Results 2004

Final Results 2004

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 more discussion.

Overall Ranking Graph

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

Excellence vs Dissatisfaction
A slightly different way of looking at the results is to examine the variety of responses. The table below demonstrates some of these differences and here, the scores are ranked on what is called the 'Excellence Index'. This index is a measure of the proportion of people who rated the service that they received as 9/10 or 10/10. This score is most useful, however, if it is compared to the Dissatisfaction Index which reflects the proportion of people who rated the service that they received as being 5/10 or less.

A service provider who is delivering consistently high levels of service will have a high Excellence Index and a low Dissatisfaction Index. A service provider that is scoring well on the Excellence Index but with a relatively high Dissatisfaction Index score is offering inconsistent service i.e. sometimes very good and sometimes very poor. Where the Excellence Index is low and the Dissatisfaction Index is high, service delivery is generally poor.

The Excellence and Dissatisfaction Indices are reflected in the table below, together with the overall SAS Index™ score.

	SAS Index™ Score	Excellence Index	Dissatisfaction Index
Vodacom	86.0	69.6	7.9
MTN	84.8	65.9	8.9
CellC	82.7	59.1	9.4
Metropolitan Life	79.1	58.0	14.3
FNB	82.7	57.1	6.9
African Life	79.4	54.3	11.2
Sanlam	80.8	52.0	9.9
Old Mutual	80.2	51.5	11.5
Standard Bank	82.0	50.4	6.2
Telkom	79.2	49.4	12.0
ABSA	79.8	48.8	9.4
Nedbank	80.6	48.7	8.7
Liberty Life	78.8	41.7	10.7

The impact of SAS Index™
The question that was a priority in the minds of the participants in the survey was around the industry improvements in service that the measurement supported. The graphs below demonstrate the significant impact on the performance of the two industries included in the survey for the last three years.

Performance in both the Telecommunications and Banking industries has improved markedly and this shows, quite clearly, that SAS Index™ has indeed delivered.

Historical Comparison : Telecommunications Graph

Historical Comparison : Banking Graph

Continued improvements in these industries will become less easy to achieve as companies near ideal performance levels and as customer expectations increase. However, the companies involved have proved they are up to the challenge. SAS Index™ has been expanded to include other industries and sectors, amongst them the Long Term Insurance Industry. The industry is highly competitive by nature so it is expected that repeat measures in this industry will report similar levels of improvement as those experienced in the banking and telecommunications industries.

The Telecommunications Sector
Whilst the customers in this sector have enjoyed real improvements in service delivery, a marked shift in the makeup of the customer base may have made a partial contributed to the improvement. With the increased number of pre-paid customers in the cellular industry, expectations are considerably lower than recorded in the previous study.

Ranking : Telecommunications Graph

The primary increase relates to perceptions of value, where the score rose from a level of 70.3% in 2003 to 76.8% in 2004. Remarkable increases were furthermore recorded in loyalty with loyalty figures increasing from 79.3% to 85.3%, confirming that increasing satisfaction levels do in fact increase loyalty levels among customers.

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. Interestingly, Telkom is performing 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.

The Banking Sector
The banking results also confirmed the wisdom of the dti’s investment in this research. Significant levels of improvement were reported by all of the ‘Big Four’. Overall satisfaction with the industry has improved by about 3.6 percentage points since the previous reading. Nevertheless the ranking of the banks under review did not change – First National Bank again achieved highest satisfaction levels (for the third year), with Standard Bank achieving a similar score (only 0.7 percentage points behind FNB).

Ranking : Banking Graph

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.

Customer expectations in the banking industry are relatively high. In addition, customers' perceptions of value in the banking industry are noticeably lower than those in the telecommunications sector. It would therefore be fair to say that customers are still not experiencing the real levels of satisfaction with the banking industry when it is compared with the telecommunication industry. Value for money is the factor that emerges as a real concern in the banking industry. Nevertheless, the banking industry still enjoys high levels of customer satisfaction and retains a high proportion of loyal customers.

Long Term Insurance
The new entrant has scored relatively well when compared to the banking and telecommunications industries. There is certainly room for improvement over the next year, however, and the players in this industry are sure to take up the challenge. Based on these results, service is not yet a differentiator in this industry. Future improvement potential for the long term insurance industry lies in general aspects such as the handling of queries, communication and correspondence. Focus on these issues would result in an improvement in score over the period to follow but efforts will have to be monitored and sustained.

An encouraging sign for the Long Term Insurance industry is that some of the players have already demonstrated levels of performance that compare favourably with their banking counterparts. Sanlam for example enjoys sixth position in the overall ranking with a score that would have put them in first position in 2003.

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