Improving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profit: an integrated measurement and management system

Over the past two decades, you may have seen your company move sequentially from a focus on to focuses on customer satisfaction, loyalty and, most recently, relationship management. We view these various factors or perspectives as a system or chain of causes and effects that build upon each other and that cannot be treated or managed separately. Unfortunately, however, companies today do often try to treat them without regard to their place in a system. Our purpose in writing this book is to help you establish more explicit linkages from to customer satisfaction to loyalty, and ultimately to bottom-line financial performance. Future approaches to customer measurement and management cannot be based on simple arguments that quality is free or that it is less expensive to satisfy and keep customers than to constantly replace them. Upper managers and executives need specific estimates of the payoffs they should expect from increasing quality, satisfaction, and loyalty. Setting priorities and allocating resources requires it. If middle level managers or employees in charge of measuring and improving and satisfaction are to be of real service to upper management in this regard, they need to be able to supply the kind of data and information by which payoffs can be estimated. This book is intended for both enablers and doers in your company. As an executive in charge of improving quality, customer satisfaction or loyalty, your job may be to enable others to act through training and support. As a specialist within the quality, customer assessment, or product and service development areas of the company, your job may be to collect, analyze or use customer data to improve quality, satisfaction and retention. Whatever may be your particular niche, this text will help you to take part in creating an integrated customer measurement and management system that will improve your firm's ability to allocate resources and increase profits.