Aldi is doing a good job in keeping their customer satisfied, according to the latest Roy Morgan Supermarket Satisfaction report.
The report shows 89.7 per cent of Aldi customers agreed they were satisfied with the supermarket overall – comfortably higher than the other three supermarket chains.
However, the other chains do not fall all that far behind. In November last year, both Coles and Woolworths came within 1 per cent point of the German retailer, making it the closest race in five years.
Woolworths came in second in the satisfaction ranking of 87.4 per cent, followed by Coles of 86.2 per cent and then IGA at 83.7 per cent.
“What an interesting year 2012 was for supermarket satisfaction, with long-time leader Aldi almost toppled from the top of the podium,” Norman Morris, Roy Morgan Research industry communications director, said.
“Late 2012 also saw Woolworths edge ahead of Coles for the first time since 2010, reaching a five-year high in their satisfaction result.
“Meanwhile satisfaction with Coles is continuing to trend downward from its peak just shy of 90 per cent a year ago.”
The Supermarket Satisfaction report also looks at how satisfied ‘bigger-basket’ grocery buyers are: among customers with an average weekly spend above $200, Woolworths is ahead of Aldi and more than three percentage points in front of Coles.
“Satisfaction is naturally a crucial battleground in the supermarket wars. Dissatisfied customers are unlikely to continue to shop at a particular supermarket if they have an alternative, and even worse are likely to ‘spread the word’ about their dissatisfaction,” Morris said.
“Therefore monitoring satisfaction levels is paramount to understanding where loyalties lie and how customers of different ages, basket sizes or neighbourhoods rate their supermarket of choice.”