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Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has been named 'Best Bank in the GCC' for the second year running in the 2015 Retail Banking Customer Experience Benchmark Index developed by Ethos Integrated Solutions, the regional leader in delivering excellence in customer experience.
Meanwhile 16 UAE public and private organisations and three individuals have been recognised in the Ethos 2015 Service Olympian Awards - the only independent honours which recognise the country's customer service leaders.
Awarded recipients received their honours this week at a glittering gala ceremony at Dubai's prestigious Burj Al Arab Hotel as Ethos unveiled the top rankings of the Index - the 11th in the annual series - alongside the Service Olympian winners.
The Index recognised the efforts of 12 GCC banks out of a total of 65 following a six months' mystery shopping measurement exercise of branch experiences, website interactions and call centre responses with 40 contacts made with each bank across all three delivery channels.
Of the 65 GCC banks studied, the bulk - 22 - were in the UAE. Ten were in Saudi Arabia, there were nine each in Bahrain and Qatar, eight in Kuwait and seven in Oman. They were evaluated on reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy, in line with Ethos' 'Value Moments' customer experience criteria.
"In essence the Index reveals that banks in the GCC are getting better though the trend is not exactly uniform across the region," explained Robert Keay, Ethos' founder and Chief Executive Officer.
The Index reveals that the UAE saw a slight (-1%) dip in overall banking experience in 2015 but reports that over the last 10 years UAE bank customers have reported an 18% percentage point rise in improved experiences.
"The banking experience index for the UAE now stands at 79.4% and is considered to be the leader within the region," explained Keay. "This is closely followed by Kuwait and Qatar."
The index also identifies a continuous shift towards alternative delivery channels. "Today the overall online experience constitutes 15% of the overall banking experience index as compared to our initial weighting of 5%," said Keay.
"In 2015, customers regarded their branch experience as the highest out of the three engagement channels of the study, and the data suggests that banks should focus and prioritize enhancing their online channels and capabilities."
Keay says the decade-long trend towards improved performance is a result of greater market competitiveness and higher customer expectations. "These are driving a strong focus on delivering customer experiences comparable with other more well established markets."
Other Index UAE winners were: 'Best Branch Experience' - Mashreq Bank; 'Best Call Centre Experience - Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank; 'Best Online Experience - Dubai Islamic Bank; 'Most Improved Bank - Ajman Bank; 'Most Improved Branch Experience - Commercial Bank International; 'Most Improved Call Centre Experience - Standard Chartered Bank; 'Most Improved Online Experience' - Sharjah Islamic Bank. In regional results, the National Bank of Kuwait was named the country's 'Overall Best Bank' while in Qatar the title went to QNB. In Oman the 'Best Bank' honour went to Bank Sohar, in Bahrain it went to HSBC Bahrain and to Al Rajhi Bank for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The full Retail Banking Benchmarking Study with specific reports on each bank and individual countries can be purchased from www.ethosplc.com
Meanwhile the 2015 UAE Service Olympians - from the government, finance, healthcare, telecoms, retail and aviation sectors - were selected from 180 entrants for 22 awards - including three which went to individuals who were judged to demonstrate the best customer service and leadership.
"Entries this year were significantly up on previous editions and the quality of application was excellent, better than ever and competition was very intense," said Keay. "Standards are rising, albeit not uniformly,however the judges agree the trend towards customer service in the UAE is clearly positive.
"There is an increasing focus on customer experience in both the public and private sector. This is not just a theoretical discussion, but they are taking actual measures to improve their customer experience delivery. Organisations are considering increasing their investments in customer experience delivery. They are implementing customer journey mapping initiatives and as a whole focusing more and more on the customer experience as a key success factor."
Two to three applicants were shortlisted for each award category, with the exception of the People's Choice Award, and then presented to representatives of the expert judging panel which included: Robert Keay; Philip Forrest, the Chairman of the European Business Awards and President of The International Customer Service Institute; Dr.Alaa Garad, Chairman of the Advisory Board, University of Salford UAE and CEO, Investors in People, UAE and Professor Adré Schreuder, founder and chairman of The South African Customer Satisfaction Index. The awards'benchmarks were based on key criteria of The Customer Experience Management Modelof The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI).
