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Service Hero reveals companies in the running for Kuwait's best customer service award

NBK, Gulf Bank , Al Ahli, top customer service providers for retail banks

Audi, Honda, and Toyota top customer service providers for car service center

Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways shortlisted as best regional Arab Airlines

Kuwait January 30, 2012 - Service Hero, the creators of Kuwait's first and only cross-industry customer satisfaction index (SHCSI), today revealed the shortlisted companies in the running to win the best customer service award, as voted by customers through a three-month drive that collected over 13,000 direct votes.

Service Hero revealed the top three companies in 16 different industry categories, who received the highest customer satisfaction scores. The shortlisted companies include:

● Category: Retail banks: Gulf Bank , NBK and Al Ahli Bank

● Category: Electronics: Electrozan, Eureka, Alghanim (X-cite)

● Category: Retail clothes: American Eagle, Centrepoint, Mothercare

● Category: ISPs: Viva, KEMS, Zain

● Category: New car sales: BMW (Ali Alghanim and Sons), Mercedes-Benz (Al Bisher and Al Kazemi Group), and Lexus (Al Sayer Group)

Close to 350 companies within 17 industry categories 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, retail clothes, home furniture, regional Arab airlines, retail banks, Islamic banks, hospitals, electronics, internet service providers (ISPs), mobile phone operators, new car sales and car service centers, and new additions - Polyclinics and Supermarkets.

Service Hero President, Faten Abu-Ghazaleh, said: "Last year's results were exciting because it identified and ranked the leaders in customer service in Kuwait for the first time. This year's survey will reveal who maintained their lead and who are the challengers. On February seventh we will reveal who maintained their position, and who was outperformed - all based on customer voting."

Service Hero will announce the leaders in customer service across 17 industry categories in an awards ceremony on February seventh, to be attended by Kuwait's top CEOs and executives. Dr. John Hayes, author, speaker and professor at the College of Business faculty at Gulf University for Science & Technology will be this year's guest speaker during the ceremony. Dr. Hayes has 18 non-fiction books under his belt, countless articles on business topics, and has spoken to Fortune 500 companies, as well as small businesses, including dozens of franchise companies and network marketing businesses.

The Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index is overseen by an independent Advisory Council comprising the American University of Kuwait , Gulf University of Science and Technology, and the Australian College of Kuwait as its academic sponsors, 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 of the American University of Kuwait , Saad Al-Sharhan of the Australian College of Kuwait, Dr. Hassan El-Sady of the Gulf Institute of Science and Technology, Abdulmajeed Al Shatti, ex- Chairman of the Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Dr. Reinhold Leichtfuss Senior Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, Nauman Sehgal, Chief Operating Officer of Noor Investment Company, and Yann Pavie, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Merger.

Service Hero allows customers to rate customer services online based on eight key dimensions staff behavior, quality of the product or service, speed, service reliability, location, value for money, website and call center. All votes have a confidence level of 95% with an error margin of plus or minus five. The survey is ESOMAR-compliant following scientifically sound and empirical research, which is based on international standards and principles.

This year's country findings:

After analyzing and validating more than 10,000 customer votes this year, Service Hero found that customer satisfaction slightly rose to 7.7 points out of ten. Among categories, 12 out of the 15 categories rose this year with the highest scores for: casual dining, cafes, clothes and home furniture and the lowest scoring being ISP's mobile operators and car service. Customers were more satisfied about services in four out of eight key service dimensions with location and staff scoring the highest, and value for money and call center scoring the lowest.

On the other hand, results show that the average customer loyalty in Kuwait decreased this year, with the most critical customer still being the Kuwaiti male between the ages 30 and 49.

Service Hero prepares individual industry category reports, which will be available for companies and institutions. The report provides detailed data results and insights on the competitive position of the companies in their category, brand scores by service, scores by demographic group, loyalty scores, and changes since last year.

-Ends-

About Service Hero:
Service Hero is Kuwait's first annual customer satisfaction index that is based entirely on consumer votes. Votes were collected online in October 2011 through December 2011 and covered 17 private sector industries. The categories assessed by consumers were - cafe`s, casual dining, fine dining, fast food, clothes retail, home furniture, local airlines, retail banks, Islamic banks, new car sales, car service centers, electronics, hospitals, internet service providers (ISPs), mobile phone operators, polyclinics, and supermarkets.

Scores are based on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest score. Consumers voted on 8 service dimensions - reliability, speed, product quality, value for money, location of offering, and staff quality, call center and website (note the last two only applied to 5 sectors - airlines, mobile operators, ISP's, retail banks, and Islamic banks as these platforms form an integral part of their consumer offering).

The 2011 sample consists of 10,000 votes across all categories and provides a confidence level of 95% with an error margin of +/- 5%. Category samples started at 400 minimum votes also giving the same confidence level. Service Hero adheres to ESOMAR principles (the European Society of Opinion and Market Research) and also has established an Advisory Council to ensure fair and empirical results. To learn more, visit www.servicehero.com.

About Khayal Consultants:
Established in 1996, Khayal Consultants is a business communications consulting firm providing market research, surveys, website design and other marketing communication services. Over the past 14 years, Khayal Consultants has helped some of Kuwait's leading organizations better connect, understand, and communicate with their stakeholders.

To know more about Khayal Consultants, go to www.khayal.com.

Media may contact:
Dareen Awwad
+965 99981224
dareen@bensirri.com

© Press Release 2012