Similar to the conclusions from 2021, Romanian companies still don’t differentiate visibly from the perspective of experience offered to their customers.
Banking, utilities and telecom are the industries where we see the industry leader getting detached from the rest of the market players, suggesting a potential emergence of industry leaders as well as a clear nomination of the industry laggards, which are slow improve their customer experience, the survey shows.
The 2022 survey also analyzed how Romanian consumers feel about companies acting in their interest for the past three years. Consumers perceive that Romanian companies don’t act in their interests, with the highest percentage of consumers naming insurance and utilities (64% for each) as the industries that never serve in their customers’ interests. On the other end, healthcare is perceived as the industry most willing to work in its customers’ interests (44% of the respondents).
Although digital usage in Romania has increased across all industries in the last years – except for banks, higher levels of digital engagement have not resulted in improved customer experience, according to this year’s study.
In grocery retail, interactions with customers are still mainly non-digital, however the industry has a higher customer satisfaction score (8.8) compared to utilities (7.7), a more digitized sector.
The survey also identified distinct preferences, such as switching smoothly between different channels (online versus in person) depending on the customer journey. For example, in-person interactions are preferred for resolving issues, whereas online is preferred for everyday use.
Moreover, the survey analyzed the contribution of four different customer experience drivers—brand, price, customer service, and product. Brand is the most important contributor in all industries except for banking, in which product and price are more important.
On the other hand, price, a better product, and customer service are considered the main factors to determine a consumer to change a provider, the survey shows. Price is more important in switching providers in industries as utilities, insurance, grocery retail, and the least important in banking.
This can be explained by the ease of changing providers in industries such as grocery retail, with low switching costs. The cyclicity of choosing a provider in insurance, as well as the new regulations in the Romanian energy market for utilities, gave Romanian consumers the opportunity to make price comparisons and switch providers. Moreover, in utilities and insurance, prices increased significantly in 2021 due to a supply-driven global energy crisis in utilities and due to the bankruptcy of City Insurance (the biggest player in the auto liability insurance policies (RCA) market, which was the cheapest player in the market. Such significant price increases made consumers even more sensitive to this factor.
The McKinsey Customer Experience Romania Survey is an annual survey launched in 2021 that looks at the experience of Romanian customers across six industries: grocery retail, telecommunications, utilities, banking, insurance, and healthcare. Approximately 3,000 respondents were asked to rate their Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) this year.