Customers have rated Scotland one of the best countries for customer service, according to a major UK survey.
More consumers are declaring themselves pleased with the way they are treated despite higher prices and tighter budgets, according to the latest national measure of customer satisfaction by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS).
The online ICS survey asked 12,000 people how they rated service performance in 12 major public and private sectors.
The results, announced in the latest ground-breaking UK Customer Satisfaction Index, have improved from 69 to 71 out of 100 since the previous index was published in January.
Scotland has achieved a customer satisfaction index of 72 placing it ahead of England and Wales.
A “superb” increase in satisfaction with complaints handling and a surge in loyalty has increased Scotland’s index rating by two points, says ICS executive director Robert Crawford.
“Although it’s not a huge increase this is definitely a step in the right direction. It shows that when times are hard companies and organisations realise they need to try harder to make life easier for the people they serve.
“They have also got the message that when people have a finite amount of money they will be more careful to spend it where they are treated well. They are much more inclined to factor in customer service when it comes to making purchase decisions.
“The only differentiator left in UK business today is customer service. Products can be copied and costs matched, so service is the only aspect where companies can gain an edge.”
But he says before the UK can claim to provide world-class service it needs to reach a satisfaction level of 80, “so there is still a long way to go”.
The 12 sectors surveyed were automotive, finance (banks), finance (insurers), retail (food), retail (non-food), services, telecommunications, transport, leisure and tourism, utilities, Government departments and agencies, and local government.
For the second time, services – covering small enterprises from hairdressers and plumbers to travel agents and shoe repairers – was the top scoring sector, with an improved satisfaction rating of 79.
“Small businesses do well because they give personal attention and are easily accessible if things go wrong,” Crawford says. “But there is no reason why their attributes cannot be replicated by the larger set-ups.”
Second best performing sector was again retail (non-food) where, after launching a concentrated drive on boosting customer service, Boots have leapfrogged John Lewis to take over at the top.
Worst performing sector was again local government, covering fire services, police forces and local councils, while utilities replace telecommunications as second bottom.
Other key findings show:
Biggest sector gains in satisfaction have been made by local government – despite its still lowly position - retail (food) and retail (non-food), telecommunications and transport.
Waitrose stays top of food retailers with “a highly impressive” rating of 84 and Marks & Spencer moves up to second to dislodge ASDA.
first direct stays supreme among the banks surveyed with another impressive rating of 85.
Local shoe repairers and key cutters have taken over top spot from hairdressers among services providers, with estate agents still the worst.
The Ambulance Service remains top among Government departments and agencies, while jobcentres remain in last place with a lower score than last time.
ENDS 01 July 2008
For further press information, please contact:
Kay Williamson,
Gravitas Public Relations, 7 Imperial Square, Cheltenham, GLOS GL50 1QB
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E: Kay@gravitaspr.co.uk
Notes to editors:
ICS is the professional body for customer service whose primary purpose is to lead and raise customer service performance and professionalism.
The ICS completed a major piece of research into what matters most to customers. There are 20 individual factors that can be grouped into five attributes: professionalism, problem solving, timeliness, quality/ efficiency and being easy to do business with. Ireland scored 72 overall, England 71 and Wales 70.
The full research, including how these service priorities relate to each other and the extent they vary by sector and geography, are detailed in the report customer priorities: what customers really want which is available to editors free of charge from ICS by emailing caroline@gravitaspr.co.uk
This research forms the basis of the UKCSI questionnaire which is a self-completion, web-based survey repeated every six months. Results are determined on a geographically and demographically representative sample of UK adults and data is collected for all organisations with a high market share in each segment of the private sector and the main players in the public sector. This latest UKCSI is based on a sample of 12,000 adults surveyed during May and June 2008.
The UKCSI is produced from the scores received back from the survey asking customers to rate, on a scale of 1-10, their experience of customer service. The questionnaire is based on the 20 factors determining the quality of customer service, and measured across 12 business sectors.
Each of these factors is weighted according to how important customers said they were in the ICS research Customer priorities: what customers really want and the weighted satisfaction scores are used to produce the Index. The weightings can vary from sector to sector – some factors are more important in some sectors than in others - and these are taken into account in the calculation of the UKCSI. This makes the scores exceptionally robust as they are not simply a percentage of respondents who answered a question in the positive or negative – they are derived from a weighted index of multiple questions.
The UKCSI has been welcomed by BSI British Standards. It says: “We believe it is an important step in improving customer satisfaction in the UK as well as a useful tool for consumers and business. Customer satisfaction is a key area of standardisation for BSI and our own work in this area potentially assists organisations to improve their position in the index.”
More information is available at ukcsi.com which details the full methodology of the UKCSI and gives additional information on the results within each of the 12 sectors.