Satisfaction drops again

Customer satisfaction in the retail sector dropped another 0.3% in Q4Y5 vs Q4Y4, and is 4.4% lower than when satisfaction in the sector was first measured, the ACSI survey shows.

Claes Fornell, Director of the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan, which runs the American Customer Satisfaction Index, attributes the drop in satisfaction to a misplaced emphasis on sales at the expense of service. "As with many other service industries, the challenge is often how to best balance productivity per sales person with quality of customer service. Too much pressure on staff to generate sales can have a detrimental effect on the quality of service that the staff is able to provide, which, in turn, has a negative effect on repeat buying," Fornell said. "Since many retailers measure and manage productivity, but don’t usually have good measures of the quality of customer service, it seems possible that some companies put too much emphasis on productivity at the expense of service."

10 Biggest Gainers

1. Kmart Corporation +4.50%
2. Charles Schwab +4.20%
3. Target +4.00%o
4. Expedia +3.90%
5. Amazon +3.60%
6. Aetna +3.20%
7. Albertson's +2.90%
8. AAFES +2.80%
9. Supervalu +2.70%
10. Lowe's +2.60%

10 Biggest Losers

1. Home Depot -8.20%
2. MetLife -7.80%
3. Prudential -6.50%
4. Farmers Group -5.20%
5. Wells Fargo -4.30%
6. UnitedHealth -3.00%
7. Circuit City -2.80%
8. State Farm  -2.50%
9. 1-800-Flowers -2.50%
10. Safeway -1.40%

See also: A survey of surveys, I should've bet some money