Editor’s note: Dennis Murphy is vice president of the technology practice at Directions Research, Cincinnati. Chris Goodwin is a vice president at Directions Research. The next installments will appear in the August and October issues.

This is the first installment of a three-part look at customer satisfaction. Part two, in the August issue, will focus on the expectations we should establish for customer satisfaction. Part three, in October, will examine ways to execute a revamped strategy.

Obituary

February 29, 2011

With little notice and less fanfare, the discipline of Customer Satisfaction was laid to rest today. Known as CSat by friend and foe alike, mourners expressed more relief than regret at CSat’s passing.

Nonetheless there is some cause for melancholy. CSat’s era had begun mid-twentieth century with high hopes and a simple promise: to assist organizations in better pleasing their customers. Had CSat remained true to this course, perhaps today he would be alive, healthy and celebrated.

CSat entered the world as bright-eyed and aspirational as any discipline yet departed without fanfare. What were his sins? What paths misleading? What theories vapid? What applications misguided? Were there associate villains? Who? Are we dealing with evil or stupidity? (Frankly, does it matter?) A journey through the troubled times and perilous pitfalls of CSat can’t help but be illuminating for whomever walks in his fading footsteps.

Fellow discipline Brand Tracking’s eulogy summed it up all too well.

“Never has a market intelligence discipline been so warmly welcomed. After all, the notion that pleasing customers is a good business practice hardly evoked controversy. None of us ever questioned CSat’s intentions. If only his passion for enabling greater customer satisfaction could have extended to the execution of customer satisfaction work, how different things might have been...