Service Hero, Kuwait’s only annual customer satisfaction index, today revealed the top three companies nominated in each of the 16 industry categories, based on customers’ feedback and insight provided during the six month-long assessment Sampling Phase.

The sampling phase, which took place between July 1 and December 31, 2013, was made easy and practical for a record breaking 14,575 customers to take part in the survey and voice their opinions by utilizing the company’s website, social media channels and the creation of a dedicated application for smart phones, said a senior official.

This was followed by a ‘Findings and Analysis’ phase, where the Service Hero team conducted quality checks, validated results and then formulated all the votes to create inclusive reports to discern the top-ranking companies in each category.

The different categories leaders will be announced during the Service Hero's annual awards ceremony to be held on February 17 at Hotel Missoni.

Service Hero president Faten Abu-Ghazaleh said: "The 2013 assessment results show that casual dining, clothes, furniture, retail banks and fine dining represent the strongest industry categories, followed by café’s, new cars sales, Islamic banks, airlines, car service and supermarkets."

The categories that recorded the lowest totals were electronics, ISP’s, telecom operators, private hospitals, fast food and health clubs, she revealed.

According to her, the 2013 exercise attracted a record 14,575 customer assessments, where participants shared their experience about services they acquire and products they buy.

"This year’s assessment has also witnessed a three per cent improvement in customer satisfaction comparing to 2010, which is, in itself, an achievement,” she added.

The three Service Hero nominees in each category are (in alphabetical order):

*Cafe - Caribou Coffee, Costa Coffee, Starbucks
*Car Service - Chevrolet, Infiniti, Toyota
*Casual Dining - Mais Alghanim, PF Chang’s, TGI Friday’s
*Clothes-American Eagle, H&M, Marks & Spencer
*Electronics- Electrozan Eureka, X-cite, Alghanim Electronics
*Fast Food - Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Subway
*Fine Dining - Al Noukhaza Seafood restaurant, Ayam Zaman (Holiday Inn), Sakura Japanese Restaurant (Crowne Plaza)
*Home Furniture - IKEA, Home Center, Safat Alghanim
*Islamic Banks - Ahli United Bank,    Boubyan Bank, Kuwait Finance House
*Internet Service Provider - KEMS, Viva, Zain
*Mobile Operators - Viva, Wataniya, Zain
*New car sale - Chevrolet, Nissan,    Toyota
*Private Hospitals - Al Salam Hospital, Dar Al-Shifa Hospital, Royale Hayat Hospital
*Regional Arab airline - Emirates, Jazeera Airways and Qatar Airways
*Retail Bank - Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Burgan Bank, National Bank of Kuwait
*Super Market - Carrefour, Lulu Hypermarket, The Sultan Center

Each industry category was measured across up to eight service dimensions, which are reliability, speed, product quality, staff quality, value for money, location, call center and website quality.

These dimensions are assessed on a 'before and after experience' basis to evaluate the difference between customer expectations of service and actual satisfaction with the service. Service Hero adheres to ESOMAR principles (the European society of opinion and market research).

Looking forward to 2014, Abu-Ghazaleh said: “The 2014 assessment is now available on the company’s website www.servicehero.com, through social media channels and also as a smart phone application. Customers can now vote throughout the year, providing them with even more time to record and express their experiences and rate the services and products they are using and purchasing.”-TradeArabia News Service