New report finds Amazon.co.uk tops the charts for customer service
Institute of Customer Service
Amazon.co.uk is the organisation with the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the UK, according to the latest UK Customer Service Index (UKCSI) from the Institute of Customer Service.
Second to the online retailer is Wilko, which rose from 45th place last year, followed by Land Rover, which has climbed 54 places since July 2015, and food retailers Waitrose and Marks & Spencer Food.
Non-food retail features heavily in the top ten list, with Amazon.co.uk and Wilko joined by Apple and John Lewis featuring in 8th and 9th place respectively. Two banks and building societies (Nationwide and first direct) also made it into the top ten despite the fact this sector has failed to improve its overall customer satisfaction scores over the past year.
Across all sectors and organisations, customer satisfaction has increased by 1.2 points (out of 100) compared to a year ago – the third consecutive rise in the Institute’s bi-annual index. It also represents the largest year on year increase since July 2011.
The UKCSI is the national measure of UK customer satisfaction. It rates customer satisfaction at a national, sector and organisational level across 13 sectors – individually rating many leading organisations. The Index has run every six months since January 2008 and involves interviews with 10,000 UK consumers.
This year’s data also shows a clear correlation between organisations who ‘get it right first time’ when interacting with customers, and their overall UKCSI score. On average the UKCSI score is 82.7 for those organisations where customers said they had issues resolved immediately, but when this did not happen, the score drops to an average of 59.
Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, comments:
“Non-food retailers are leading the way in their approach to customer service, but it’s also encouraging to see that other sectors are catching up. Overall, we’ve seen the largest year on year increase in customer satisfaction levels since 2011.
“The findings highlight just how powerful excellent customer service is in terms of tangible business benefits. For instance, the results from food retail suggest positive correlation with the bottom line; three of the four food retail companies that achieved year on year sales growth in a competitive market – Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl – have higher than sector average customer satisfaction.
“’Getting it right first time’ has to be a prerequisite for any organisation. Customers expect to be dealt with quickly and competently – as soon as they start to feel let down or ignored, their trust is lost. It’s important that businesses take this insight on board if they are to continue the positive trend in addressing customer needs.”
