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Delving into the Mystery of Customer Satisfaction: A Toyota for the Retail Market?

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Delving into the Mystery of Customer Satisfaction: A Toyota for the Retail Market?

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1255

It started out as an academic puzzle of sorts. The four researchers -- three of them from Wharton -- already knew that in the airline industry, customers and employees revere Southwest Airlines. In the computer industry, it's Dell, and in the auto industry it's Toyota. But when it comes to the retail industry, what company sets the standards for customer and employee satisfaction? It's a question that the four set out to answer earlier this year as part of two projects: The first, involving Wharton professors Serguei Netessine and Marshall Fisher and Wharton doctoral student Jayanth Krishnan, is called the "Wharton Project on Store Execution and the Quality of Customer Experience." The second, a closely-related initiative on the causes of stock outs, is being led by Daniel Corsten, from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Both projects have already found some unexpected results relating to customer satisfaction and retail performance.