The Ask Afrika Orange Index® was launched in 2001, and has tracked service in South Africa for the past 13 years. This year, the survey has been expanded to include additional industries such as building retail, security and armed response companies, private hospitals, and funeral and burial services. In total, 31 industries are covered.

In this year’s survey, ‘treating customers fairly’ has been added to the service elements to determine whether service is perceived as good or bad. In addition, a call centre benchmark has been added to the 2014 survey. Excellent service delivery needs to be consistent through all the various touch points, face-to-face, telephonic and email. The culmination of this research is an awards ceremony in November, where South Africa’s top companies in service delivery are given a ‘gold stamp of approval’.

Ask Afrika Group is the largest independent South African market research company. The company focuses on local relevance, benchmarked against the global context. It also operates in 12 African continental territories.