The Client Satisfaction Inventory: Results of an Initial Validation Study

Abstract

Objective: To obtain initial results with regard to the reliability and validity of the Client Satisfaction Inventory (CSI), a 25-item scale for measuring general satisfaction with services among clients of human service agencies. Method: The CSI was administered to 329 clients of 11 agencies in six states. Also administered were three other standardized measures and a brief descriptive questionnaire, results from which were used to assess the discriminant validity of the CSI. Results: Findings indicated that both the full version of the CSI and a 9-item short-form version, the CSI-SF, have good to excellent internal consistency. Item analyses also provided some affirmative evidence with regard to the content validity of both versions, and the presence of hypothesized relationships between client satisfaction scores and those of the other instruments offered indications of good discriminant validity for each version. Conclusion: Accountability demands, including pressures associated with managed care, have created a need in many agencies for brief, accurate, and norm-referenced measures of client satisfaction. Although further research is needed, initial results suggest that the CSI and CSI-SF may be useful tools for meeting this need. Client satisfaction, as an approach to assessing the quality of services, has a quick and readily apparent appeal. It is easily understood by both clients and providers, can be measured via client self-report (rather than, for example, the more difficult process of behavioral observation), and is a central feature of most definitions of service effectiveness. Indeed, the social validity of human services depends in large measure on client satisfaction. Oddly, however, it has attracted only sporadic attention in literature on evaluating 644

Ethical issues involved in online counseling

“…Leibert et al (2006) showed that the clients, primarily young white women, rated themselves as satisfi ed with online mental health counseling and had established a working alliance with their mental health counselors. However, the levels of both satisfaction and working alliance were not as strong as levels reported in past studies involving face-toface mental health counseling (Busseri & Tyler, 2003;McMurtry & Hudson, 2000). Nevertheless, clients reported experiencing greater ease in selfdisclosing with their Internet mental health counselors compared to self-disclosing with face-to-face counselors, especially during the beginning stages of counseling.…”

Client Satisfaction and Outcome Comparisons of Online and Face-to-Face Counselling Methods

“…This study was also limited because it involved a relatively homogeneous sample of college students. Liebert et al (2006) studied a group of eighty-one primarily female clients using online services examining self-reported therapeutic alliance and satisfaction variables, compared to past face-to-face studies by McMurtry and Hudson (2000) and Busseri and Tyler (2003). Liebert et al found that the more hours respondents spent online, the more likely they were to make use of online counselling.…”

Initial Validation of a Spanish-Language Version of the Client Satisfaction Inventory

“…Initial validation results indicate good reliability for both the CSI and CSI-SF at .93 and .89, respectively, with a correlation of .94 between their scores (McMurtry & Hudson, 2000). Findings also provided support for the construct validity of the two versions, as indicated by the absence of correlations between scores on each measure and demographic characteristics of the test participants.…”

“…The CSI is a 25-item scale designed to measure service satisfaction as a single dimension among clients receiving diverse types of human services (McMurtry & Hudson, 2000). Its brief version, the CSI-Short Form (CSI-SF), consists of a subset of 9 items from the full version.…”