Raising customer service is always the buzz word. There is a heightened sense of improving customer service during down-turns in the economy for strategic reasons.

Want proof? Here's the quarterly consumer survey that was released just yesterday from ACSI, a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of 200 bell-weather companies compiled by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Management.

Customer Satisfaction Halts Slide(pdf): "After a year of stalling and falling, the American Customer Satisfaction Index reverses course and registers its first gain in a year."

Customers ranked fast-food and budget hotels as the biggest gainers in the quality of their customer service this year.

Quick Service Restaurants: "The fast food restaurant industry improves 1% to 78, its highest score ever, while the full-service restaurants drop 1% to 80...Pizza Hut’s customer satisfaction jumps 6% to 76, which is, along with Papa John’s (-1.3% to 76) the highest in the industry. McDonald’s has its biggest gain ever, rising 8% to 69." (See QSR rankings)

Hoteling: "The hotel industry ties an all-time high after improving 6% to 75. Much of the gain can be attributed to the “all others” category, which leaps 9% to 76 and includes smaller budget hotel chains and luxury resorts." (See hotel rankings)

Here are scores by industry. As for me, I like having my investment in things consumers like and where the system shows the ability to significantly improve customer experience.