Articles 2004

Press Release July 2004 - Results

The Campus, Bryanston – July 16, 2004 –The 2004 SAS Index™ results are official and it seems that the cellular industry is leading the pack. Vodacom, First National Bank and Sanlam are the companies in South Africa who enjoy the highest customer satisfaction ratings in their respective industries. Sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti), the study is an annual initiative to encourage competitiveness across industries. It is consumer-driven, objective, neutral, and comparative in achieving this. In addition unlike similar ‘benchmark’ offerings, SAS Index™ is comparable to the American (ACSI) and European (EPSI) studies. Results show that the South African customers are again more satisfied than their counterparts in Europe and America.

This is the third year that the study has been conducted. While improvements were evident from 2001 to 2003, the significant improvements reported in the 2004 study are worthy of mention.

Looking at the industries individually, the ranking of the players in the telecommunications industry remained consistent. However the industry as a whole showed a 5.5 percentage point improvement. Although Telkom showed a substantial improvement ahead of the launch of the second fixed-line operator, it is not yet judged to be delivering the same level of performance as the more competitive cellular industry, as well as lagging behind the banks. However, Telkom is doing significantly better than the telecommunication industry in both Europe and America in satisfying its customers. Vodacom and MTN continue to lead the telecommunications field, but Cell C is well on track to challenge the more established players on service levels. Vodacom and MTN are producing the sort of satisfaction levels that one would expect from global players, making their results even more significant.

The banking results confirmed the success of the dti’s investment in this research in improving service levels. Significant levels of improvement were reported by all of the ‘Big Four’. FNB and Standard Bank remain slightly out of the reach of Nedbank and ABSA, with their improvements setting a new benchmark for competitors in the banking industry. As was the case last year, South African customers remain more satisfied than banking customers in America and Europe.

It is very likely that the publishing of these customer satisfaction results in previous years have helped to spur banking and telecommunications on towards better levels of service. This may be one of the reasons for the new entrant, long term insurance industry trailing behind banking and telecommunications. Interestingly, perhaps because of the highly competitive nature of the industry, little separated the top LTI performer (Sanlam) from the least well received (Liberty Life).

The entrenched positions of the leaders in banking and telecommunications were affirmed by their achieving the highest proportions of delighted customers across some 27 measured critical drivers of customer satisfaction and delight.

As this research becomes increasingly established and recognised as the benchmark for decision-makers, consumers and all other stakeholders, the study will continue to be published annually. In addition when results are compared globally to the American (ACSI) and European (EPSI) studies, it will provide a benchmark against which customer delights and complaints may be compared to other industries across the globe. Consumers and investors therefore have access to comparative levels of service delivery in support of informed decision-making.

The study will be rolled out across all major industries in South Africa in the near future. This measurement of all industries will then serve to provide both local and international comparisons to fuel the ongoing drive of local businesses to achieve world class customer satisfaction.

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For information: http://www.sas-index.co.za or Phone: (011) 709 7800, San-Marie Aucamp san-marie.aucamp@synovate.com, John Nagel john.nagel@synovate.com

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