Press release -
Best in banking and beyond: Three wins for Discovery Bank at Ask Afrika Orange Index® awards
Johannesburg, 30 August 2024 – On Wednesday, the 2024/2025 Ask Afrika Orange Index®, a leading, independent benchmark study in the field of customer experience, showed Discovery Bank as the clear leader not just among banks, but across all brands included in the study.
The Ask Afrika Orange Index® survey, which consisted of 46,000+ consumer interviews about their real experiences and expectations, commended Discovery Bank for the best overall client experience among 200 companies across 26 industries in South Africa. Discovery Bank also ranked first in the retail banking segment for the third year in a row and ranked the highest in the very competitive private banking segment for the first time.
Discovery Bank CEO, Hylton Kallner, says, “It’s been a week of celebration for us at Discovery Bank. We reached the exciting milestone of our first one million clients earlier in the week, followed by the overall first place ranking in the AskAfrika Orange Index across all industries. I’m particularly proud that we have maintained first position for the third year in the retail banking category. It reaffirms our full-service approach and reflects our belief that, as a fully digital Bank, we provide both a seamless client journey through our app and a personal 24/7 high touch service for our clients. Listening to clients’ needs is something we are focused on, and it’s this responsiveness that ensures we deliver the best service wherever and whenever clients interact with us. I want to congratulate and thank the entire team for their unwavering commitment to the people we serve and for ensuring that we set a market-leading standard in everything that we do.”
Importantly, and even though Discovery is a digital bank, the Bank’s performance on service and emotional connection with clients has remained the highest rated in the Index and improved over the past three years. The Bank placed first in the latest survey across emotional connection, relationship building, its humanness, client trust and brand advocacy.
Furthermore, results also showed Discovery Bank ranked the best for authenticity across the 200 brands included in the research.
“Our Bank is available to clients 24/7 either digitally in the palm of their hands through our state-of-the-art app, or via our highly qualified Bankers – it’s a unique full service, digital model that resonates with clients,” said Kallner.
These results for Discovery Bank align closely with the recent Ask Afrika Banking Brand Index © in which the Bank took top spot for both brand connection and emotional satisfaction. In that survey, Discovery Bank stood out as winning the hearts and minds of banking clients across all income groups with 72% of clients, almost 20% higher than the industry average, experiencing ‘delight’ with the Bank and rating it at 9 and 10 out of 10.
“This recognition is something we, as a team, value greatly. It’s motivating for us to know that our clients feel heard and understood and that when they interact with us, they receive solutions and service of the highest standard. Our clients experience us as authentic, trust us and feel connected to us, which are fundamental to our service philosophy and building lasting relationships. Meeting our promises to our clients and having their vote of confidence in what we do matters most. Our teams across the business have a relentless focus on client satisfaction, and it’s a remarkable achievement to provide levels of service that are consistently experienced as excellent,” says Kallner.
Discovery Life and Discovery Gap Cover also took second place in their respective categories of long-term and medical insurance at the Ask Afrika Orange Index® awards.
ENDS
About the Ask Afrika Orange Index
The Ask Afrika Orange Index® has been the leading, independent benchmark study of customer experience (CX) in South Africa for 23 years. It measures customer satisfaction, emotional satisfaction, and loyalty to recognise companies that show exceptional performance across client experience metrics such as servicing and problem resolution.
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About Discovery Bank
Discovery Bank is part of Discovery Limited, a financial services organisation that operates in healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, investments, banking, and wellness industries, in over 40 markets globally. Built on a shared-value model, Discovery Bank is fundamentally designed to create unique shared value for clients, differentiating the Bank from traditional banking models. Clients are encouraged to manage their money well, monetising healthy financial behaviours that lower their financial risk and realises long-term default and risk savings for the Bank. Discovery Bank shares this value with clients in the form of better interest rates, deep discounts and significant rewards from an exclusive retail, lifestyle and wellness partner network. The model has an overall positive impact on clients, society and Discovery Bank - clients experience greater financial wellbeing, the risk of defaults for Discovery Bank is lowered making the business more sustainable; while improved financial behaviours such as increased savings, higher retirement savings and lower debt levels, benefit society as a whole. Behaviour change and rewards are enabled through Vitality Money, an AI-powered programme on the Discovery Bank app that gives clients an understanding of the behaviours that influence their financial wellbeing, while giving them the tools to improve their financial behaviours. The more clients improve their financial behaviour, the higher their Vitality Money status and the greater the value they receive.
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