Find out which companies score highest for customer satisfaction according to a new national survey.
John Lewis is the best company for customer service according to a new nationwide survey.
The ‘never knowingly undersold’ retailer scored 87.2 out of a possible 100 points to top the latest UK Customer Service Index (UKCSI).
The score means last year’s top company Amazon drops into joint-second position, along with online bank First Direct, with both achieving a score of 86.7.
Ocado (85.4), Marks & Spencer Food (83.9), Nationwide Building Society (83.8), LV= (83.5), Waitrose (83.5), Argos (83.3) and Aldi (83) made up the remaining top ten positons for customer service.
The UKCSI is a bi-annual national measure of customer satisfaction across 13 sectors of the economy, launched in 2008 by the Institute of Customer Service. The January 2015 results are based on the experiences of over 10,000 people with a total of 205 named organisations
On average the report found overall customer satisfaction has fallen 1.1 points since January 2014, from 77.1 to 76.1. It’s the fourth consecutive fall and shows that customer satisfaction is now lower than at any point since July 2010.
The best companies for customer service
Here are the top companies for customer service across each of the 13 sectors.
|
Sector |
UKCSI average score January 2015 |
UKCSI average score January 2014 |
Highest scoring organisation in the sector |
|
Retail (non-food) |
81.4 |
83.1 |
John Lewis (87.2) |
|
Retail (food) |
79.6 |
81 |
Ocado (85.4) |
|
Tourism |
79.4 |
80 |
Center Parcs (82.9) |
|
Automotive |
78.6 |
80.5 |
Skoda (82.9) |
|
Banks & Building Societies |
78.4 |
78.1 |
First Direct (86.7) |
|
Leisure |
78.3 |
80.9 |
Greggs (82.5) |
|
Insurance |
77.1 |
78.9 |
LV= (83.5) |
|
Services |
77 |
80.2 |
Autoglass (80.2) |
|
Transport |
72.3 |
72.5 |
Thomson Airways (82.8) |
|
Public Services (Local) |
72.1 |
72.8 |
Your local library (81.9) |
|
Telecommunications & Media |
71.6 |
73.3 |
Tesco Mobile (82.5) |
|
Public Services (National) |
71.3 |
71.9 |
DVLA (76.2) |
|
Utilities |
70.9 |
69 |
Yorkshire Water (77.3) |
Source: Institute of Customer Service
Utilities remained the lowest scoring of all 13 sectors on average, but recorded the biggest improvement with a rise of 1.9 points since January 2014.
The sector contained the top three improvers from the survey - Southern Water, Yorkshire Water and United Utilities all registered the biggest increases in customer satisfaction by any organisation since last year.
[SPOTLIGHT]Two other big improvers were British Gas and EDF. These two ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers improved 3.6 points pushing their individual scores up to 71 and 72.5 respectively.
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Banks and building societies
The only other sector to show signs of improvement according to the report were banks and building societies, which saw a rise of 0.3 points to its sector score compared to January 2014.
The report suggests improved switching times as well as the regulatory and media focus on business practices and treatment of customers are responsible for the boost.
First Direct was the second best company for customer service overall moving up from 4th position last year with a score of 86.7 and top in the bank and building societies sector.
The online bank offers competitive credit cards, loans, savings accounts and mortgages exclusively to its current account customers.
As an incentive, those switching to its 1st Account will get a £125 bonus at the moment. The bank is so certain those that switch will be satisfied that it also offers to pay a further £100 if you want to leave within 12 months of signing up.
The report says First Direct delivered a strong performance across the range of metrics analysed in the survey, including professionalism, efficiency, ease of doing business, problem solving and timeliness.
Nationwide came 6th in the overall survey with a customer service satisfaction score of 83.8.
The building society offers 'flexclusive' deals across its range of products for FlexAccount, FlexDirect and FlexPlus current account holders.
Santander was the seventh most-improved organisation over the past year, with a boost of 3.8 points taking its overall score from 75.4 to 79.2
Other banks which ranked highly included Tesco Bank with a score of 80.5 (30th) and Co-operative Bank which scored 80.2 (joint 38th).
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