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Cape Town - South Africans are very happy with their smartphones, research released on Wednesday revealed.
According to South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi), brands overall scored 77.2 out of a maximum 100.
Apple led the index with 82.7, followed by Nokia (78.9), Samsung (78.8) and BlackBerry (70.6).
Despite Apple leading the brand index, it still fell short of customer expectations.
"Apple customers have high expectations but report that the brand falls just short of their expectations in terms of reliability. In fact, customer expectations of Apple iPhones are the highest we’ve encountered across various brands and industries at 88 out of 100," said Professor Adré Schreuder, founder of SAcsi and CEO of Consulta.
Complaints
The index revealed that customers complained the most about BlackBerry smartphones, yet the brand scored high in terms of handing complaints.
All brands except Samsung increased in the number of complaints, said Schreuder, but though the South Korean manufacturer reduced its complaints by 10%, it dropped 17.5 points for the handing of those issues.
"This could be related to the fact that in the South African context, consumers don't interact directly with the manufacturers," Schreuder said by way of explanation.
The survey also indicated that in terms of Net Promoter Scores (NPS) - the likelihood that customers will recommend a brand - Apple again topped the NPS list, while BlackBerry scored the least.
"With every new handset release, the marketing is intense and this raises expectations. As customers get more familiar with the technology, they also expect more from their handsets," Schreuder said.
Internationally, mobile phone satisfaction in SA trails the UK (79) and US (78).
The survey was carried out with 2 105 consumers between March and May 2015.
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