The High Price of Customer Satisfaction

Managers often assume that improving customer satisfaction and financial performance go hand in hand. The reality, however, is much more complex.

Timothy Keiningham, Sunil Gupta, Lerzan Aksoy and Alexander Buoye

March 18, 2014

“Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.” That business promise has been made to consumers since 1875, when Montgomery Ward used it to differentiate his mail-order catalog from other retailers. Commitment to customer satisfaction is now a vow many businesses make. It is common to find mission statements and marketing plans that specifically address customer satisfaction; compensation systems that incorporate satisfaction metrics into their bonus criteria; and advertisements that ...