Customer satisfaction does not necessarily lead to customer loyalty. Both are important to your business–whether your operate a small retail store, medical practice or offer personal services. Customer satisfaction gives you insight into how your business is doing in certain “touch points”. Customer loyalty data tells you the actual purchases, frequency of purchases and amount spent by returning customers.

Lisa Masiello explains the difference between these two terms and why one is more important than the other.

Customer Satisfaction Isnt Customer Loyalty. Why The Difference Matters.

As long as your customers are happy it doesn’t matter whether you use the term customer satisfaction or customer loyalty to explain how they feel about your company, right? These terms are often used interchangeably and they really shouldn’t be…. Read more…

At the end, maybe you’ll be convinced that customer loyalty is more important. After all, loyal customers not only are regular buyers of your services or goods, they also bring their friends.