5.1.4 The European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI)

The ECSI represents another variation on the ACSI model (Eklöf, 2000). The customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty constructs are modelled the same as in the ACSI. See figure 17. The survey questions are also all rated on 1to 10-point scales.

Figure 17. The European Customer Satisfaction Index model.

The distinction between service quality and product quality in a subset of ACSI industries is standard in the ECSI. The measures of customer loyalty are also somewhat different. For the ECSI the loyalty measures include likelihood of retention, likelihood of recommending the company or brand, and whether the amount customers are likely to purchase will increase.

There are two more fundamental differences between the ACSI and ECSI models. First, the ECSI model does not include the incidence of complaint behavior as a consequence of satisfaction. As described subsequently, there is good reason for this change. Second, in keeping with the original NCSB, the ECSI model incorporates corporate image as a latent variable in the model. Corporate image is specified to have direct effects on customer expectations, satisfaction and loyalty. ESCI has been renamed EPSI which stands for European Performance Satisfaction Index. This has been done in order to open in for other performance measures like employee satisfaction and society trust. The EPSI Rating is run under the umbrella of a European not-for-profit organization, associated throughout its history and by its approach with the following leading European quality organizations EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management, EOQ (European Organization for Quality) and IFCF(International Foundation for Customer Focus).

Table 9 Latent and manifest variables ECSI

Table 10 Exogenous and endogenous variables ECSI