I often hear it said that one of the goals of a business is to increase customer satisfaction (in “lean” terms we would say “Satisfy the Voice of the Customer”).   I disagree with this statement.   Customer satisfaction is actually only one of the means by which we increase sales and therefore revenue…towards the ultimate goal of increased profits.  The primary goal of business is to increase profits ( and shareholder value ) .   If businesses could obtain their primary goal without customer satisfaction then many of them probably would !   Many examples of monopolies or patent holders ( think phamaceutials ) where being the sole supplier of a product is of far greater importance to business success (profits) than customer satisfaction.  Seeing customer satisfaction as the “end game”  is flawed thinking.    Of course customer sat is important, but as a means to an end and not the end itself.