Customer satisfaction at the national level is exactly where it stood at the start of 2012, and as far back as two years ago, according to a report released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). During the second quarter of 2012, aggregate customer satisfaction stayed flat at 75.9 on a scale of zero to 100, which won’t help revive consumer spending or the sluggish economy at large.

“The good news is that customer satisfaction is not contracting, and that it remains at a generally high level,” says Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and author of the book, The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). “While the U.S. economy is less likely to slip back into recession, its recovery will not speed up much, either. If anxiety about the economy abated and overall customer satisfaction improved, this would lead to more demand, more household spending, and a quicker recovery.”

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