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- National Bank of Kuwait, Royale Hayat, Lexus and Toyota are among the Top 10.
Kuwait: At the prestigious Chairman’s Club, Service Hero today celebrated the country’s best performing service providers at the Service Hero Customer Satisfaction Index Awards 2023. This marks the fourteenth year of running the region’s only consumer powered customer satisfaction index. This is part of the efforts Service Hero exerts to build a culture of service excellence where both brands and customers thrive. Besides category first place winners, the Top 10 Brand award was also given to the highest ranked brands in Kuwait earning over 80 points regardless of their category based on Service Hero’s Customer Satisfaction Index.
In her remarks at the awards ceremony, Faten Abu-Ghazaleh, President of Service Hero, said: “Based on our 14-years of 250,000 validated customer assessments, 2023 scored the highest in customer satisfaction in Kuwait all 20 categories. This proves that customer satisfaction has finally become a strategic tool for brands to continue to earn the loyalty of their customers and improve their performance. In the past, brands were less focused on service excellence and more absorbed with sales and operations, but today, we see that has shifted to customer satisfaction taking a more central role.”
“The deep insight collected across 20 categories and over 500 brands allow Service Hero’s Customer Satisfaction Index to be the benchmark for service excellence. With its Engagement Dashboard it provides brands with live insights on how to excel and flourish” she added.
In her talk, Ms. Abu-Ghazaleh shared 10 lessons learned from the index: 1) understanding how customer expectations relate to satisfaction, 2) transactions are moving to apps, 3) improvements are hard but worthwhile, 4) consistency in service is critical, 5) market share can be improved by offering good service, 6) responding to customer comments is health, 7) how customer loyalty is affected during a crisis.
Findings
The CSI measures three key service factors: expectations, overall satisfaction, and likelihood to recommend, as well as a number of service dimensions such as staff, location, product quality, value for money, speed, reliability, location, fixing complaints, call center, digital and delivery services. The highest scoring among these is location and delivery services while the lowest is value for money and speed of services.
Of the 20 industry sectors, Cafes, Banks, and New Car Sales recorded the highest customer satisfaction. Internet service providers (ISPs), private hospitals, and mobile operators ranked lowest in the index. Customers most satisfied with brands are non-Arabs, women, and those aged 30 to 49 with a diploma. Meanwhile, Kuwaitis, men and those aged 50-59 had the lowest satisfaction.
The index measures place of interaction and has seen a 25% growth in app-based interactions versus a drop of 6% for in-store or branch transactions since 2020.
The winners
At the Kuwait Service Hero Awards 2023, three types of recognition were made. First were for brands that one first place in their category but fell below the 80-points minimum threshold: Zain in ISPS, Zain in Mobile Operators, Home Center for Furniture, and Taw9eel for Delivery Apps. The top 12 category winners were also awarded for brands exceeding 80-points satisfaction. Finally, the top three country winners were awarded as follows: Pick Yo! the prestigious Gold Award, followed by Boubyan Bank with Silver and Mais Alghanim with the Bronze.
| Category First Place | Winning Brand |
| Lexus |
| Toyota |
| Boubyan |
| NBK |
| Emirates |
| Al Nasser |
| Best |
| Royale Hayat |
| Lulu |
| Coffee Bean & Tea leaf |
| Mais Alghanim |
| Pick Yo! |
| Top Ten Winners | Award |
| Coffee Bean & Tea leaf | Top Ten Winner |
| Arabica | Top Ten Winner |
| Jollibee | Top Ten Winner |
| Lexus | Top Ten Winner |
| NBK | Top Ten Winner |
| Emirates | Top Ten Winner |
| Qatar Airways | Top Ten Winner |
| Mais Alghanim | Bronze Winner |
| Boubyan | Silver Winner |
| Pick Yo! | Gold Winner |
Methodology
The Index is based on 24,978 validated assessments by consumers spanning both male and female genders and a broad range of age, nationality, and education levels. Kuwaitis accounted for 28% of respondents in the survey and other Arab nationalities at 36%, while non-Arabs constituted the remaining demographic.
Based in Kuwait, Service Hero manages is the only consumer powered customer satisfaction index in the Middle East. The company is a member of ESOMAR and adheres to the global organization’s principles and guidelines for self-regulation and ethical practice. Service Hero is overseen by an Independent Advisory Council to assure results that are impartial, objective, and accurately reflect consumers’ preference, making the company’s findings a credible benchmark that offers transparent and relevant insight for companies. It is comprised of academics and business professionals representing leading institutions and corporate establishments in Kuwait and the UAE, including the American University of Kuwait, Australian College of Kuwait. Since 2010, Service Hero has measured 250,000 validated consumer assessments covering more than 500 private sector companies.
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