Contradictory CSAT Study Analysis

Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction are two important aspects of maintaining a good business. Each have shown benefits in terms of revenue and sustainability, and both are known to be important parts of successful companies. The basic premises behind both are as follows: Employee Satisfaction: Leads to productive employees, a friendly workplace, friendlier and more helpful customer involvement, and greater employee retention.

Customer Satisfaction: Leads to customer loyalty, increased spending, and more word of mouth marketing that helps build business. Those are the basic ideas behind the importance of both those scores. One of the more interesting things, however, is that research has yielded many different results.

There have been studies that show that employee satisfaction and productivity are not linked, and others that show a strong link. There are studies that show customer satisfaction may not lead to increased revenue while other studies show it is vital. These contradictory results are common within this type of market research.

This brings up an interesting question – what can we conclude about both employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction if the conclusions of studies in these fields are constantly yielding contradictory results?

When market researchers and executives find studies that indicate results that either contradict or confirm already held beliefs, the response should be simple: trust that the study’s results are correct, but also perform your own research. It’s too easy in these fields to believe strongly in one way or another, and trust that the conclusions you have already reached apply to your business model. Yet every business – and every employee – is different.

Some employees still work hard, even when they are unsatisfied. Others may provide low quality customer service despite being more than satisfied with the workplace. Loyal customers may spend little money and so on.

Contradictory findings do not indicate that employee/customer satisfaction is good or bad, or that it is/isn’t important to your business. What it should teach you is that the results of the studies of others are all relevant, but your own business decides the importance of both types of satisfaction. Depending on your business model, your products, etc., the effects of customer and employee satisfaction may be large, or they may be small, or they may be somewhere in between.

Your own knowledge, research, and expertise should be how you learn what methods are most important to building a strong business and where your own practices may need to differ from the results of the studies you read.