UKCSI July 2010 executive summary: Is recession good for customer service?
Based on a representative sample of 26,000 adults surveyed over the internet, the Institute of Customer Service presents the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), the national measure of customer satisfaction for UK organisations.
UKCSI, July 2010 versus January 2010
The UKCSI has maintained its level from January 2010, rising very slightly to 75.6. The Utilities sector, though still at the bottom of the table, has shown the most improvement since January; whilst at the other end of the scale both retail sectors have also seen improvements.
Distribution of scores
Of the 153 named organisations scored in the survey, the median score (i.e. the middle-ranking organisation) is 77, the best score is 88 and the worst is 56. As we would expect, organisations are roughly normally distributed (i.e. most are near the average).
The top 10
This time 38 named organisations have achieved a CSI over 80; seven are over 85. The 10 highest scoring named organisations are:
- John Lewis (88)
- Waitrose (88)
- Lloyds Pharmacy (86)
- SAGA Holidays (86)
- Virgin Holidays (85)
- Marriott (85)
- Marks & Spencer (food) (85)
- Boots (84)
- First Direct (84)
- Marks & Spencer (84)
It's no coincidence that the retail and tourism sectors are so strongly represented here, but First Direct are not the only strong performer in financial services — BUPA and SAGA led the insurance sector, and The Co-operative Bank also scored well.
Every sector with the exception of Utilities has some suppliers who are above the overall UKCSI average, and most have at least one very good organisation.
Leaders in customer satisfaction
Looking at the overall performance of sectors can mask differences in the level of satisfaction organisations manage to achieve. Some sectors (e.g. Automotive) are consistently good, some are consistently bad (e.g. Utilities), and others are very mixed (e.g. Transport).
The chart below shows the gap between the best and worst organisation scored within each sector, with the average marked (o):
But is there a consistent pattern? It's not perfect, but there does seem to be a fairly strong trend for more consistent sectors to be better overall, as shown in the chart below.
It is worth drawing attention to some of the organisations that significantly outperform the average for their sector:
- Eurotunnel in Transport — 11 points over the sector average
- The Identity and Passport Service in Public services (National) — 9
- John Lewis in Retail (non—food) — 8
- First Direct in Finance (banks) — 8
- Waitrose in Retail (food) — 8
These leaders are significantly better than average for their sector (whether it's a strong or weak sector) and can expect to see competitive benefits from their focus on customer service.
Success stories for July 2010
Waitrose expands its lead
Waitrose (88) has continued to expand its lead over Marks & Spencer (85), its key rival as an upmarket food retailer. That excellent score puts it neck and neck with John Lewis in the non-food retail sector, a dominant performance for the brand.
Retail still tops the complaint handling league
The retail sectors, first and third in the overall sector league table, dominate the complaint handling table with improved scores. All those no-quibble refunds seem to be doing the trick, and if anything the economic climate seems to have concentrated retailers' minds on the value of every customer. Leisure is also performing well in this area.
Word of mouth in a connected world
This time we asked customers some extra questions about their experiences and expectations of companies responding to criticism from customers via new channels.
First of all we asked people which social media tools they expected companies to use. Most customers expected to see some sort of online presence from organisations, but only a minority felt that engagement with the prominent social media platforms is important. Only 6% of customers said that they would be put off doing business with a company that did not offer these channels.
As you might expect, consumers' attitudes to this are influenced by age, though even the youngest categories of consumer do not seem heavily engaged with social media.
Expectations for response
Customers are demanding when it comes to their expectations of responsiveness when contacting companies online with a complaint. Although 24% of customers never complain online, 55% of those that do expect a response in a day or less. 10% expect a response within hours.
There is an interesting interaction between the consumers' expectations and their experience — which could either mean that expectations are guided by past experience, or that more demanding customers are getting better treatment! The chart below shows that customers with higher expectations of response time are more to say that they experience it.
If we add up the total number of customers whose typical experience falls short of their expectation (for instance if we add up all the customers who expect a response within hours but typically don't receive it) we see the following pattern:
- Within a matter of hours — 54%
- Within one working day — 58%
- Within a few days — 32%
- Within a week — 30%
- Within 28 days — 23%
The lesson here is that a significant number of customers expect a very quick response (within a day or less), and they're getting it less than half the time. Organisations may need to pay more attention to controlling expectations of response time through communication, or tailoring response time to individual customer needs.
Detailed sectoral presentations
If you're looking for detailed organisational ratings and sector–level complaints data, you can buy sectoral presentations from the Institute of Customer Service shop: