It’s official, JB Hi-Fi is Australia’s leading consumer electronics with a customer satisfaction rating of 90.9% according to a recent Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Survey, it’s the second major gong that JB Hi Fi has won this week.
as a result, the Melbourne based retailer is set to win the annual award for the category at the 2017 Annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards being held in February.
JB Hi-Fi’s customer satisfaction improved 0.5% from a year ago to hold off a fast-improving Ikea on 89.6% – and up 5.2% from a year ago, and ahead of JB Hi-Fi stablemate, and 2016 Annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Award winner for Electrical and Furniture retailers, The Good Guys on 88.7%.
However, the biggest improver over the past year was Steinhoff Asia-Pacific Owned Freedom, which increased an impressive 6.4% to a customer satisfaction rating of 81.8% in November – its highest rating for nearly four years since April 2014.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan “JB Hi-Fi narrowly beat out Swedish retailer Ikea in November on a much-improved customer satisfaction rating of 89.6% (up 5.2% from a year ago) and JB Hi-Fi acquisition The Good Guys in third place with a customer satisfaction rating of 88.7%.
“Deloitte Consulting’s annual Global Power of Retailing Report released earlier this week named JB Hi-Fi as Australia’s third largest retailer amongst the world’s top 250 retailers following JB Hi-Fi’s purchase of The Good Guys for $870 million late in 2016 behind only supermarket giants Wesfarmers and Woolworths.
“The consistently strong performance of both JB Hi-Fi’s and The Good Guys in the Annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards bodes well for the future growth of the retailer – between them JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys have won a total of 8 Annual Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards since 2011.
“South African owned furniture retailers Freedom and Fantastic Furniture have been in the news of late as parent company Steinhoff International Holdings has faced a raft of accounting related problems. Steinhoff’s shares have fallen over 80% since early December as concerns have mounted about the level of debt carried by the retailer.
“In an effort to raise ‘quick cash’ Steinhoff has raised over $1 billion selling down various stake-holdings including a substantial stake in a South African financial services firm, the sale of land-holdings in Europe and even the corporate jet.
“The good news for Steinhoff is that their two leading furniture retailers in Australia –Freedom and Fantastic Furniture have been performing well with both enjoying customer satisfaction ratings well above 80%.
“Steinhoff’s original purchase in Australia, Freedom, had a customer satisfaction rating of 84.4% in November 2017 – the highest since April 2014 while recent purchase Fantastic Furniture (purchased by Steinhoff Asia-Pacific in October 2016) has consistently achieved customer satisfaction well above 80% for the last two years.
“The strong performance of Freedom and Fantastic Furniture, as well as additional Steinhoff furniture outlets including Snooze, Bay Leather Republic and Plush, represent attractive targets for firms considering expanding their presence in the Australian furniture market.”
