisfied Customer prepares managers and investors for a major shift in economic power that will change how capital moves, how corporate assets are managed, and ultimately, how business is done. This book describes how companies that underestimate the newly-empowered customer are punished by product and equity markets alike, and offers practical advice on how to prosper when buyers are kings and investment capital fuels their power. The implications of the newly-empowered buyer turn much of conventional business practice on its head. The Satisfied Customer explains how superior financial returns can go hand-in-hand with reduced risk; why customer satisfaction should not be maximized, but customer complaints should; why exceeding customer expectations is a bad idea; why getting too close to customers should be avoided, how customer loyalty can sometimes be too costly, and why high productivity is not always a good thing. According to the New York Times , Claes Fornell's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the definitive benchmark for how consumers feel about the products they buy. The Satisfied Customer draws from the ACSI database and CFI Group cases, including examples from Amazon.com, American Airlines, Apple, AT&T, Best Buy, Chrysler, Circuit City, Comcast, Costco, Charter Communications, Dell, Double Tree Club Hotel, eBay, Electrolux, Florida Marlins, Ford, Gateway, Google, Haier, H&R Block, Hyundai, KLM, Kmart, McDonald's, Northwest Airlines, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, Sprint Nextel, the Swedish Postal Service, Time Warner, Toyota, Trader Joe's, Volvo, Whole Foods, and many others, to reveal the winners and losers in the battle for buyer preference.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learned treatise on the value of customer satisfaction

Experts see more than meets the eye when they evaluate customer satisfaction. Business professor Claes Fornell and his team at the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan developed the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a sophisticated customer-reaction monitoring system that produces indexes across multiple economic sectors, industries, companies and government agencies. In this book, Fornell discusses how his team quantifies the “unobservable” in customer service. His researchers measure things “we can’t see” and then develop their findings into useful customer satisfaction information. Fornell theorizes about the utility of the “summation of ignorance” and discusses neuroscience, quantum mechanics and relativity theory, all with impressive erudition and insight, and all in the service of making sure that you know how crucial it is to keep your customers satisfied. getAbstract recommends his thorough, thoughtful and accessible treatise.