| Customer Satisfaction |
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EPSI Rating International Benchmark trends for Customer Satisfaction
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EPSI, Extended Performance Satisfaction Index, is an economic indicator based on modeling of customer assessment of the quality of goods and services purchased in European and other countries. It reflects causes and consequences of customer satisfaction and their mutual relationships. EPSI is an important indicator of economic performance, both for individual firms and on the industry and national economy levels. It is related to leading indicators that are able to predict consumer spending and stock -market growth.
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Background of EPSI 2009 study |
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In the following we report the main results by country and industry/ sector for the EPSI studies in fall 2009 (the dominant part of interviews done September to December 2009) as well as results on the development of the consumer sentiment during this period. The current results are compared with previous years whenever possible. |
Harmonized questionnaires for the empirical work are developed within the EPSI-initiative. Data collection is done based on telephone interviews to more than 900,000 respondents in year 2009 (both final consumers and corporate customers). |
International comparisons and benchmarks
- the bottom line
Customer satisfaction and perceived quality are measured in all Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as in a number of other European countries (like Russia, Czech Republic and Greece). The following changes in national EPSI and Consumer Sentiment Index attract attention this year:
The overall satisfaction in most of observed countries demonstrates either stability or slight recovery - with Lithuania, Greece and Russia as collapse exceptions. |
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Lithuania, Greece and Russia present the biggest drop (more than 3 scores) in Customer Satisfaction in 2009. |
The least satisfied customers live in Russia, Greece and Norway. |
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The gap between European countries Customer Satisfaction is going up, breaking the aligning trend of the last few years. |
The happiest customers enjoy staying in Finland (74.1), Lithuania (71.7) and Latvia (71.1). |
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Customers in Sweden show the most steady raise in Satisfaction, without big ups and dramatic downs, climbing at 0.5 scores annually, that allowed Satisfaction Index to reach European level in 2007 and to continue to exceed it in 2008 and 2009. |
Satisfaction of Finnish customers improved significantly (+3.1 units) and recovered to the historical top level with the score higher than 74; |
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Satisfaction for Banking, Insurance and Broadband drops sharply while the trend for Mobility and retail trade is less negative. The biggest fall from 72.2 in 2008 to 66.8 in 2009 - is reported for Insurance, where Satisfaction decreased to 2004-year level. |
The four main North European/Nordic telecom provider TDC, Telenor, Tele2 and TeliaSonera with their respective brands in different markets have been studied over the last few years, Among these Pan-Nordic/International Telecom companies, TeliaSonera performs best also in 2009, followed by Tele 2, TDC and Telenor. It is worth noting that none of the main providers is the customer favourite in every country and segment. |
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Among the major Nordic and North European banking groups, Handelsbanken has the most satisfied customers. They are also on top in loyalty based on the EPSI survey results. The distance to the second contender is now increased. |
Among Nordic Insurance groups measured in three or more countries TrygVesta is scored highest by their customers also in 2009. If has had the best improvements on average and is now approaching the top contenders in a number of markets, according to their respective customers. |
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The financial turmoil has hit the satisfaction among corporate banking customers harder than is the case in the final consumer segment. Denmark and the Baltic States are the countries where the satisfaction (and trust) has gone down most during the last year. |
Citizens of Denmark, and Sweden have the most optimistic outlook at their respective national economy for the coming year 2010 among those studies for a series of periods, while other nationalities are more sceptical in varying degrees. |
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Especially notable that the financial turmoil has not in any significant way reduced satisfaction with public service activities (except in Denmark and Lithuania to a certain degree). Finland has, according to its citizens, the highest satisfaction in Education and Public Transports. |
The large positive gap between the general and own economy is indicated for people in all observed countries. People are more optimistic in assessing their own economic future than their national economies perspectives. |
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People, living in Denmark and Finland, have the highest expectation on their own economic situation for 2010 among countries studied for a number of years. |
EPSI by country and industry
The satisfaction results are reported on the scale 0 100, where 0 means that all respondents give the supplier the lowest score, and 100 that all respondents score the supplier with the highest score for all measured variables. The indices refer to the national average based on measurement of all private and corporate customers. However, customers are different, and the levels differ in all countries between socio-economic groups as well as geographically. On average females and people, living in rural areas - smaller communities are more satisfied than males and people in large metropolises. Satisfaction tends to increase with age. Additional information regarding differences in satisfaction is available in the national press releases.
