Americans’ satisfaction with the goods and services they buy reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to a report released by the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index. The index climbed to 74.9 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, up 0.7% from the previous quarter, and up almost 2% from the previous year. This is the highest score the index has had since its first measure in 1994, suggesting that consumers will continue to prop up the economy, driving consumer spending growth of between 3.5% and 4.1% for the first quarter of 2007.
“The economy may not be coming in for a soft landing,” said Claes Fornell, director of the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center, which compiles and analyzes the ACSI data. “With the confluence of a number of favorable economic factors, there may be no landing at all. Rising wages, little inflation, and falling unemployment combined with higher customer satisfaction and strong consumer confidence suggest the trend in spending growth will continue to drive economic growth.” Among the industries the ACSI measured was health insurance, which showed a 6% improvement in customer satisfaction--to reach its highest ever score of 72.
