Consumers are slightly less satisfied in the second quarter of 2009, according to National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) results. Customer satisfaction dips by 0.1%, now 72.9 on a 100 point scale. The small drop is largely due to declining customer satisfaction in the automobile industry, which - despite economic conditions- still accounts for a considerable portion of overall consumer spending.

Even though the NCSI shows a decline in satisfaction, the dip is slight enough to suggest a slowing of the contraction of the economy. In fact, Gross Domestic Product fell only 0.8% in the second quarter of 2009, compared with a 2.4% drop in the first quarter.

Key Findings:

Consumers are considerably less satisfied in the UK than they are in the United States; the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score for the same period is 76.1. In the UK, customer satisfaction with automobiles declines 1.3% to 76. Customer satisfaction with full service restaurants declines by 2% to 79, but the fast food industry maintains a score of 73. Among individual companies, decliners outnumber gainers by a small margin: 33% have better customer satisfaction since last year, 42% decline, and 25% are unchanged.

Customer Satisfaction Winners and Losers:

- Toyota leads, improves 4% (score of 83) to overtake BMW for #1 in customer satisfaction.

- BMW falls 3% to third place (78), beaten by Volkswagen (79) for the first time.

- Ford slips 3% behind to tie with Peugeot (73).

- Renault has the lowest customer satisfaction (72) in the automotive industry.

- Starbucks leads the limited service restaurants with a score of 75, a 4% gain from last year.

- Costa debuts on the Index with a score of 72.

- Burger King shows the biggest decline, dropping 4% to 67.

- McDonald’s shows a slight gain to 66, but remains at the bottom.

- Consumers now rate the chain as highly as Starbucks on value for the price.