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

When faced with the choice between cutting costs or improving customer service, most companies focus on tangible assets. But in our service economy, the most important asset is intangible: a company's relationship with its customers.The Satisfied Customeris a blueprint for understanding this fact of modern business and reveals the unheralded value of customer satisfaction. Drawing on the results of a massive survey of American consumer satisfaction and including examples from companies like Home Depot and UPS, Fornell presents some surprising conclusions about outreach strategy (exceeding a customer's expectations is risky, and increasing customer complaints can actually be a good thing). He also explains how to quantify and increase the value of a firm's customer relationships--what he calls the Customer Asset.

Claes Fornell developed the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The founder and chairman of CFI Group, an international consulting firm with offices in ten countries, he is the Donald C. Cook Professor of Business at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the Director of the National Quality Research Center, both at the University of Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.