Service Hero Index: Widening customer expectation-satisfaction divide in Kuwait

Overall customer satisfaction stood at an ordinary score of 75.1 out of 100 in 2019

KUWAIT: Service Hero, the Kuwait-based and the region’s only consumer powered customer satisfaction index, has revealed that the gap between customers’ expectations and brands’ ability to satisfy them has been increasing steadily over the last 10 years. The company’s 2019 Customer Satisfaction Index, released yesterday, shows that overall customer satisfaction in Kuwait stood at an Ordinary score of 75.1 out of 100, falling 9.2 points against a customer expectation score of 84.3 points. This is the widest gap since the index started, for companies failing to meet customer expectations even though actual satisfaction has remained the same as last year.

Based on a robust sample of 22,514 validated assessments by consumers spanning both genders and a broad range of age, nationality and education levels, the Index shows that customer satisfaction in 2019 was nearly the same as the year before, however, customer expectation was up 2.7 points from 2018. In 2010, when the survey was launched, the divide between customer expectation and satisfaction was 2.6 points - 75.2 vs. 72.6.

Commenting on the survey results, Faten AbuGhazaleh, President of Service Hero, said: “We are pleased to release our 2019 Customer Satisfaction Index that incorporates a decade of data based on 300,000 collected consumer assessments in Kuwait and the UAE. As the findings of the survey indicate, consumers have progressively become content with the services offered by companies across different sectors in Kuwait. However, it is also important to note that their expectations have been increasing significantly over the years and service providers are failing to keep up the momentum. We are confident that our Index, which offers exclusive deep insights into customer needs and aspirations, will tremendously help businesses to improve their service delivery against its eight service benchmarks to offer exceptional user experiences in order to enhance customer loyalty and brand perception.” All the eight key service dimensions the Customer Satisfaction Index measures fell below expectations. Reliability had the highest customer expectation score and the biggest gap in satisfaction delivery, at 8.3 points, after Value for Money, which had the lowest expectation and satisfaction scores at 78.2 and 69.6 respectively. Staff scored the highest in customer satisfaction followed by Reliability, meaning brands have remained keen on hiring employees who have a service attitude and have improved elements that strengthen Reliability.

Companies have yet to apply an approach that enables their customers to feel they are getting their money’s worth as none of the service dimensions, including Product Quality, Speed, Call Center, Location, and Website, met the criteria of incredible service with 90 points and above to feature in the ‘Heroic’ ranking. Meanwhile, Value for Money received the ‘Bland’ grade with the bare minimum of what users expect.

Of the 18 industry categories on the Index, four featured in the ‘Good’ ranking, including CafÈs, which delivered the strongest performance in customer satisfaction at 83.1 points, and Health Clubs, Casual Dining, New Car Sales, and Clothes at 81 points. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) bottomed out with a score of 61.9 points, followed by Mobile Operators, Home Furniture, and Airlines, with all four categories receiving a ‘Bland’ grade. Local Brands, Fast Food, Fine Dining, Retail Banks, Islamic Banks, Car Service, Electronics, Supermarkets, and Private Hospitals scored between 70 and 80 to be ranked as ‘Ordinary.’

As reflected in the Kuwait index for complaint resolution at an Ordinary score of 72.5, ineffective complaint resolution has remained the biggest impediment to achieving customer satisfaction for many industry categories. As a result of not delivering even the bare minimum level of service in quickly and effectively rectifying problems as they occur, ISPs and Mobile Operators were the lowest scoring categories on this front, with ‘Unheroic’ scores of 51.4 and 58.2 points respectively. Car Service, at 16 percent, and Fast Food, at 11 percent, are the two categories that have improved the most since 2010 in overall satisfaction, while ISPs saw the biggest drop at 10 percent, followed by Home Furniture and Supermarkets at 6 percent and 5 percent respectively.

In terms of satisfaction by different customer demographic groups, female consumers continue to be more satisfied than their male counterparts and customers aged over 60 have the highest satisfaction rate, whereas Arabs are least satisfied with the service provided by companies, followed by Kuwaiti citizens. Consumers in their 50s and those who hold Master’s or PhD degrees also had the lowest satisfaction rate. Service Hero adheres to ESOMAR principles (the European society of opinion and market research) and is overseen by an independent Advisory Council. The Advisory Council includes the Director of Research from the American Customer Satisfaction Index as well as academic and independent members from leading private universities in Kuwait and the UAE and established companies.