"Consideration was given to a number of influencing factors when reviewing the applicants' performance including the organisation's size, its available resources and application of them, the maturing of the sector in which they operate and their prevailing economic dynamics," explained Keay.
The 2015 winners are: Best Customer Experience Strategy - DIFC Courts; Best Customer Communication - Noor Bank; Best Complaint Management - Dubai Customs; Best Employee Engagement - Dubai Roads & Transport Authority; Best Customer Education - NMC Healthcare; Best Customer Engagement - Abu Dhabi Finance; Best Customer Journey Maps - Du; Best Use of Customer Measurement - Majid Al Futtaim Shopping Malls; Best Service Innovation - RAKBANK; Best Employee Learning Scheme - Dubai Airports; Best Customer Loyalty Programme - Paris Gallery; Best Customer Experience Measurement - Du; Best Mobile App - RAKBANK; Best Social Media Experience - Dubai Police; Best Use of Technology - Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre; Best Leadership Commitment - UAE Exchange; Best Leadership Commitment - Eng. Hassan M . Makki of Dubai Municipality; Best Call Centre - Dubai Islamic Bank; Best Contact Centre - Dubai Roads and Transport Authority; Best Customer Service Employee - Lamees Saleh - RAK Free Trade Zone; Distinguished Service Award For Contributing To Enhancing Customer Service in the UAE - Sabrina Coutu, retired from RAK Bank with Emirates Airline taking the People's Choice Award which was selected by public online voting in which it took 20% of the poll.
Robert Keay says the 2015 applications show that UAE companies and organisations are increasingly identifying key strategic elements which guide their corporate performance and behaviour and allow and motivate all of their supply chain partners to deliver an outstanding customer experience.
"Companies and organisations increasingly understand the commercial importance of the customer as the sole source of revenue and are designing programmes and processes necessary to allow and motivate all of their people and partners to achieve the objectives required to deliver an outstanding customer experience," said Keay.
"There appears to be policies in place - mainly in the public sector but the private sector is catching up - and resources required to ensure all supply chain stakeholders are implementing a comprehensive experience excellence strategy.
"They are also applying - mostly in the public sector but again the private sector is increasingly gaining ground - regular and comprehensive customer experience measures which act as drivers to inform the organisation's leaders, managers and staff of their level of performance and identify elements requiring improvement to sustain competitive or operational advantage in many parts of their supply chain.
"We hope by recognising those who are leading the customer service experience in the UAE, we will bring added momentum to the issue here."
For phone interviews with Robert Keay, please contact:
Rabia Rathore
Action Global Communications
Email: rabia.r@actionprgroup.com
Tel: +971 4 390 2960
About the Ethos Integrated Solutions' Retail Banking Customer Experience Benchmarking Index:
The Index, now a recognised strategic benchmarking tool, was launched in 2005 to give banks a methodology to benchmark service quality. The annual Index is carried out by a team of trained and experienced researchers who focus on real scenarios that a prospective customer would face when using a branch, call centre or website. Banks are evaluated on reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy using Ethos Integrated Solutions' proprietary value moments principles.
About Ethos Integrated Solutions:
Headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, Ethos Integrated Solutions has served the Arabian Gulf market for 11 years and is now the region's leading provider in delivering excellence for customer experience. To support its clients, this multi-award-winning company developed a range of Mystery Shopping, Customer Experience Training and Consultancy Solutions that help achieve sustainable competitive advantage in service quality. Ethos has a wealth of experience across a broad spectrum of industries in both the public and private Sectors. Existing clients enjoy easy access to information on their customer experience measurement and customer experience improvement projects using the Ethos range of unique e-Solutions.
For more information: www.ethosplc.com
© Press Release 2015
