Service Hero announces Kuwait's 2011 customer service scores for 8 key measured dimensions

Kuwait, January 23, 2012 - Service Hero, Kuwait's first and only customer satisfaction index (SHCSI), today announced Kuwait's customers service scores for the eight key customer service dimensions measured, showing a drop in quality in two key service dimensions, website and staff behavior, when compared to 2010 scores.

The Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index (SHCSI) is based on data collected by surveying consumers over a three-month period in Kuwait.  The annual cross-industry initiative collected more than 10,000 customer votes in 2011.  The online survey asked consumers to rank companies on eight major service dimensions, which include staff behavior, quality of the products, speed, reliability, location, value for money, website, and call center.

Though the "value for money" dimension rose the most this year with a difference of 0.08 points out of ten, results show that it  was still among the lowest scoring between the eight service dimensions - a clear indication that consumers continue to feel that they are paying an unjustified premium for the products and services they acquire in Kuwait.

Service Hero President Ms. Faten Abu-Ghazaleh said: "The customer service results, scoring around 7 points out of ten, show that companies have room for improvement on the services they provide. A closer look at the results shows that customers are still dissatisfied by the services they are getting from the fundamental and more complex dimensions such as reliability and speed. The lowest scoring service dimensions are those that require more investment, commitment and attention to detail from companies, with actual and expected scores for these dimensions scoring the lowest."


Overall results for the different service groups have been reasonably positive, with an average 0.03 point increase out of ten due to an increase in satisfaction in half of the services dimensions.

"Companies are still satisfying their customers in terms of location and staff behavior and friendliness. Although websites have witnessed the biggest decrease this year, they are still one of the highest scoring," added Abu-Ghazaleh.

Demographic results:

Kuwaiti male consumers are still the most disgruntled consumer group in Kuwait, especially those between the ages of 30 and 49, scoring less on services than any other consumer group in Kuwait. Results also show that Kuwaitis and males are the least loyal consumer demographic, scoring 7.45 and 7.12 points out of ten respectively. Loyalty for Kuwaitis and men also had the lowest dips, showing that they are even more disappointed than they were last year.

Women and Arab residents on the other hand are the easiest to please as results show they had higher satisfaction scores.

The survey asked customers to first note their expected experience level for a company and then rate their actual experience with it. The results both actual and expected were the lowest for male Kuwaitis.

Abu-Ghazaleh said: "Results in the last two years have clearly shown that male Kuwaitis are the most critical consumer segment across the different industry categories and are most disappointed by most of the services. They have shown most dissatisfaction and criticism on value for money, call center services and speed of service."



Service Hero asks customers to measure 17 different industry categories, and they are: cafes, casual dining, fine dining, fast food, clothes retail, home furniture, regional Arab airlines, retail banks, Islamic banks, new car dealers, car service, electronics, hospitals, mobile phone operators, internet service providers (ISPs), as well as supermarkets and private polyclinics which have been added to the industry categories for the first time this year.

Quality monitoring and assessment:

Service Hero, which launched the first customer service satisfaction index SHCSI in Kuwait in 2010, measures customer satisfaction based on assessments by customers themselves. This year more than 13,000 customer-based assessments were evaluated in over 400 companies across 17 industries category. Assessments were vetted out to over 10,000 after data quality checks were conducted.

Service Hero has put security measures to ensure authenticity and data integrity with a 95 percent confidence level and an error margin of only plus or minus five, allocating a minimum number of votes per category based on Kuwait's population and category population. The index follows international standards of market research and implements the research protocols of the European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR).

Service Hero, licensed and operated by Khayal Consultants, has recruited an Advisory Council comprising of three academic institutions as well as leading business professionals. As a neutral panel of experts, their function is to supervise the assessment and results to ensure fair and empirical findings. The Advisory Council of academic sponsors and independent members this year includes: 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 GulfMerger.

Service Hero will be announcing the top performing companies as ranked by customers in an awards ceremony on February X.  During the event, Kuwait's best companies in customer service as voted by customers will be revealed and awarded.

-Ends-

About Service Hero:
Founded with a mission to create a people-driven platform for voting on service quality, Service Hero provides organizations with the knowledge and tools needed to track and improve performance for the benefit of customers.  Service Hero is a unique concept solely focused on collecting the voice of customers on service standards and creating a list of service providers ranked by category.  Service Hero was established by a team of professionals keen on identifying companies that are service leaders in their market. This team is backed by an Independent Advisory Council which assures results that are impartial, objective and accurately reflect people's preference. Our main goal is to measure the satisfaction level in the market by real consumers in order to help and empower companies to improve their service levels.

To know more about Service Hero, go to http://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 Kuwait's leading organizations better connect, understand, and communicate with their stakeholders. 

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

Media may contact:
Dareen Awwad
00965 99981224
dareen@bensirri.com

© Press Release 2012