The situation varies slightly between countries as to which sectors/industries are at top and which are lagging behind. In the following graph the overall scoring of some of the different industries are recorded year by year. It is seen that Satisfaction for Banking, Insurance and Broadband drops sharply while the trend for Mobility and retail trade is less negative. The biggest fall from 72.2 in 2008 to 66.8 in 2009 - is reported for Insurance, where Satisfaction decreased to the 5-years ago level, see Graph 2.
In year 2009, there are in total 10 countries included in the measurement for banks. Here Customer satisfaction by country varies from 67.8 (Czech Republic) to 78.2 (Lithuania). The financial turmoil has hit the satisfaction among corporate banking customers harder than is the case in the final consumer segment. Denmark and the Baltic States are the countries where the satisfaction (and trust) has gone down most during the last year.
For the other industries reported above, the number of countries included varies between 13 (in Mobility) and 8 (in supermarkets).
Multinational companies/groups
In all the common industries in the studied countries there are multi-national companies that can be compared for the general performance in different markets. A study has now been made between companies operating (with a significant market share) in three or more different countries. For the respective sectors considered (bank, insurance and Mobility/Broadband the following results are obtained.
Society Activity benchmarks
From year 2004 studies of also public services and society activities have been introduced in the regular national EPSI studies.
The following public services and society activities have been in focus in 2009: Primary education, Heath Care, Public Transport and The Police (in crime work).
- Especially notable that the financial turmoil has not in any significant way reduced satisfaction with public service activities (except in Denmark and Lithuania to a certain degree).
- Finland has, according to its citizens, the highest satisfaction in Education and Public Transports.
- Denmark is in top on Health Care.
- The Norwegians give their providers of education and public transport the lowest satisfaction scores.
Consumer Sentiment benchmarks
From year 2004 also questions about the consumer sentiment (how the consumers perceive the overall economic future the next 12 months, and how they perceive their own future economic situation). These measures aim at giving an indication of how the demand will develop in the economy during the coming year. The higher score (between 0 100), the more optimistic are the individuals. |
The anticipations by final consumers for the respective national economy in the coming year are illustrated in Graph 3, below. The estimates labelled 2007 refer to how the consumers expect the next year 2008, 2008 ones mark respective assessments of 2009 perspectives and 2009 reflects an assessment of the 2010 perspectives.
For the own economy, the following results, Graph 4, are obtained in terms of expectations on the coming year. The estimates labelled 2007 refer to how the consumers expect the next year 2008, and 2008 ones mark respective assessments of 2009 perspectives and 2009 reflects an assessments of 2010 situation.
The relationship between the assessment of the overall national economic future and the perspective for the own economic/financial situation is illustrated below for based on the current study late 2009. This gives an indication on possible differences in assessment by country.
These leading indicators for the economic development are regularly measured also in the future and reported in conjunction with EPSI-studies. This means that EPSI Rating will continue to supply an index system for performance assessment on a regular basis.
Beneficiaries from EPSI
Information on customer satisfaction is needed for better policy and decision-making on all levels of society, including:
EU |
to monitor and devise policy instruments focusing on the competitiveness of, for example, European industry compared with other economic centres like the US and south-east Asia; |
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Government |
for economic policy formulation, analysis of competitiveness, quality analysis and adjustment (including calculation of price development, GDP-estimates, productivity trends, etc.). It is true when it comes to living standards for citizens; |
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Non-governmental organizations |
industry specific and citizens associations for their policy updating and influencing government (including elections and lobbing); |
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Investors |
to understand the relationship between a company's current condition and its future capacity to produce added value; |
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Corporate managers |
for improving company profitability due to benchmarking and improvements in value chain; |
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Consumers/citizens |
to have a voice in measures those reflect living standards. |
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More detailed results for different countries are available on the respective national EPSI web-sites. Please see www.epsi-rating.com for links to the different country press releases (public domain).
EPSI Rating EPSI Research Services Ltd, 33 St. James΄s Square, London SW1Y4JS, England EPSI Baltic |
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