Nigeria has ranked poorly in the 2023 Nigeria Customer Service Index (NCSI) report, scoring 61.8 percent.
The inaugural report, titled ‘State of Customer Service in Nigeria’, was launched on Wednesday in Lagos by the West African Association of Customer Service Professionals (WAACSP) and NCSI partners.
The grading system for the index shows that 95-100 percent (Grade A) is exceptional; 90-94 percent (Grade B plus), excellent; 85-89 percent (Grade B), very good; 80-84 percent (Grade C plus), good; 75-79 percent (Grade C); fair; 60-69 percent, poor (Grade D); 55-59 percent (Grade E plus), very poor; and below 55 percent (Grade E), dismal.
Africa’s biggest economy got a lower score than its neighbour, Ghana, which had 73 percent.
“Some organisations should know better and try to make changes this year,” Yvonne MacCarthy, board chair of WAACSP, said.
She said the project was not sponsored, adding that the research was done because of the integrity they want to uphold in Nigeria. “It is the first one; so we are trying to capture the whole experience of how consumers feel.”
Sola Ajulo, patron of WAACSP, said Nigeria, being the giant of Africa, needs to aspire to do better.
“Our goal must be that every interaction leaves a lasting impression. Every customer must feel valued and appreciated enough,” she added.
The index serves as a national gauge of customer perceptions regarding the quality of products and services utilised by residents of Nigeria, including both Nigerians and foreigners residing in the country.
Data were collected from over 8,000 respondents using a web-based questionnaire. Respondents were asked to rate their customer service experience in nine sectors of the economy.
The researchers employed a quantitative research design and a simple random sampling methodology, data collection spanned from January to December 2023, encompassing both online and offline channels.
Scores for each metric were converted to percentiles, with weighted adjustments reflecting the prioritised significance of each metric to respondents.
The survey is based on eight customer experience metrics: trust, branches, branding and outlook, competence, complaint resolution, ease of doing business, processes and procedures, professionalism, and customer focus.
“For every sector, the satisfaction index is calculated by taking the mean score for the customer experience metrics, converting it to percentiles, and multiplying it by a weighting that reflects the importance score of each measure,” the NCSI report said.
It added that the weighting takes into account the factors that respondents thought were most crucial to a positive customer service experience.
“The sector satisfaction index is created using the average score across all businesses within each sector. The NCSI is the percentile mean average of each sector’s score.”
Ajulo said Nigerian businesses and service providers now have a tool to benchmark their performance, identify areas of improvement and deliver exceptional experiences to their customers if they want to.
“Having reviewed the data and information provided by the Nigeria Customer Service Index, we are presented with the wealth of information that sheds light on the current state of customer service in Nigeria,” she added.
