Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are related but they aren’t the same. For example, some highly satisfied customers may not continue to buy from you and some highly dissatisfied customers may leave for your competition. While often there is a direct correlation between higher satisfaction and greater loyalty it is more important to recognize and understand what customer attributes specifically drive loyalty.

The reason some companies have such loyal customers is that they do everything necessary (not everything possible!) to be sure that satisfied customers are also loyal. The way they assure this loyalty is by constantly measuring what satisfaction attributes disproportionably contribute to loyalty.

The reason customer loyalty is so important is that over time, satisfied customers result in lower selling costs and higher profits because they buy repeatedly and they recommend your company, resulting in more sales.