A recent Net Promoter Score (NPS) study conducted by Sabre Corporation for a group of African airlines found that East African carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines, RwandAir and Kenya Airways scored significantly more for customer satisfaction and loyalty ratings than carriers in the rest of Africa.
The study identified areas impacting customer satisfaction to help African carriers recognise what needed to be done to compete with global rivals and increase revenue. It looked into brand strength, customer satisfaction and loyalty within African Airlines Association member airlines across Africa. Travellers were asked to rate satisfaction and importance of brand, customer effort, in-flight and customer service. Satisfaction was measured against importance to identify where airlines were not meeting customer expectations.
Scores above zero in the study are considered good. Results showed that while the average NPS of all participating African carriers was 2,4, East Africa as a region scored 10,6. North Africa scored lowest with -12,15. Results ranked the East African carriers with many European and American airlines, which averaged 5,9 and 16 respectively in recent NPS studies.
Dino Gelmetti, vp, EMEA, Airline Solutions, Sabre, said East African airlines particularly had invested in customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty to cultivate a positive brand reputation among travellers, and this was working well for them.
The study was the first of its kind in the region.
