A framework for comparing customer satisfaction across individuals and product categories

A framework is presented which integrates economic and psychological perspectives in order to compare customer satisfaction across individuals and product categories. The framework lays the foundation for the development of a national index for customer satisfaction that is now in place in Sweden. An important property of any such index is that it allows for comparisons across customers, firms, and industries. A number of propositions are forwarded regarding potentially systematic differences in satisfaction across people and products.