At this point, practitioners usually probe for better metrics. Some companies switch to tracking top-box customer satisfaction scores. Others begin to focus on loyalty intention measures. Still others begin to use indices that combine elements of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Other companies worry about the difference between loyalty intentions and retention experience.
Some practitioners probe deeper.
Then they probe even deeper. Companies that have many branches or locations, like retail banks, have studied why some branches have higher retention rates than others. They find that the units with higher retention rates perform better on key criteria that customers value than do branches with low retention rates. Branches that underperform lose more customers to competitors. The customer satisfaction paradigm is older, has been widely adopted in North America, and is beginning to take hold in Europe.