The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): A sample dataset and description

This article provides a sample of survey data collected by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Using online sampling and stratified interviewing techniques of actual customers of predominantly large market-share (“large cap”) companies, the ACSI annually collects data from some 400,000 consumers residing across the United States for more than 400 companies within about 50 consumer industries. For this article and the data depository, consumers’ perceptions of their experiences with individual companies included within four consumer industries as defined and measured by ACSI – processed food, commercial airlines, Internet service providers, and commercial banks – are included in the dataset. These industries were chosen to represent and illustrate a cross-section of data from differentiated sectors, not because they are representative of the larger economy or larger ACSI dataset per se. The survey items reflect a diverse array of customers’ perceptions regarding prior expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, complaint behavior, and customer loyalty. These are also the core latent factors modeled in the so-called ACSI model since 1994. The ACSI model is continuously analyzed using a proprietary and patented Partial Least Squares structural equation modeling approach (PLS-SEM). Detailed firm- or brand-level results from the ACSI data are used by individual companies for strategic organizational decision-making and in the aggregate to forecast trends in the U.S. national economy. ACSI data have been analyzed in thousands of peer-reviewed academic and practitioner journal articles.