Research company
Ask Africa has recently released the
Orange Index for 2008. The index benchmarks service excellence across a range of industries and companies in South Africa.
The top performer in the Orange Index Service Excellence Benchmark this year was Medihelp, with a score of 75,33%. Medihelp also came out tops in the medical aid industry. Second overall was newcomer Miladys, and in third place came Woolworths Food. In fourth place came short-term insurer Santam, and two-times winner Pep Stores dropped to fifth place. Below is a table of the top ten service excellence performers and their rankings from last year:
Anton Rijen, CEO of
Medihelp, claims that its success can be contributed to the company’s vision, strategic management and dedicated staff. “Medihelp’s executive and board of trustees realised a long time ago that client service is one of the most important aspects of a successful business. That’s especially so in the healthcare industry, where client service has become a distinguishing factor between medical schemes,” says Rijen.
Over the past three years, the retail industry has been the most consistent in outperforming its competitors, with the short-term insurance and airline industries offering the most consistent customer service. On the other hand, the banks and telecommunications industries have offered the least consistent customer service.
The index is important for industries and companies to see how they compare with one another on the customer service front. Poor performance of industries/companies as a whole can be attributed partly to their inconsistency in delivering good customer service. Customers’ needs and expectations constantly change, so it is important for businesses to constantly address what it is their customers want and expect.
