Customer Satisfaction Index – Which Clothing Stores Satisfy You?

Yesterday, the latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) was released, revealing which of our country’s clothing retailers got the highest and lowest ratings for brand satisfaction, according to consumers.

As always, Woolworths and Pepstores got the highest ratings, although Ackermans gave these invariably popular retailers a run for their money, proving to be a close contender.

Loyalty, Expectations and the Ideal

Observing the components that make up the total satisfaction score, Ackermans and Pep Stores markedly snagged top loyalty scores, as compared to other well-known clothing brands.

Investors should keep a close eye on Ackermans and Pep Stores this year, as these brands nabbed leading scores for exceeding customer expectations and overall customer satisfaction. Though, on the whole, customers clearly feel Woolworths are the closest fit to an ideal clothing retailer.

Other leading retailers gauged by the customer satisfaction index were Mr Price, Edgars, Truworths and Jet. Below are the scores these clothing brands received, out of 100.

1. Woolworths – 81.2

2. Ackermans – 80.9

3. Pep Stores – 80.2

4. Truworths – 78.1

5. Mr Price – 76.8

6. Jet – 76.5

7. Edgars – 75.7

Price vs. Quality – Value for Money

With the two lowest scores, customer satisfaction with Jet and Mr Price took a considerable knock, as compared to their 2014 scores.

Naturally, customer satisfaction with retailers was influenced by the acceleration in consumer price inflation from 4.7% in June, to 5% in July y/y, as clothing prices rise.

Nonetheless, these customer satisfaction figures may indicate that consumers don’t feel as though certain retailers are providing them with value for their money.

Complaints, Customer Service and Comparisons

2 189 customers were surveyed for this current SAcsi and, evidently, customers feel Pep Stores deliver good value for money, supplying quality clothing at reasonable prices.

As a measure of the clothing retail industry index, only +/-8% of customers made complaints. Of these, most related to customer service, indicating that retailers need to focus on improving their service standards.

An American Customer Satisfaction Index (Acsi) license entitles SAcsi to do global customer satisfaction comparisons. Interestingly, SAcsi measured that UK and SA customer satisfaction with clothing retailers is identical, though our score is 1 point lower than the US.