The annual Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index from ForeSee Results provides evidence of the relationship between customer satisfaction and purchase intent. The annual survey results are based on more than 22,000 visitors to the top 100 e-retail websites. (The top websites are defined by sales volume as reported in the 2011 Internet Retailer top 500 Guide).
The report shows that when compared to dissatisfied visitors, highly satisfied visitors to the retail websites are:
- 68 percent more likely to purchase online.
- 46 percent more likely to purchase offline.
- 61 percent more likely to purchase from the retailer the next time they are in the market for a similar product (based on likelihood scores).
The bottom line is that the statistics continue to demonstrate that companies that pay attention to customer satisfaction increase their likelihood of increasing their sales more than other companies.
Check out this table of the relationship between satisfaction and purchase intent within the top five performers of the study:
William H. Bleuel, PhD, is a professor of decision sciences at the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. He specializes in the measurement and analysis of operations, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention. He has held senior positions in engineering, marketing, and service management at Xerox, Taylor Instrument Company, and Barber Colman Company. Dr. Bleuel has also had experience as general manager in two start-up companies that he co-founded. His most recent textbook, After the Sale, was published in 2000. He has been the Franz Edelman Award winner for The Institute of Management Sciences, he received the Armitage Medal from the Society of Logistics Engineers, and the Patton Publication Award. He became a Luckman Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Pepperdine in 1996.
This post was originally published on Dr. Bleuel’s blog, The Customer Institute.
