Nov. 18--In spite of the rocky economy, customer satisfaction as measured by the University of Michigan had a modest 0.1% drop in the third quarter.

The American Customer Service Satisfaction Index now has a score of 75 on a 100-point scale for the nondurable goods sector, which includes apparel, athletic shoes, breweries, cigarettes, food manufacturing, pet food, personal care and cleaning products and soft drinks.

Claes Fornell, founder of the index, said customer satisfaction appears to be flattening. Companies with higher satisfaction levels also have better sales and profits.

"For individual companies, customer satisfaction actually matters even more in a recession," Fornell said. "Now is the time to make sure customers don't leave and that margins don't evaporate. Firms without strongly satisfied customers will face a very difficult challenge."

Companies that scored high in the third quarter include Heinz, Nike, Jones Apparel Group, Clorox, Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive.

"While many companies experienced little growth over the past fiscal year, Heinz's revenue increased by 12%," Fornell said.

Those that fell in the standings include Campbell's Soup, which saw a 4% drop in customer satisfaction to 80, Levi Strauss, which fell 3% to 78, and Hill's Pet Nutrition, which fell 5% to 81.

Fornell said higher prices seemed to hurt companies such as Campbell's Soup and Hill's, the maker of Science Diet and Prescription Diet brands.

"Hill's brands are considered high-end and priced accordingly. In a recessionary economy, it is more likely that such pricing becomes problematic," Fornell said.

The index is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. The overall index factors in scores from about 200 companies in 44 industries and from government agencies over the previous four quarters.

The index is produced by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business with the American Society for Quality and CFI Group.

Contact GRETA GUEST at 313-223-4192 or gguest@freepress.com.

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