KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced yesterday that it has been awarded the 'Best Branch Experience' award from Ethos Integrated Solutions (Ethos) at the 11th Annual Customer Experience Benchmarking Index (CEBI) for retail banks and exchange houses throughout the GCC.

The CEBI award recognized the efforts of 12 GCC banks for their contribution to continuous customer experience improvement, and is considered to be the most extensive customer experience benchmarking study in the GCC.

Vikram Issar, General Manager - Consumer Banking at Gulf Bank, said: "We are proud to receive this prestigious award. It is a testament of our hard work and dedication in presenting our customers with the best service possible, as well as providing them with exceptional products and operating at the highest standards of quality and excellence. We look forward to maintaining our commitment towards our customers with energy and enthusiasm."

During the 2015 study, Ethos professional researchers conducted over 1,300 branch visits, 780 call centre calls and 520 website interactions, providing a total of 68,000 answers of what customers are experiencing in GCC banks. Researchers focused on real life scenarios of a prospective customer using the bank services, evaluating four key variables of service provision, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.

In 2015, Gulf Bank won the 'Best Customer Service (Retail)', 'Best Car Loan', and 'Best Cash Management' awards from Banker Middle East Kuwait Product Awards 2015; "Best Cash Management Bank in Kuwait" by The Asian Banker; "Best Retail Bank in Kuwait" by The Asian Banker; "Best Retail Bank in Kuwait" and "Best Retail Customer Service Bank in Kuwait" from International Finance Magazine (IFM); "Best Commercial Bank" and "Best Innovation in Retail Banking" from International Banker; and "Best Customer Experience Overall Branch" from Ethos Integrated Solutions.

The Annual Bank Benchmarking Index by Ethos Integrated Solutions has matured into one of the most anticipated reports in the retail banking industry in the GCC. Every year for the past 11 years it has been conducting a Bank Benchmarking Index which measures the Customer Experience of 23 banks in UAE across 3 major delivery channels. For this year, it has also included banks in all GCC countries thereby a total of 65 banks benchmarking in 2015.

The purpose of the study is to provide the GCC banking industry with service quality market intelligence. The GCC banking industry is highly competitive and a great customer experience can dramatically improve customer loyalty as well as serve as a magnet for new customers, making a customer service orientated culture a very powerful tool.