Cell C customers have given their network a rating that sounds to our minds like a teacher issuing a student with a B- on a report card: “improving, but could do better”.

According to the latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi), Cell C customers are slightly more satisfied with the quality of the services offered than they were a year ago, but still think that the company is still below par when compare to its immediate competitors.

Released today, the index surveys and scores customer satisfaction across different industries, including mobile technology and also compares South Africa’s standards with the rest of the world.

The index surveyed 2 195 across all major local networks and found that Cell C was the only one to score an overall higher rating (72.9 out of 100), while Vodacom, MTN and Telkom Mobile all slipped slightly from last year’s scores.

“Cell C has managed to decrease the number of problems experienced by subscribers by 8 per cent since the previous SAcsi measure,” the index noted. “Cell C’s complaint handling efficiency has also improved and is now the best in the industry.”

Cell C also leads in how customers perceived its value for money, although customers perceived Vodacom as the network offering the best quality products.

However, Cell C’s score is still below the industry average of 75.6 and Vodacom stills holds the overall top spot at 76.7, followed by MTN at 75.6. Telkom Mobile scored the lowest at 69.4. Altogether, customers gave South Africa mobile networks a satisfaction score of 75.4.

Internationally, South Africa fared pretty well against countries such as Portugal (75), Turkey and UK (74), South Korea (73) and the USA (72).