Consumers ranked Vodacom, First National Bank and Sanlam as the best performers in South Africa. The three winners scored the highest customer satisfaction ratings in their respective industries.
The survey was conducted by the South African Satisfaction (SAS) Index in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti). The study is an annual initiative to encourage competitiveness across industries. It is consumer-driven, objective, neutral, and comparative in achieving this. Unlike similar benchmark offerings, the SAS Index is comparable to the American (ACSI) and European (EPSI) studies.
Results indicate that South African customers are more satisfied than their counterparts in Europe and America. However, this may be ascribed to South African consumers having lower expectations, as indicated in a recent consumer survey conducted by the dti. The full survey results are available here.
The outcome of the consumer survey raised important issues about the level of consumer protection and awareness in South Africa. The results of the survey clearly showed low levels of awareness about consumer rights, and limited support mechanisms to promote consumer activisms and protection on the ground. Of consumers surveyed 55% did not know any consumer rights at all, 85% asked for more information on consumer rights, 79% did not know of any consumer rights organisations and only 2% belong to a consumer NGO. This poses a challenge to all government, industry and consumer activists to improve services and raise consumer awareness of their rights and expectations.
This is the third year that the SAS index study has been conducted. Overall improvement has been seen in all the sectors. Highlights from the 2004 study are set out below.
Looking at the industries individually, the ranking of the players in the telecommunications industry remained consistent. However, the industry as a whole showed a 5.5 percentage point improvement. Although Telkom showed a substantial improvement ahead of the launch of the second fixed-line operator, it is not yet judged to be delivering the same level of performance as the more competitive cellular industry, as well as lagging behind the banks.
However, Telkom is doing significantly better than the telecommunication industry in both Europe and America in satisfying its customers. Vodacom and MTN continue to lead the telecommunications field, but Cell C is well on track to challenge the more established players on service levels. Vodacom and MTN are producing the sort of satisfaction levels that one would expect from global players, making their results even more significant.
The banking results confirmed the success of the dti's investment in the SAS index to improve service levels. Significant levels of improvement were reported by all of the 'Big Four'. FNB and Standard Bank still scored higher than Nedbank and ABSA, with their improvements setting a new benchmark for competitors in the banking industry. As was the case last year, South African banking customer's remains more satisfied than banking customers in America and Europe.
It is very likely that the publishing of the customer satisfaction results in previous years have helped to spur banking and telecommunications on towards better levels of service. This may be one of the reasons for the new entrant, the long-term insurance industry, trailing behind banking and telecommunications as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. Interestingly, perhaps because of the highly competitive nature of the industry, little separated the top long-term insurance performer (Sanlam) from the least well received (Liberty Life).
The entrenched positions of the leaders in banking and telecommunications were affirmed by their achieving the highest proportions of satisfied customers across some 27 measured critical drivers of customer satisfaction and delight. Some of these critical drivers include quality and efficiency of staff, general attitude of staff and whether client information is kept up to date.
As this research becomes increasingly established and recognised as the benchmark for decision-makers, consumers and other stakeholders, the study will continue to be published annually. In addition, when results are compared globally to the American (ACSI) and European (EPSI) studies, it will provide a benchmark against which customer satisfaction and complaints may be compared to other industries across the globe. Consumers and investors therefore have access to comparative levels of service delivery in support of informed decision-making.
The study will be rolled out across all major industries in South Africa in the near future. This measurement will then serve to provide both local and international comparisons to fuel the ongoing drive of local businesses to achieve world-class customer satisfaction.
Comparable statistics on the satisfaction index results of the United States and United Kingdom are available on http://www.theacsi.org/
Department of Trade and Industry
