As the economy improves, albeit at a very slow pace, aggregate customer satisfaction with goods and services has improved as well. The ACSI gain for the final quarter of 2011 is very small, but it represents the fourth consecutive quarter without a decline.

The national ACSI advanced by 0.1 percent to an overall score of 75.8. In total, the ACSI national average gained 0.7 percent in 2011.

The good news is that customer satisfaction continues to climb, which has a positive effect on consumer demand and economic growth. The bad news is that the customer satisfaction improvement is tepid. This is particularly noteworthy because a good part of the higher customer satisfaction in Q4 came from lower gas prices. Gas prices have since reversed course and are now rising, which means that customers obviously are going to be less pleased.

 …