What is the difference between a "loyal customer" and a "satisfied customer"?

Loyal customer is one who patronage your product or service come what may. Someone who has been fully satisfied with the kind of product or service that you offer for a long time. Satisfied customer is someone who is new or old customers who market your product or service by word of mouth. Someone who met his or her expectation. Someone who must serve as basis on your marketing strategy.

Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: It’s Like “Like vs. Love”

Even among many business leaders and managers, it is common to equate customer satisfaction to customer loyalty – they sound similar, right? But while a loyal customer is a satisfied customer, the converse is not necessarily true. And many organizations are measuring customer sat while leaving customer loyalty to the side – a dangerous practice.   It’s really pretty simple.  Is it “Like” (no pun intended for Facebook) or is it “Love”?

Customer satisfaction is a far more tactical concept and measurement than true customer loyalty.  Customer satisfaction speaks only to one moment in time—typically, right after a customer has completed an interaction such as a purchase or has a problem solved.  Usually, a customer will be satisfied if her expectation has been met.  So measuring customer satisfaction merely tells you if you are doing your job, in the perspective of the customer.  Many organizations should be performing up to their customers’ expectations.  This is really just the basics.   While these days consumers are in the driver’s seat, the mindset tends toward “what have you done for me lately?” as opposed to “that transaction went well so I’m a customer for life.”  Thus, good customer satisfaction does not guarantee that you will continue to keep those customers.

A much more reliable and strategic measure is customer loyalty.  True loyalty – much harder to earn than mere satisfaction – tells you that your customer wants to stick with you over the long haul and will share that feeling with others.  Loyalty derives not from hum-drum “good” transactions but from exceeding the customer’s expectations on a repeated basis. It is the delightful experiences that make someone – emotionally devoted to you - want to tell others.

Fantastic illusteration, thanks