Sensing and sharing in their clients' frustration, some researchers have modified the satisfaction model. While the difference between the approaches isn't always clear, it has sparked an acrid debate among researchers. That investment makes it expensive and even a little embarrassing for researchers to change their course. While managers may be emphatically uninterested in the schism dividing the research industry, it is their demand for measurable results that has sparked the debate. Unable to point to parallel growth in satisfaction and sales in all cases, a handful of consultants have turned to the customer loyalty model.
Customer satisfaction is an attitude.
Customer loyalty is a purchase behavior, explains Griffin. In terms of sales results, therefore, customer satisfaction is relevant only to the degree at which it increases customer loyalty. By studying a defecting customer's behavior a company can determine what makes her act. That, according to loyalty proponents, may not necessarily be the same thing as asking her what she prefers. There is a world of difference between those two questions.