Last March, Bloomberg reported the number of jobs reached a record pre-recession peak at 116.1 million, even surpassing the US Labor Department’s projections.

The economy seemed to be picking up however gradually.

Around the same time, a tiny blip in the economic radar escaped the attention of much of the big business media, said a study on FinanceOnline.com.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a private company behind the only national cross-industry customer satisfaction benchmarking used by corporations, universities, and government agencies, reported a four-point slide in the index. In short, American consumers were less happy.

Just how significant is this drop from 76.6 in the last quarter of 2013 to 76.2 in the first quarter of the following year?

For starters, it’s the largest in twenty years since the index has been monitoring American consumers. ACSI Chairman Claes Fornell had a more telling scenario: “Weaker demand could further threaten economic growth in the second quarter and beyond.”

In our latest infographic created by our team you can find out that the US is only at 15th position among the top countries with the best customer service (data based on Zendesk’s survey of actual customer experiences worldwide). That seems to corroborate the ACSI data.

Meantime, in its report, “Customers 2020,” the customer intelligence consulting firm, Walker, said that by 2020, customer satisfaction, more than price and product, will be the key brand differentiator.

Here’s the good news–more companies, big and small, are investing in Customer Management Relationship (CRM) for better customer service.

In our infographic, we also plot the CRM growth spurred by the low-cost and agility of SaaS solutions, and how they are helping companies put the smile back on their customers’ faces. - TradeArabia News Service