The subject of this article is customer satisfaction, loyalty, knowledge and business competitiveness from the perspective of a food-industry customer. This article aims to analyse the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, product knowledge, business competitiveness and other selected factors which influence customer satisfaction. The research is aimed at customers who purchase the product in question repeatedly and have personal experience with this product. The research was carried out using a questionnaire which was presented to the respondents, who were customers of the selected companies. In order to model the relationships between the factors, a structural equation model approach was used. The research showed the direct influence of the product-knowledge variable on customer expectation and product competitiveness, as well as the influence of customer loyalty on product knowledge. Increased loyalty thus leads to the customer's increased knowledge of the product. The rate of repeat purchase of the same product is important for the relationship between the variables. In this case, customer expectation was shown to be an important variable which is influenced by customer satisfaction. It can be concluded that when a product's price is set correctly in relation to its quality, the price does not affect other research factors.

This paper presents an analysis of quality, customer satisfaction and business performance in food industry. The main objective of the research is to determine the influence of quality on customer satisfaction and on business performance and competitiveness. In particular, this paper answers the following research question: Does the quality of a product result in a satisfied customer and thereby in a well-performing business? Customer satisfaction is defined as the satisfaction of the customer with a product and the business performance as a capability to generate profit. Therefore, satisfaction was examined by the means of a survey using questionnaires, and the performance was measured by financial data. We managed to find a correlation between the main factors, although partial results were due more factors mostly statistically insignificant.

The aim of this article is to evaluate customer satisfaction from the perspective of companies in comparison with the perspective of the customers themselves. From the perspective of the company it is necessary to know customer satisfaction, as it is reflected in the company's performance. The research shows that there are significant differences in the evaluation of customer satisfaction from the perspective of companies and from the perspective of their customers, and that these differences are also reflected in the differences in the performance of the companies. The selfevaluation of companies tends to be overestimated in relation to the evaluation of companies by their customers, regardless of whether the companies are high-performing or low-performing. Customers are better able to distinguish the high-performing companies from the low-performing ones, since the high-performing companies received better evaluation from customers. In contrast, in the self-evaluation of companies, there were no statistically significant differences between the high-performing and low-performing companies. Companies evaluate customer satisfaction incorrectly regardless of their level of performance. Even if the evaluation of customer satisfaction from the company's perspective is generally overestimated in comparison with the view of customers, some factors of satisfaction are, at least concerning the trends, in agreement with both perspectives, that is, those of the customers and the companies.

This article is a part of a specific research output called Quality Influence on the Performance and Competitiveness of the Company. One of the research phases is elaborated in this article; its subject is measuring customer satisfaction with the quality of food products companies in the Czech Republic. This article aim is to determine the level of customer satisfaction with the quality of food production enterprises. The partial aim of the article is to identify factors that have the greatest influence on the customer satisfaction. The research confirms close relations between customers' quality perception, their satisfaction and the level of fulfilment of their demands.