Sweden is the first country which has established a national economic indicator reflecting customer satisfaction. The Customer Satisfaction Barometer (CSB) is an index based on annual survey data from customers of more than 100 leading companies' iover 30 industries. The CSB measures quality of output as experienced by the buyer. The CSB was examined in its first 3 years of application. Overall, CSB scores were lower in industries where supply is homogeneous and demand heterogeneous,and they were significantly higher in industries where heterogeneity-homogeneity in demand is matched by supply. Industries in general are found to have a high level of customer satisfaction if they are highly dependent on satisfaction for repeat business. The opposite is found for industries in which companies have more captive markets.