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What Is the Connection between Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality?

Alicia Sparks
Alicia Sparks

Perhaps the simplest way to consider the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality is to think of it in terms of how one affects the other. Generally, a high service quality results in a high customer satisfaction, and vice versa. Still, there are variables to this equation, such as the different reference standards each individual customer has and how those references affect their perceptions of service quality. Businesses often collect customer satisfaction data to determine how their service quality ranks with their customers. Effective customer satisfaction strategies, after all, can lead to customer loyalty and increased business.

Some experts believe the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality lies in the service quality itself. In other words, providing a high service quality results in a high customer satisfaction. Likewise, providing a low service quality results in a low customer satisfaction.

A company's ability to promptly resolve customer complaints is one metric used to measure customer satisfaction.
A company's ability to promptly resolve customer complaints is one metric used to measure customer satisfaction.

Certain variables can affect the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality. Perhaps the variable with the biggest impact is the customers’ perception of service quality. Different people have different reference standards. What one customer might consider an instance of high service quality, another customer might see as an instance of low service quality. Therefore, a business might provide what it believes is high service quality only to find its customers aren’t satisfied.

Surveys offer a way for a customer to report customer service issues.
Surveys offer a way for a customer to report customer service issues.

Given such variables in the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality, many companies gather information for analyzing customer satisfaction. Such data can help the companies take steps for increasing customer satisfaction. Companies gather satisfaction data in a number of ways. These might include methods from simple one-time questionnaires to lengthier surveys given to the same customers at different points in time. Once the company gathers the data, it will analyze it and begin to make any necessary changes or adjustments to its service quality.

Some experts believe that the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality lies in the service quality itself.
Some experts believe that the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality lies in the service quality itself.

Despite the varying reference standards and perceptions of quality, there is one factor that remains unchanging in the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality. That factor is the reality that the level of customer satisfaction can predict customer loyalty. Customers determine their future intentions with a business based in part on the level of customer satisfaction they experience. If a customer experiences what he perceives as low service quality, it’s feasible to assume he also will experience low satisfaction and perhaps not do business with that company in the future. Similarly, a customer who experiences the kind of service quality he recognizes as high most likely will do business with the company again, and perhaps even become a loyal customer.

Discussion Comments

jonrss

There is a restaurant down the street from me that I use to love. The food was amazing and the staff were really friendly. Well, the restaurant got sold, and when the new owners took over they kept the same menu but hired a whole new staff of people they had worked with in the past. I recognized the change the first time I went in.

The food was still good but the new servers were horrible. They were rude, inefficient and they made a lot of mistakes. It ruined the experience even if I enjoyed the meal. I went back again and it was this same story. I will probably never go back just because the quality of the service is so bad.

whiteplane

One of the biggest challenges for any large company is measuring customer satisfaction. It is always easy to measure the extremes, to find the people who really love or really hate the product or service you have sold them. But these views rarely reflect the opinions of the majority of your customers.

There are certain metrics you can use but none of them is entirely reliable. You can look at repeat business, recommendations to friends, reactions in social media and growth in sales. But this is still only part of the picture. It will always be a challenge for companies to know how happy people really are with their products.

nextcorrea

On the surface you would think that there would be a very direct link between service quality and customer satisfaction. But a dissatisfied customer is not always a former customer. The link between service quality and a continued relationship with a customer is more complicated than that.

A customer may be unhappy with their service but unwilling to pay more for a better service. The poor service may be the only service offered. A customer may be locked into a poor service because of a contract agreement. Or a customer may simply stick with a poor service because the hassle of switching is too large.

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    • A company's ability to promptly resolve customer complaints is one metric used to measure customer satisfaction.
      By: taka
      A company's ability to promptly resolve customer complaints is one metric used to measure customer satisfaction.
    • Surveys offer a way for a customer to report customer service issues.
      By: Marzky Ragsac Jr.
      Surveys offer a way for a customer to report customer service issues.
    • Some experts believe that the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality lies in the service quality itself.
      By: pressmaster
      Some experts believe that the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality lies in the service quality itself.
    • Poor service quality may lead to low levels of customer satisfaction.
      By: Adam Gregor
      Poor service quality may lead to low levels of customer satisfaction.