Industry expert says investors in Africa must prioritise customer experience

Professor Adré Schreuder, founder and chairman of The South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi), the republic's only independent customer satisfaction benchmark, says research in Africa shows the customer experience has now surpassed price as the purchasing driver as the continent's consumers become more demanding.

"Customers have higher expectations on value for money - perceived value - which is a combination of a good value proposition - product and service - at a fair or reasonable price. The correlation towards price tolerance for higher price is also clear: extra-ordinary customer experiences would be rewarded with a willingness to pay some premium on the price."

UAE companies seeking expansion within the continent already include Etisalat, Jumeirah and DP World with growing air links capitalising on an upsurge of interest in African opportunities. Yet Prof. Schreuder, who's also CEO of Consulta, Africa's only consumer insights consultancy, says success in the continent's 54 nations is not simply a case of setting up shop. Products and services, he says, need tailoring to local demand.

"It goes back to the basic customer centric principle of knowing your customers. With the modern trend toward more emphasis on the customer experience before, during and after purchase, the role of emotions cannot be ignored and it is a known fact that there are cross cultural and cross segment differences in needs, expectation as well as emotions."

Prof. Schreuder says the UAE and African markets now share a mounting focus on the customer experience to boost and retain market share in increasingly competitive landscapes flush with mobility-and-buying savvy consumers.

"There's a realisation that true differentiation comes from legendary customer experience and the average African consumer has now, more than ever before, access to the rest of the world through mobile technology. People are more connected and no longer tolerate sub-standard products that in the past were dumped on the African continent. Some of the fastest growing economies are now in the African continent and that's underlying the spending power and increasingly higher consumer expectations. Our own SA Customer Satisfaction Index research that we use in a majority of African countries shows very comparable levels of customer expectations among consumers. A look at Google analytics' analysis of search terms related to customer satisfaction, customer experience, customer service and the like, reveals that most search activity now comes from prominent African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana."

Prof. Schreuder says though market research growth in Africa is currently one of the world's highest, too many investors have still not grasped the need to locally tailor their product and service offering.

"The diversity and unique customer needs and expectations cannot merely be derived from European, US, Asian or Gulf markets. There are many sad cases of companies which have under estimated the diversity and uniqueness of the African continent. And with that I need to emphasise that I do not believe there is an African Market - there are many diverse and unique markets in the African continent, not necessarily following clear geographic boundaries of countries. Access to different segments and markets on the African continent should therefore be approached from a market perspective and should not be stereotyped. Investors need to identify the segments and markets, through proper and thorough market research, evaluate the market potential, needs, expectations, preferences, channels and media habits of each segment before a choice of target market is made. The local conditions and access to these markets differ between regions on the African continent."