I always look forward to poring over the UK Institute of Customer Service (UKICS) twice-yearly report with a cup of coffee and a red pen at hand. It’s an insightful ‘state of the nation’ reflection which captures the satisfaction levels of UK customers across industries including banks, telecoms, insurance and tourism. I am already eagerly awaiting the next instalment in January 2017, which no doubt will be a compelling read in a post-EU referendum world.
As usual, the league tables at the start of the report were the first to catch my eye. Here, 13 sectors are listed from top to bottom (clearly none of them want to be the latter). The ‘top 50 organisations’ are then revealed, which are differentiated by “high performance in complaint handling and helpfulness and competence of employees, especially over the phone”. What became quickly apparent is the industry leading the way in keeping its customers satisfied is retail (both food and non-food), with scores of 81.0 and 82.1 respectively. Languishing at the bottom of the list is the telecoms industry, which, despite year on year improvements, has a score of 72.9. Perhaps unsurprisingly, TalkTalk has just been voted the “most maddening” company for customer service.
Not only did retail top the list of 13 sectors, but five of the ‘top 10 rated organisations’ are from the industry. Of note is Amazon, which was ranked No. 1 with an incredible score of 87.2 (out of a possible 100). Further to this, five of the organisations are retailers, including Wilko (second), with Waitrose and Marks & Spencer joint third.
Putting aside the heatwave which recently swept the nation, it appears the grocers have had their day in the sun for the past 6 months, with Waitrose, Aldi, Lidl and Iceland all reporting year-on-year sales growth. I doubt it’s a coincidence that, at the same time, all four of these grocers have achieved “higher than the sector average” customer satisfaction. This clearly demonstrates that keeping customers satisfied can have a positive impact on a business’s bottom line – which should certainly be an incentive for businesses to deliver good customer service.
The ‘most improved’ award must go to the insurance industry, with its overall UKICS score improving by 1.5 points compared to a year ago, and 7 providers featured in the Top 50 list including AA Insurance at number 16. On top of this, the insurance industry also improved its ‘customer effort, trust and Net Promoter’ score by 1.5 year on year, with improvements across all areas of customer service from ‘Speed of response (letter/email)’ to ’the way the complaint was handled’. This is proof that good customer service equals more satisfied customers – it’s a pretty basic equation but one that businesses sometimes lose sight of.
At the other end of the scale are banks and building societies. These are the only services where customer satisfaction has not improved compared to July 2015. The main reason, cited in 29% of complaints, was staff competence, followed by the quality and reliability of service (reported in 25% of cases) and staff attitude (reported in 21%). Crucially, the report also showed that banks with “higher than average” customer satisfaction have been more successful in winning new current account customers.
It’s clear that staff competence is absolutely key to keeping customers happy. It’s unlikely that I’d rate my bank highly if I had to spend an hour on hold to a call centre, only to be told I need to go in-branch to resolve the particular issue I wanted to discuss. As customers we need to know that we can rely on our service providers, particularly when it comes to sensitive issues such as finances. Whether I’m transferring funds on my bank’s app whilst I commute to work, or popping in to a branch on my lunch break to discuss my mortgage, my expectation is that my bank is keeping track of my interactions and will know what I’m talking about if I ring a call centre the next day. This is where technology needs to help employees do their jobs.
As customers, we’re most happy when we have a positive experience both on and offline. So businesses need to begin ‘behind the scenes’ investment both in technology and people. Technology should enable customer-facing employees to do their jobs efficiently. Equally, businesses must not forget that we, the customers, are human and want to be treated as such. Indeed, recent research by Vanson Bourne found that 91% of respondents agree that there should always be a way to contact a real person.
As the UKISC chief executive Joanna Causon states: “The highest performing organisations recognise the importance of gaining a deep understanding of their customer’s evolving needs and preferences.” This is a clear directive to businesses that are failing to improve on customers’ satisfaction that they need to evaluate and improve all aspects of customer service, or else risk being ranked at the bottom of the pile.