Demanding consumers expect better service in short and long term insurance industries
Ask Afrika Orange Index 2006
The top ranking companies in South Africa according to overall customer service and delight was announced in Ask Afrika's Orange Index last week and the results were in stark contrast to last year which found the long and short term insurance industries ranking first and second place respectively. This year, however, food retail and petrochemical sectors were rated tops in the survey, while short-term insurance company, OUTsurance took 14th place overall and long-tem insurance company, Sanlam, was rated 22nd in terms of overall customer satisfaction and delight.
The survey, which was conducted telephonically by Ask Afrika's Stellenbosch based call centre, saw over 6000 South African consumers participating and took less than two months to complete. In addition, the survey was broken down into 12 industry sectors, where the 65 top companies in the country were evaluated. Within the short-term insurance sector, OUTsurance was the winner, followed by Santam, Mutual & Federal, Auto & General, and finally, Dial Direct.
Angelo Haggiyannes, Director at Auto & General, believes that customer service has always played the biggest role in customer retention. "Despite what many believe that price is the most important deciding factor in choosing a short-term insurance, we believe that its a combination of the product offering as well as proven high service levels. To this end, during early last year, we introduced a Client Service Charter, a first in the industry, in terms of which we not only make certain promises to our clients, but also place penalties upon ourselves, should we not fulfil our promises."
In the long-term insurance sector, Sanlam received top rating, followed by Old Mutual, Momentum, Liberty Life, SA Eagle, and finally Hollard Insurance.
Hazel Lerman, Divisional Director of Group Customer Relations at Liberty Life, says, "Customers are our lifeblood and all employees need to ensure that our valued customers enjoy a positive customer experience when dealing with Liberty Life. Customer satisfaction is essential for sustainability as well as maintaining a competitive advantage.""Customers are our lifeblood, and all employees need to ensure that our valued customers enjoy a positive customer experience when dealing with Liberty Life. Customer satisfaction is essential for sustainability as well as maintaining a competitive advantage".
According to Senior Business Analyst at Ask Afrika, Maria Petousis, the shift from last years results can be attributed to the fact that consumers have become more demanding and astute. "SA consumers have become spoilt for choice so they have become far more sophisticated in terms of their service expectations. The market leaders of yesterday have unfortunately fallen behind and haven't kept up with global trends that demand more customer-centric strategies."
The Ask Afrika Orange Index has also shown that loyalty is an outdated concept with the consumer and that organisations should rather look at customer intention in terms of retention rather than loyalty. According to Ask Afrika, the Indexs results show that whether the customer will stay with an organisation is a much better indicator because loyalty provides a false sense of security to an organisation while intention is more long term and leaves more scope for building relationships. Something, it seems, that is all too lacking within the insurance sector.
