Abstract:

All over the world, customer satisfaction has been recognised as an important subject to increase customer loyalty and retention. In each country or culture with freedom of decision customer satisfaction is closely connected with customer loyalty and retention. Methods and procedures are becoming more and more similar. The results of various customer satisfaction measurements demonstrate that there is still a lot to do. Most customers still see a need for further improvements. The achievement of customer satisfaction is an ongoing process, which should be monitored regularly as customer expectations continuously change and the performance standards of the competitors may also change. The following ten issues have proved to be important success factors in improving the efficiency of customer satisfaction monitoring: 1. Full support of top management; 2. Involvement of all relevant people in the planning process; 3. Collecting or benchmarking data; 4. Combination of qualitative and quantitative component; 5. Comprehension of results; 6. Clarity of reporting; 7. Concentration on a few, especially important activities for improvement; 8. Clear determination of actions and responsibilities; 9. Decentral organisation of surveys for international projects. 10. Adjustment to market / country specific peculiarities.