Faten Abu Ghazaleh
In October of last year the Service Hero team was anxious; it was introducing the first national customer satisfaction index based purely on online consumer feedback in the Arab world. The survey had an ambitious target to meet. In just thirty days, a minimum of 6000 valid votes would be needed for hundreds of brands spanning the fifteen key private sector industries in Kuwait. For the next thirty days all team members became addicted to checking the latest vote status on the online administration platform. The challenges faced were great: launching a new brand, penetrating the online arena in Kuwait, and finally creating a new paradigm – a customer satisfaction index administered by a neutral third party and based purely on consumer online feedback.
Statistical background
The customer satisfaction index (SHCSI) aimed at the outset to ensure a rigorous sample that represented all consumer segments in Kuwait. To do that, three main activities needed to be mastered. The first was collecting data for Kuwait’s population broken down by nationality, age group, and gender to determine the total eligible population of voters. The second was to compile market data for the different industries, the number of competing brands in each, and the legacy as well as market share of key brands. This was required in order to determine the required minimum sample sizes to ensure an error margin across categories within a plus or minus five percent range at a ninety-five percent confidence level. Finally, the last task was collecting statistics on the online community in the country – its size, penetration, the profile of users, key sites visited, etc. This was required to make a statistical assumption on the online community’s size, and likelihood to vote as well as to formulate an approach to reach them. A final revision of this data was then made with an eye to ensure minimal sample bias and errors in data.
The use of social media
What worked to the advantage of the Service Hero team was the high level of internet penetration in Kuwait, estimated at over [i]40%, coupled with the statistics that Kuwait has amongst the highest per capita Facebook users[ii]. The challenge however was making the assessment engaging enough for ordinary people to take the trouble to (1) register on the survey website, (2) select the industry and brand they want to assess, (3) give feedback and later on (4) confirm or validate their email, a condition to validate and count the assessment.
Early on, the team came up with an online strategy that covered key digital communities in order to reach out to them. The use of e-mail shots was ruled out from the outset due to their junk-mail nature. Instead, an integrated approach using social media, online banners, and the active blogger community was launched in both Arabic (the primary language in Kuwait) as well as in English (to reach the expatriate non-Arabic speaking community).
Consumer engagement and excitement
The call to action when addressing consumers was all about empowerment. The message “good service, bad service, tell us” and also “your vote makes a difference” where used and aimed for immediate resonance with consumers. During the evaluation period, blog posts were made detailing the chance to finally tell companies how they can improve. Service Hero even reported receiving emails from consumers indicating their appreciation for finally having a platform on which to give feedback on service in the country. And the three minute survey, which was predominantly a rating assessment, also became a tool for change, giving consumers a feeling of empowerment as they could also type in feedback in their own words.
In addition to online paid banners on search engines and high-traffic Kuwait websites, key social media sites such as Facebook were critical to getting a voter community. The communication approach avoided blasting possible respondents with company-driven messages, but instead aimed to post teasing or humorous messages to pique the interest of visitors. High traffic websites such as news sites, search engines and other commercial sites were instrumental to building respondent traffic. But the twist and the power of online communication, was the ability to change the message – both visual and verbal (including language) – in order to increase the success of converting visitors to voters. For example, if a business category needed more votes to ensure statistical rigor, messages could be altered. The team made immediate changes such as: using an image targeted towards females or males, when to rely on Arabic or English, and when to show a product related image (e.g. car or cell phone) or using typography to drive traffic.
The campaign’s success ultimately was in its ability to exceed its target. Rather than collect 6000 valid votes, 10,000 votes were collected during the period which were then data checked and lead to the removal of 1300 votes for not meeting the assessment criteria previously committed by the team.
What was measured in the SHCSI?
The index covered 15 private sector industries (cafes, casual dining, fine dining, fast food, retail clothes, home furniture, local airlines, banks, hospitals, electronics, internet service providers (ISPs), mobile phone operators, new car and car service centres). SHCSI scores were based on a ten point scale and the model measured eight key dimensions of service: reliability, speed, product quality, value for money, location of offering, staff quality, call centre, and website (Note the last two dimensions where only measured for industries where this platform was an integral part of its consumer offering). Customers were asked to rank their expected satisfaction level in each dimension before receiving the service, and then ranked their actual satisfaction level after receiving the service. This allowed the SHCSI to determine gaps between consumer expectations and actual service. The index also measured loyalty in two ways – the Net Promoter Score as well as the loyalty score (on a scale of 1-10). Finally, all this data was calculated to produce an index score for each industry category and by key demographic group.
The high-level findings
The SHCSI enabled the team to provide country-level data for the first time which was the average of all 8 service dimensions. Overall Kuwait was found to be in the moderate range scoring a 7.8 in terms of consumer expectations and 7.68 in terms of actual satisfaction scores. The gap of 0.13 was expected, statistically valid and within international norms. In terms of the service dimensions, satisfaction was found to be highest on more tangible elements such as the website, and the physical location. Satisfaction was lowest on value for money as well as call centers service levels.
Finally, in terms of how the industries ranked overall, the highest scoring were three out of the four restaurant categories that were measured: café’s, casual and fine dining. In the middle were banks, airlines, and some retail stores. At the bottom of the satisfaction list were mobile operators, car service, ISPs and hospitals – all of which suggest have more complex business models to manage.
Value to consumers, value to the economy
With the results of SHCSI, consumers in Kuwait now know who the service leader is in each category. They also have a platform to rate and assess service levels of the brands that they deal with. Companies on the other hand, have access to a uniform assessment of brands, their position versus competitors, what different demographic groups said about them, and which ones are loyal. Because the reports list the strengths and weaknesses of brands among their peers, it can provide recommendations for companies to improve – and by doing so, overtime, raise the service level in the country overall.
Having produced the first annual assessment, not only do private companies and individual consumers benefit from the results, but so does the country. Researchers, economists, financial analysts and international entities concerned with the economy and commercial standards in a country can delve into the data to learn more about the status of the economy. And with future iterations, trends can be tracked to help predict future performance on the level of the economy, business categories, and individual companies.
Lessons from deploying an online research model
The online research model deployed by the team taught us some lessons which can be used by other researchers in different countries. The first is to make the survey engine platform-agnostic – ensure the survey can be completed among various online models from the main website, social media sites and smart phones. The second is regarding language – while English is important, the official national language of a country is the predominant driver (in this case, Arabic). The use of message and visuals is instrumental to getting people to participate – smiling faces work better than sad faces in an online banner. Be transparent in order to build credibility with your community – say what you are going to do, and stick to your commitments. Service Hero had communicated well in advance the methodology, questionnaire and sample sizes that were targeted and had engaged an independent Advisory Council including neutral professionals and academics to oversee the results. Do your homework well in advance – this means sample sizes, user habits, the overall population size. And finally, make the survey is brief – more than 5 minutes online is way too long and you will lose both accuracy and overall responsiveness.
The team at Service Hero is once again excited as it makes plans to run the assessment for 2011 and enlarge the scope of the categories evaluated and the platforms for evaluation. Mobile phones, social networks and life-style tools that consumers interact on will be targeted for widening its reach and engaging them on assessing service standards.
Faten Abu Ghazaleh is President of Service Hero
[i] Source: http://www.middleeastdirectory.com/int-usage.htm
[ii] Source: http://www.checkfacebook.com/
