Service Hero, Kuwaits only annual customer satisfaction index, honored top performing companies across Kuwait at its 2014 Customer Service Assessment Awards Ceremony, which was held at the Symphony Styles Hotel Kuwait, on 16 February, 2014. The overall country winners are: 1st place Boubyan Bank, 2nd place Infiniti and 3rd place Mais Alghanim.

The winners were announced after a rigorous data authentication protocol was conducted for the record 25,216 assessments that were collected online as well as via phone surveys, of which 19,583 were validated, a figure which reflects 124% growth in participating consumers since 2010.

An additional highlight to the event was the celebration of Service Heros five year anniversary since its inception in 2010, where it also honored the companies that demonstrated an outstanding performance and maintained its leading position over the duration of these five years. The companies are: Boubyan Bank, IKEA, Mais Alghanim, KEMS, Caribou Coffee, Royale Hayat and McDonalds.

The table below highlights the winner from each industry category, as announced at the awards ceremony:

Service Hero Category The Best Customer Service Company # of wins
1. Caf Caribou Coffee 5
2. Care Service Infiniti 2
3. New Car Sale Infiniti New
4. Casual Dining Mais Alghanim 5
5. Clothes American Eagle 3
6. Electronics X-Cite, Alghanim Electronics 1
7. Fast Food McDonalds 5
8. Fine Dining Le Notre 1
9. Home Furniture IKEA 5
10.Islamic Banks Boubyan Bank 5
11.ISP KEMS 5
12.Mobile Operators Zain 3
13.Private Hospitals Royale Hayat Hospital 5
14.Regional Arab Airline Emirates 3
15.Retail Bank National Bank of Kuwait 4
16.Super Market Lulu Hypermarket 2

The 17 industry categories that were rated in the 2014 Customer Service Assessment included cafs, casual dining, car service, clothes, electronics, fast food, fine dining, home furniture, Islamic Banks, ISP, mobile operators, new car sale, private hospitals, regional Arab airlines, retail banks, supermarkets and healthclubs. Each industry category was measured across up to eight service dimensions on a ten point scale, which are reliability, speed, product quality, staff quality, value for money, location, call center and website quality.

Overall country winners of the Service Hero 2014 Award for Best Customer Service among 324 companies are:
1. Boubyan Bank First place Golden winner one of the top three country winners for the 1st time
2. Infiniti Second place Silver winner one of the top three country winners for the 1st time
3. Mais Alghanim Third place Bronze winner one of the top three country winners for the 5th time

Faten Abu-Ghazaleh, Service Hero President, said: Firstly, I would like to congratulate the winners of the Service Hero 2014 Customer Service Assessment Awards and the companies that have worked towards maintaining their leading position over the years. These companies have been able to maintain a high-level of focus and belief in the importance of service excellence despite day to day pressures such as market share and sales. I would also like to congratulate the Service Hero team for five wonderful years of hard work and commitment that has brought us here today, and I am very proud to be a member of this team.

With every passing year we are more and more motivated to improve the service we are offering through Service Hero. This year, the motivation has increased more than ever with the record 25,216 assessments that were collected. This substantial figure that is continuously increasing is a testament to the increasing awareness among consumers of the existence of a neutral and independent platform such as Service Hero, which allows them to rate products and services that matter to them, with the belief that it will improve their standard.

The guest speaker of the evening was Dr. Farah Al-Nakib, Director of Center for Gulf Studies at the American University of Kuwait. Dr. Al-Nakib briefly discussed architecture across Gulf city-states and the importance of making a shift from developing extravagant buildings to satisfy the global gaze to creating a built environment that is geared towards satisfying local needs over a global image.

Service Hero adheres to ESOMAR principles (the European society of opinion and market research). All scores are vetted and validated by the well-respected American Customer Satisfaction index, who is Service Heros partner in the Arab world. It is overseen by an independent Advisory Council comprising the American University of Kuwait, Gulf University of Science and Technology, the Australian College of Kuwait and Kuwait Maastricht Business School its academic sponsors, and other prominent businessmen from leading organizations, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the Boston Consulting Group, and Noor Investment Co.
The 2015 assessment will be available on the companys 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.