The latest
UK Customer Satisfaction Index(UKCSI), which surveys nearly 10,000 consumers, reveals that satisfaction has continued to fall leaving people more unhappy with their customer experience now than they were in January 2011, a major concern for organisations as the economy begins to grow.
People most likely to be dissatisfied with levels of customer service are from younger age-groups.
Only ten organisations in the top fifty have improved on their performance since July 2013, but John Lewis and Amazon came top of the survey of nearly 10,000 consumers
Almost half of the 197 organisations featured in the index saw a drop in satisfaction by at least one point, including organisations that are consistently amongst the highest rated by their customers.
Jo Causon, CEO of the
Institute of Customer Service, said customer expectations are rising and their needs are changing more quickly.
"Speed, convenience and being easy to do business with particularly important. In this environment, organisations must invest in customer insight and apply it with agility.
"They will also need continuously to review their customer service skills, capabilities and standards to ensure they are relevant to changing customer needs.”
“The UK is now a genuine relationship economy, where an organisation's long-term success is determined by the quality of interactions between customers, suppliers, partners and organisations.
"The evidence in UKCSI shows a clear correlation between high levels of customer satisfaction and increased trust, loyalty, recommendation and sales growth, something that can be demonstrated clearly in the retail food sector.”
The Institute said some of the organisations which have registered the biggest improvements in satisfaction are in sectors that have lower than the UK average satisfaction, such as Transport and Utilities. Eight organisations in the top fifty have improved on their performance since July 2013, by at least one point.
Interviews conducted as part of UKCSI also asked customers to assess the balance of price and service they want from the organisations they deal with. The majority of customers (60%) want a balance of price and service with at least threshold levels of customer service, in all sectors. 24% of customers indicated that they favour excellent service and would be prepared to pay a premium for it, whereas 15% of customers are primarily motivated to seek the cheapest prices, even if this means compromising the quality of customer service.
UKCSI, commissioned by the
Institute of Customer Service, takes its results from more than 40,000 individual customer experiences. It is the UK's largest and most comprehensive survey of customer satisfaction and the only one carried out by a not-for-profit organisation.