Retailers are doing much better when it comes to giving people what they want, reveals a major survey.
They come second of 12 private and public sectors according to the latest national measure of customer satisfaction by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS).
The retail (non-food) sector was placed fifth in a study for the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) in January. But the fresh findings put it behind only the table-topping services sector.
However retail (food), which was second in January, has slipped down to fifth.
The online survey – most wide-reaching measure of customer satisfaction in the UK – asked 12,000 people to rate companies and organisations on consumer priorities such as professionalism, complaint-handling, quality and competence and friendliness of staff.
Results show that this time round satisfaction with the service performance of the retail (non-food) sector increased to 77 out of 100 compared with 73 last time.
However, though the retail (food) sector average of 74 was only just below its January rating, it has been overtaken by the automotive and the finance (insurers) sectors.
Within the retail (non-food) sector top performer of the companies surveyed is Boots, whose world class rating of 85 pushes it up from third to take over at the top from John Lewis.
Bottom remains Currys/Dixons/PC World, though it has improved its rating from 63 to 66.
ICS executive director Robert Crawford says: “Boots has been engaged in an exhaustive drive to enhance its customer service and its effectiveness has shown up clearly in the study.
“It recognises, as do many others within the sector, that 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.”
Sue Needs, head of productivity at Boots commented, "We are delighted that our commitment to excellent customer care has been recognised by our customers.
“We have recently delivered a new training programme to all our colleagues to support them in delivering great customer care and we run our own programme to track customer satisfaction in every one of our shops. This has allowed our store managers to recognise colleagues who have given fantastic customer service and helps them focus on areas of service they can improve further which has been incredibly motivating for our colleagues.
“The fact that this bespoke focus on customer care means we have come top in the UKCSI by the Institute of Customer Service is testament to their hard work and commitment to giving our customers the help and advice they need to look and feel their best."
Worst performing sector was again local government, covering fire services, police forces and local councils, while utilities replace telecommunications as second bottom.
All top five in the sector score more than 80, which according to ICS puts them in the world-class category for customer service.
They are Boots (85), John Lewis (83), HMV, fractionally behind and also on 83, Lloyds Pharmacy (82) and Marks & Spencer (81).
In the retail (food) sector Waitrose continues to head many leading companies with 84. But Marks & Spencer, fourth-best sector in January, is now so close behind in second place that it has been given the same rating.
It’s close at the bottom, too. There is so little between Aldi, Lidl and the Co-op that they are all on the same score.
Top five food retailers are Waitrose (84), Marks & Spencer (84), ASDA (76), Sainsbury’s (75) and Iceland (73).
The findings show that across all 12 sectors customer satisfaction has improved narrowly compared with the first Index.
ICS says they illustrate that companies and organisations are realising they need to try harder to make life easier for the people they serve, especially when budgets are tight during recession.
Crawford says: “The encouraging showing of retailers in particular shows they have been quick to recognise that when people have a finite amount of money they will be more careful to spend it where they are treated well.
“Customers are much more inclined to factor in service when it comes to making purchase decisions.”
ENDS 01 July 2008
For further press information, please contact:
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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.
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.