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Woolies tops in supermarket satisfaction

Cape Town - Woolworths Holdings [JSE:WHL] has emerged as the industry leader in a customer satisfaction survey, with Shoprite Holdings [JSE:SHP] achieving the lowest satisfaction rating.

This is according to the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) released on Thursday.

South African consumers gave supermarkets an overwhelming vote of support with a customer satisfaction score of 79 out of 100, the index found.

The supermarkets measured were Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Spar, Checkers and Shoprite, all of which were selected by market share.

Woolworths is the leader of the pack, with a score measuring 6.2% above the industry average satisfaction rate. Pick n Pay, Spar and Checkers achieved a rating on par with the industry customer satisfaction score.

Shoprite’s score was just below par (-2.4%).

The overall customer satisfaction score is influenced by a number of factors, one of which is customer expectations of the brand prior to an experience with it. Woolworths customers have the highest level of expectation among those measured, which makes the retailer’s top satisfaction score even more of an achievement. 

The customer satisfaction score recorded for Woolworths is the highest current score for comparable supermarkets in the USA (Publix: 82) and in the UK (Waitrose: 83).

“South African customers rated our supermarkets higher in customer satisfaction (79) than supermarket customers in the USA (77) or the UK (75).

"South African supermarkets are second only to Greece, which recorded a score of 80,” says Professor Adré Schreuder, founder and chair of SAcsi.

Another factor in the survey is the customer’s perceived value, which is a customer’s perception of the quality given the price, and the price given the quality.

Interestingly, a different picture emerged on the issue of perceived value, as Checkers and Shoprite both showed higher levels of perceived value than the other supermarkets measured.

Woolworths reported a high customer loyalty score, with Pick n Pay and Checkers also showing high customer loyalty ratings.

Caltex and Shell top petrol station rankings

Petroleum service stations were also rated by their customers and received 81 out of 100, South Africa’s highest customer satisfaction industry score to date.

The fuel service stations measured were BP, Caltex, Engen, Sasol, Shell and Total, all of which were selected by market share.

Caltex and Shell share the industry leader position by scoring 3.4% and 0.9% respectively above the average satisfaction score.

Engen and Sasol achieved a rating on par with the industry score, while Total and BP both scored below par with scores 1.5% and 1.8% respectively below industry average.

Schreuder said Caltex and Shell can attribute their industry leader position to the fact that their customers have a higher perceived value of them than clients of the other petroleum service stations.

“Perceptions play an integral role in customer satisfaction, and it is interesting to see that although there is no price differentiation between petroleum service stations in terms of the fuel price, customers perceive the value that they receive from the various service stations differently,” he said.

“This means that perceived value at fuel service stations is influenced by elements other than the price of fuel,” Schreuder said.

Once again, South African customers showed the highest satisfaction (81) with fuel service stations in comparison to the countries where their fuel industry is measured, which includes top rated countries Turkey (76), UK (75), USA (73) and South Korea (70).


 
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