Ask Afrika Orange Index looks at service in the entertainment and fast food industries.
Most people have very busy lives, so when it comes to fast food or entertainment, they want the service to be fast and effortless. Facilitating this takes a great deal of effort on the company’s part, from having the correct infrastructure and operational structures in place, to training of staff. This is however not enough to truly satisfy customers, expectations exceed the transactional encounter, excellent service is about an overall positive experience and honouring commitments. The entertainment and the fast food outlets industries did well in the 13th annual Ask Afrika Orange Index service delivery benchmark. The fast food outlets industry came second out of the 32 industries in Net Promoter Score (NPS) and sixth for Treating Customers Fairly (TCF).
Placed first in the sector and in the fast food outlet industry, KFC filled customers’ bellies and left them feeling good about being served, achieving 11th place overall out of 155 companies (industry winner in 2012). In addition to this wonderful achievement, KFC had the highest NPS in the industry, and was in second place in the industry for treating customers fairly (TCF).
Ster-Kinekor, Entertainment industry winner, gave customers star treatment, garnering 13th place overall. McDonalds made its customers smile, coming 14th overall, second in the Fast Food Outlet industry (industry winner in 2007), and third in the industry for treating customers fairly (TCF).
The Ask Afrika Orange Index is a unique South African customer satisfaction benchmark, established in 2001 and now measuring 32 industries and 155 companies. It is the broadest and most widely-referenced service excellence benchmark in South Africa, and not only measures service within industries, but across industries.
“This year the Ask Afrika Orange Index® saw the highest delight and satisfaction ratings, and the lowest dissatisfaction ratings ever. Winning companies performed significantly better on reputation and fairness,” says Sarina de Beer, MD of Ask Afrika.
Debonairs Pizza made sure customers had hot pizza and a warm fuzzy feeling coming 22nd overall and third in the industry (industry winner in 2011). Last year’s industry winner Steers, now fourth in the industry and 25th overall, was celebrated as the Fast Food industry leader in treating customers fairly (TCF). The Entertainment industry then made a showing with last year’s winner DStv (MultiChoice) achieving 34th place overall and second place in the industry (industry winners in 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013). SABC found its place in the spotlight, not far behind in 41st place overall and third in the industry.
“Over the last decade or so we have seen how central the Ask Afrika Orange Index customer service excellence benchmark has become in helping our organisation shape its customer delight philosophies. It’s pleasing to see what started as a very small idea, has now grown, and continues to drive customer service excellence, and maintain it at the heart of many organisations. I always look forward to this time of the year when the results get announced, as it affords all of us an opportunity to learn from each other. I look forward to another exciting year ahead, as we all strive to lift the quality of service we offer to our customers,” says Thabo Moabi, regional director for Southern Africa, at MultiChoice Africa.
“Service today is values based and authentic, differentiation requires innovation and pro-activeness. Service in itself contributes only 11% to loyalty, emotional satisfaction, meaningful engagement, and trust yield customer commitment,” says De Beer.
Nandos, known for its controversial advertising and unique brand identity, received the second highest NPS in the fast food outlet industry (industry winners in 2006 and 2010) and was placed fifth in the industry and 55th overall. Eleven places behind in the ranking was Chicken Licken, satisfying cravings in 66th position, and sixth in the industry.
“Differentiating service experiences is about customers expecting the unexpected. Customers expect the same innovation they experience on a product and marketing front to filter through to the service environment. Great service is not sufficient for loyalty and commitment, strong emotional satisfaction is imperative,” says De Beer.
Fishaways could perhaps learn to use service strategies better as bait to lure more customers, but still hooked 71st position overall and seventh in the industry. Entertainment companies then made an appearance in the rankings with e.tv in 75th position overall and fourth in the industry, and TOP TV, 77th overall and fifth in the industry. Wimpy, would really make customers enjoy every moment by revamping their service delivery strategy, and was placed 79th overall and 8th in the industry. Roman’s Pizza, achieved an impressive third place in the industry for NPS, but still has a lot of work to do on other service elements, and was placed 115th overall and ninth in the industry category (industry winners in 2008 and 2009).
The Ask Afrika Orange Index® is has a nationally representative sample of about 15 000 respondents and measures transactional performance, overall service, effort, treat customers fairly (TCF), first call resolution (FCR), emotional satisfaction, reputation dimension, trust, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It also measures emotional responses and not only rational experience, as emotions are typically more accurate and less ‘packaged’, and these responses correlate better with word-of-mouth, or a typical call to action. Loyalty is measured through the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
It includes ten of the most relevant service benchmarks and enables a 360 degree view of the company. This helps companies identify landscape changes, and it provides insights into the mass consumer trends informing service improvement strategies. The results of the Ask Afrika Orange Index survey are audited by BDO and sampling expert Dr Neethling.
Full research reports can be purchased from Ask Afrika, providing specific insights into a company’s performance, contextualising this into the industry context, and into the general service delivery landscape, both locally and globally.
