Does customer satisfaction really influence firm performance? Dr. Ashley Otto, Assistant Professor of Marketing, analyzed over a quarter centrury of data, and the results were surprising.
Focusing on satisfied customers is something that is really critical and valuable for a firm. This meta analysis found that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and firm performance and that more satisfied customers are going to lead to more advanced superior marketplace performance.
From a business perspective, this is good news. You have satisfied customers, it's going to be likely to lead to
profitable returns in terms of the bottom line.
DR. OTTO’S FINDINGS SUGGEST THAT CERTIN BUSINESSES MAY BENEFIT MORE FROM THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE.
Who's most likely to benefit from this relationship between satisfaction and performance? What we found is there are some types of businesses that are going to be more likely to benefit and then some differences that don't matter.
It doesn't necessarily matter if you're selling goods or services, or if you're selling a mix of goods and services, we don't see differences there. So that's great news.
We do see that satisfaction leading to increased performance results is going to be stronger for business to business types of firms, rather than business to consumers, types of firms. There's still the relationship there for business to consumers, but we do see it stronger on average for business to business firms.
Customer satisfaction is an intangible asset that is incredibly valuable to the firm. It is something that is hard to replicate and it's something that's hard to duplicate. So, focusing on ensuring that your customers are satisfied is going to lead to profits down the line for the firm
THE BUSINESS REVIEW IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON & MCKAY, AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY.
