Fast food industry achieves high customer satisfaction score

SAcsi is a national economic indicator of customer satisfaction in the quality of products and services available to household consumers in South Africa. The data for this release was collected between February and March 2013 using both telephonic and web-based surveys.

Industry leaders - Debonairs, Chicken Licken

The brands included in the survey were Debonairs, Chicken Licken, KFC, McDonald's and Steers, based on their market share and geographic footprint. The survey results in the fast food industry contained a surprise for analysts who have named three industry leaders. Debonairs and Chicken Licken both scored 3.2% above industry average and McDonald's scored 2.5% above industry average. Steers scored on par with the industry average. KFC scored 3.7% below industry average.

"Having three industry leaders simply indicates that there is very little differentiation between the fast food outlets in the eyes of their customers," says Prof. Adré Schreuder, founder and chair of SAcsi.

Relative to the international ACSI scores, South Africa's fast food industry ranked second in the world, with the US serving as the international benchmark. US consumers gave their fast food industry a score of 80 out of 100. SA customer satisfaction scores were higher than the UK (74) and Turkey (75) in this category. South African customers are more satisfied than McDonald's and Burger King customers in the US and Starbucks customers in the UK.

Schreuder commended the fast food industry for achieving a high customer satisfaction score and encouraged them to maintain a customer-centric focus. "Our industry players have done well, but as South African consumers are becoming more savvy and keep raising their expectations of brands, South African companies should not become complacent," he said.

International benchmark

SAcsi holds a licence with the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), and now forms part of a growing number of ACSI-licensed partner countries worldwide, which allows South Africa to compare its industries' customer satisfaction with this global community.

The model combines three drivers of customer satisfaction: customer expectations, perceived quality and perceived value. The calculated customer satisfaction index is statistically linked to two outcomes: customer complaints and customer loyalty. The industry model can predict the outcome of changes in customer loyalty with a great degree of accuracy.

"Through this proven methodology, SAcsi aims to be the voice of the customers to the major industry players in the South African market," says Schreuder.

The desired outcome for any customer-centric company is customer loyalty, which is the pinnacle of the SAcsi model. "The SAcsi model provides companies with metrics that indicate the drivers of customer satisfaction-the ultimate driver of customer loyalty-and which of these drivers can best be leveraged to ultimately improve customer loyalty. Across the board, South African fast food companies have relatively good customer loyalty scores," says Schreuder.

Research methodology

Each company was measured through telephonic and web-survey methods at a statistically reliable sample of at least 270 respondents per company. For the fast food industry the total sample was 1473 randomly selected respondents who visited the fast food outlets measured in this survey. This sample provided a 2% error margin on a 90% confidence interval.

Customer satisfaction is measured using an advanced statistical model that has been rigorously evaluated, in line with the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology.

Summaries of the industry level reports are available on www.sacsi.co.za.