Nowadays, companies are misled by the idea that customers depend on them, when the truth is that companies depend on those customers. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are now essential to the survival of a business or enterprise. So what is the difference between customer satisfaction and loyalty and how do companies and/or businesses achieve this? Even when you have difficult customers, how do you achieve customer satisfaction? It is essential that companies or businesses today listen to their customers. No company or business today can afford to ignore the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Aren't they the same thing? No, they absolutely aren't and they are vastly different. “Customer satisfaction is a self-reported measure of how much customers 'like' a company and how happy they are with the goods purchased or services obtained from the company. Customer loyalty, on the other hand, is a company-calculated metric of the likelihood of purchasing again or not switching to a competitor” (Klein, 2013). Achieving customer satisfaction is critical in today's business world. Customer satisfaction assists you, assists the customer, as well as assists the company and/or the company as a whole. According to Nelson, “The level of satisfaction a customer has with a company has profound effects. Studies have shown that the level of customer satisfaction has a positive effect on profitability: • A totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times more to a company's revenue than a fairly satisfied customer. • A completely satisfied customer contributes 17 times more to revenue than a fairly satisfied customer. dissatisfied customer. • A totally dissatisfied customer decreases revenue at an equal rate… at the center of the paper… the faction is not customer loyalty. Retrieved from http://www.dmnews.com/customer-satisfaction-is-not-customer-loyalty/article/313592/Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2009). A framework for marketing management: integrated with PharmSim. (4th edition). Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, N.J. Mckeown, L. (2013, September 4). How to retain customers. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/les-mckeown/how-to-get-loyal-customers.htmlNelson, R. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wparesearch.com/uncategorized/the-importance-of-customer-satisfaction/Street, C. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0072938056/147626/lucas_chap007.pdfhttp://www.bestmark.com/web_and_email_surveys.htm http://www.briantracy.com/blog /business-success/four-rules-customer-satisfaction-customer-loyalty/ http://blog.clientheartbeat.com/dealing-with-difficult-custo