The role of customer satisfaction in achieving business excellence

The consumer satisfaction category has the main position in marketing theory and is based on the premise that the profit is made through the process of satisfaction of consumers' demands, i.e. achievement of their satisfaction. Researches continually confirm a significant correlation between satisfaction and repeated buying, greater brand loyalty and spreading a positive opinion of the product. The model of consumers' buying decisions described in this paper consists of five consecutive phases of consumer behaviour through the buying process: product perceiving phase (offered product with all producer's factors of competitiveness from the consumer's point of view); value estimation phase (weighting benefits and sacrifices); comparing the values of different products and decisionmaking phase (comparing alternative options); action phase (realization of the decision); and consumer's state of mind after buying action phase (satisfaction with the product). There are several aspects that should be taken into consideration from the producer's (seller's) point of view in order to implement successfully the concept of customer satisfaction.