Airline Customer Satisfaction: An Oxymoron

This month, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released their annual customer satisfaction scores for the airline industry ¹ and the airline carriers. To no surprise, the scores were dismal, except for one that stands out. Jetblue Airways.

Now, while it’s great for JetBlue, there are clearly several problems with the ACSI methodology:

1. The Customer Satisfaction scores are released yearly. This is a problem because, at most, it’s a lagging indicator and a poor diagnostic – that is, the score doesn’t lead to any timely or relevant action or efforts around improvement. In sum, it’s just a score.
2. Satisfaction, as a measure, is very, very broad. It actually doesn’t tell us much. What, exactly, does “Satisfaction” tell us anyway? Exactly – that’s my point.

Nevertheless, here are the results of the ACSI Customer Satisfaction scores for the Airline Industry, broken down by airline carrier, in a nice little infographic I created for you. Enjoy.

While the ACSI is not perfect, it does give us some insight into how the consumer perceives the airline carrier. But, in terms of a true and helpful diagnostic, the ACSI isn’t very helpful at all.

Airline Customer Satisfaction: An Oxymoron is a post from: Lean Six Sigma Consulting