Service Hero Announces Its Annual Index Result UAE National Customer Satisfaction index scores 75.8 Service Hero's Customer Satisfaction Index finds declining customer satisfaction is threatening business growth Cafés, car sales, and electronics are the best performing sectors

Dubai, UAE, 6 February 2017– Service Hero, the region’s only consumer powered customer satisfaction index, revealed today that declining customer satisfaction is threatening business growth, this announcement came as the company released the results of its annual “Customer Satisfaction Index” for the UAE, which scored a total of 75.8 satisfaction rate.

The index is an annual assessment of the factors driving customer satisfaction. It also aims to set new standards for customer service region wide. The index carefully studies customers’ assessments of the services received in 17 sectors.

Cafés topped the list with a 80.4 satisfaction score out of 100 maximum points, while mobile operators fell to the bottom of it with a poor 65.5. Other industries that performed well were automotive sales, electronics, clothes and airlines.

>The results also reveal that customers’ expectations in the UAE are high, the average expectations exceed 80 points. “Residents of the UAE are used to receiving excellent customer service, something which they increasingly demand from businesses nowadays. It is the reason for customers deciding on seeking a new service provider if their needs and expectations were not met.” Says Faten Abu-Ghazaleh, President and Founder of Service Hero.

Faten believes that this is an indication to businesses to step up the game to ensure maintaining their business growth, “Businesses will start losing customers if they do not take these warning signs seriously and act upon them. Their business growth depends on this,” she added.

Interestingly, the Index findings also reveal that women are overall more satisfied than men, with a 77.4 satisfaction rate, and an81.8 expectancy rate, while men only scored 78 expectancy rate, and an overall 74.3 actual satisfaction rate.

Additionally, the index revealed that holders ofhigh school degrees are the most satisfied, as they scored a rate of81, while university degree holders scored 75.3 and Masters and PHD holders scored 72.3, this means that the more educated an individual is, the higher standards of customer service he expects!

In terms of dimensions of service, websites and call centers received the lowest rating among the individuals included in this index, while physical location service centers (attractiveness, convenience, parking access and timings) received a high rating. This indicates that businesses need to be investing more in their digital platforms, call centers and interaction points to match the level of service provided in their physical locations.

How it works

Service Hero is an online survey where respondents vote directly on www.servicehero.com and rate the quality of service they receive in private sector companies. The index measures 10 key service attributes on a 10-point rating scale on a before and after basis. Scores are then converted using an algorithm to a 100 point system to make reporting the scores easier to understand. The key focuses are: staff attitude, speed, location, value, reliability, product quality, call center, website, comparison to an ideal, and likelihood to recommend. Based on this 100% customer derived input, the index computes overall scores for each company based on all the attributes. It measures them across key industry categories including mobile operators, electronics, furniture, banking (both Islamic and conventional), healthcare, automotive (both new car purchase and car service), airlines and grocery stores, which are currently included for the UAE.  Amongst these industry categories are 315 UAE based brands which are automatically prelisted by the Service Hero index for their customers to rate their experiences with them.

Service Hero is the regional partner with the respected American Customer Satisfaction Index and also follows the research protocols of ESOMAR(European Society for Opinion and Market Research) to ensure adherence to international market research standards.

The results

Votes also provide industry averages and an overall country average, which can be compared on a global scale. For this report, the Service Hero Index collected over 18,510 authenticated consumer voices, in the UAE (for the UAE Index), covering 14 different business sectors. In the UAE, the assessments were collected from a sample comprised of 30% Kuwaitis, 37% Arabs and 33% Non-Arabs for Kuwait. Each category had a quota of 450 votes. The confidence level is 95% with a ± 2% error margin. A number of security measures were deployed of either technical nature to verify the authenticity of the voter, or later, at the data cleansing stage, to remove any suspicious data.

About Service Hero
Service Hero adheres to ESOMAR principles (the European Society of Opinion & Market Research). It aims to collect a robust and rigorous sample exceeding 10,000 validated assessments that reflect key demographic groups. Assessments are predominantly collected online asking 24questions using a 10-point scale, and it deploys key processes before reporting validated and authenticated data to ensure its integrity. All scores are vetted by the well-respected American Customer Satisfaction Index, who is Service Hero’s partner in the Arab world. Results are also overseen by an independent Advisory Council in each country. In the UAE advisors include the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the Institute of Social & Economic Research of Zayed University, and Abu-Dhabi University. In Kuwait advisors include the American University of Kuwait, Gulf University of Science & Technology, the Australian College of Kuwait, and the Kuwait Community College as well as neutral professionals from leading organizations, including, the Boston Consulting Group, and Noor Investment Co.

© Press Release 2017