It's a pretty regular occurrence that I will talk to someone who wants to measure satisfaction for six months or a year and then stop, thinking they know what there is to know after short-term measurement. It seems like more people understand the case for long-term measurement now than they did seven years ago when we opened up shop, but it's still a pretty common misconception.
First of all, customer satisfaction as well as other attitudinal metrics are a moving target. Customer satisfaction can be defined as what you get plus what you expect, and customers' expectations are constantly changing based on what the leaders are doing, both in your industry and anywhere online. The issues deserving the most time and attention may (and almost certainly will) change over time.
Secondly, even if you are not in a seasonal business, there may still be seasonal factors that impact satisfaction year-over-year. Holiday sales, marketing and advertising programs, competitive initiatives and the like can all impact satisfaction year-over-year, as can major changes to the larger environment, like economic conditions, gas prices, legislation, etc.
You can't manage what you can't measure, and you need to be able to track these trends.
Comments