What is customer satisfaction and how do expectations influence it?

"Customer satisfaction is the customer’s feeling that a product has met or exceeded expectations. Expectations are often the result of communication, especially promotion. Utilizing marketing research to identify specific expectations and then crafting marketing strategy to meet or exceed those expectations is a major contributor to success for an organization. Lexus consistently wins awards for its outstanding customer satisfaction. JD Powers surveys car owners two years after they make their purchase. Its Customer Satisfaction Survey is made up of four measures that each describe an element of overall ownership satisfaction at two years: vehicle quality/ reliability, vehicle appeal, ownership costs, and service satisfaction from a dealer. Lexus continues to lead the industry and has been America’s top-ranked vehicle for five years in a row. Geico—the major auto insurer with the scaly mascot—famously boasts a 97 percent customer-satisfaction rating. Although the firm’s claim may be exaggerated a bit, consumers get the message that Geico delivers quality insurance coverage at low prices. In what way does the company’s quirky and ubiquitous advertising—in which customers claim to have saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico—influence customers’ service expectations?"