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SATISFACTION * They're not the same
SPECIAL REPORT
Understanding the difference between customer service and customer satisfaction can provide marketers with the competitive advantage necessary to retain existing customers and attract new ones. At first glance, service and satisfaction may appear to mean the same thing, but they do not; service is what the marketer provides and what the customer gets, and satisfaction is the customer's evaluation of the level of service they receive.
The satisfaction level is determined by comparing expected service to delivered service. Four outcomes are possible:
* delight-positive disconfirmation (a pleasant surprise);
* dissatisfaction-negative disconfirmation (an unpleasant surprise);
* satisfaction-positive confirmation (expected level of service); and
* negative confirmation, which suggests that you are neither managing expectations properly nor delivering good service.
In managing service delivery, relying solely on the objective aspects of service is a mistake, because customers base future behavior on their evaluation of the experience they actually had, which is in effect their degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
In addition to determining that satisfaction degree, marketers should seek to learn the reasons underlying customers' feelings in order to make changes and maintain high satisfaction levels when they are achieved. In researching these areas, marketers should note that the "why" is not the "what"; nor is it the "how." That is, what happened and how it made customers feel does not tell us why they felt as they did. And not knowing that, managing not only the service that customers experience but their expectations...