Vodacom South Africa recognised as Customer Experience Champion

Vodacom South Africa has been named the Mobile Operator Industry Winner at the 2025/26 Ask Africa Orange Index Awards, South Africa's largest and longest-running customer experience benchmark. This recognition underscores Vodacom's unwavering commitment to delivering exceptional service and placing customers at the heart of its operations.

"Being named the Mobile Operator Industry Winner at the Ask Africa Orange Index Awards is a proud moment for Vodacom South Africa. This recognition validates our ongoing efforts to put our customers first and build meaningful relationships with them. It is also a testament to the dedication of our teams who work tirelessly to improve customer experience as we connect everyone to a better future," says Sitho Mdlalose, CEO of Vodacom South Africa.

Since its inception in 2001, the Ask Africa Orange Index has grown into the country's most comprehensive customer experience (CX) research study, evaluating 200 brands across 26 industries. The benchmark is built on over 46 000 interviews with South African consumers who have had recent service interactions with the measured brands. These results are independently audited to ensure fairness, transparency, and rigorous adherence to statistical and research protocols.

Customer experience in the telecommunications industry continues to face challenges compared to other industries. According to PwC's latest South African Telecommunications Sentiment Index challenges to customer service in telecommunications include a lack of efficient feedback and issue resolution, particularly when contacting call centres.

Understanding the need to enhance customer satisfaction and drive service transformation in the industry, Vodacom actively gathers deeper insights into customer experiences and listens to customer feedback, which enables teams to take more effective actions to improve satisfaction. This includes ongoing progress in simplifying processes and adopting design thinking to address customer pain points.

TOBi, Vodacom's chatbot, for example, has boosted customer engagement and efficiently managed a large portion of customer inquiries. Vodacom has also rolled out a one-app strategy, VodaPay, which integrates mobile and fintech experiences to provide customers with seamless digital interactions, VodaBucks rewards and service at their fingertips. In establishing a multilingual Customer Care, and the first dedicated call centre for people with disabilities, including South African Sign Language users, Vodacom has created an environment that supports inclusion for its customers.

"Wherever our customers are in Mzansi, we are dedicated to innovation and providing excellent customer experiences through our network, products, solutions, and service. We are intentional in making it simple, removing friction for our customers and getting it right first time every time for our customers. Because when we connect, extraordinary happens," concludes Mdlalose.