Approaches of Portuguese companies for relating customer satisfaction with business results

Many advances, theoretical developments and discussions can be found in recent literature regarding important concepts such as customer value, loyalty and satisfaction, on one hand, and on ways of setting goals and measuring business results, on the other hand. The main goal of this study was to analyse and integrate the above concepts from a practical point of view in order to get a better understanding about them, their mutual relationships and how they are applied in Portugal. To achieve such a goal, visits and interviews based upon a written survey (combining closed and openended questions) were carried out on site at the companies selected for the final evaluation phase in the 1994 edition of the Portuguese Quality Award (PEX). Then, we concentrated on one particular company (PEX winner) where additional visits, contacts and data collection steps took place. The results obtained show that there is quite a large gap between available models and current company practices in this field, although enterprises believe that more sound and structured approaches may indeed be tested and applied in the future. Therefore, it seems to be the case that there is a favourable environment for acceptance and applications of the European Customer Satisfaction Index or similar frameworks.