Introduction

Throughout the 1990s, customer satisfaction reigned supreme in the mindset of corporate executives, managers, and marketing professionals as they tried to differentiate their products and improve corporate performance. While customer satisfaction remains critical for realizing positive outcomes today, it is a subset of the more inclusive view of total satisfaction that also includes meeting broader stakeholder expectations and societal needs. Total satisfaction necessitates solutions that include social, economic, and environmental considerations. Great solutions are balanced from every perspective: they exceed needs, create exceptional value, and satisfy expectations.

With the dramatic expansion of information and knowledge provided through the Internet and world-wide media, customers and stakeholders are empowered with facts, figures, and specifications about products and processes that would have been impossible to obtain a decade ago. In many situations, customers know as much about the products they buy as do the individuals selling them. They can scrutinize the competitive landscape to find the right product at the right price. Moreover, customers and stakeholders can share their opinions and perceptions with thousands of others who are interested in the veracity and accuracy of product claims, advertising messages, process outcomes, waste problems, and any negative impacts associated with production and use. It is becoming more difficult to espouse only positive attributes using glossy marketing campaigns or fancy promotions, or to mislead people through false impressions.