Service Hero, the creators of Kuwait's first and only cross-industry customer satisfaction index, today revealed the names of the shortlisted companies in the running to win the best customer service award, as voted by customers through a 30-day drive that collected over 8,700 direct votes.
Service Hero revealed the top three companies in 15 different industries, who received the highest customer satisfaction scores. Some of the shortlisted companies include:
- Retail banks: NBK, Gulf Bank, and Ahli United
- Electronics: Al-Yousifi, Eureka, Alghanim (X-cite)
- Retail clothes: BHS, Massimo Dutti, and Marks & Spencer
- Hospital services: Al-Seef, New Mowasat Hospital, and Royale Hayat
- New car sales: BMW (Ali Alghanim and Sons), Lexus (Al Sayer Group), and Toyota (Al Sayer Group)
Service Hero will announce the leaders in customer service across 15 industries in an awards ceremony on January 9, to be attended by Kuwait's top CEOs and executives. Lead spokesperson of the awards ceremony is Mr. Abdulmajeed Al Shatti, a prominent member of Kuwait's business community who is also the former Chairman and Managing Director of the Commercial Bank of Kuwait, and a member of Service Hero's independent Advisory Council.
Close to 400 companies within 15 industries were ranked by customers based on eight dimensions to determine their ranking on the Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index (SHCSI). The industries are: cafés, fast food, casual dining, fine dining, clothes retail, home furniture, local airlines, retail banks, Islamic banks, hospitals, electronics, internet service providers (ISPs), mobile phone operators, new car sales and car service centers.
The Service Hero dimensions are: staff behavior, quality of the product or service, speed, service reliability, location, and value for money, as well as website and call center offering for the airlines, retail banks, Islamic banks, ISPs, and mobile operators.
The Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index is overseen by an independent Advisory Council comprising the American University of Kuwait as its academic sponsor, and other prominent businessmen from leading organizations, including the Boston Consulting Group and GulfMerger. None of the organizations represented by the council members were either directly or indirectly included in the survey. As a neutral panel of experts, their function is to supervise the assessment to ensure fair and empirical findings. Members include: Dr. Carol Ross, Dean of Student Affairs, American University of Kuwait, Dr. Reinhold Leichtfuss, Senior Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group, Nauman Sehgal, COO at Noor Financial Investment, and Yann Pavie, CEO of GulfMerger, in addition to Mr. Al Shatti.
Service Hero President, Ms. Faten Abu-Ghazaleh, said: “Service Hero has helped give customers, for the first time, a platform to voice their satisfaction on services they are getting on a daily basis and we are excited to reveal the key players in customer satisfaction in the country. It will be very interesting to see whether service leaders are franchised brands or home-grown brands developed by local companies. Service Hero is also working on providing the insights they’ve obtained directly by customers to show what is pleasing or displeasing customers and in which areas.”
In its recently published preliminary data report, the SHCSI found that customers in Kuwait were most vocal about food and leisure services, with a Kuwaiti male between the ages of 40 and 49 as the most critical and hardest customer to satisfy. However, compared to its counterparts, Kuwait scored significantly higher than the US and the UK, at 7.7, 7.6, and 7.5 out of ten respectively.
Service Hero will have individual industry reports with detailed data results providing detailed insights on specific dimensions, which will be available for companies and institutions early in 2011.
