UK customer satisfaction is up, but customer loyalty is harder to earn

The UK Customer Satisfaction Index – the measure of customer satisfaction in the UK – has risen by almost 1% since this time last year, and now stands at 77.8%.

This is the fourth consecutive rise reported by the biannual index, and the highest score since July 2013.

The Institute of Customer Service survey examines 13 major sectors of the economy.
Non-food retail, retail and tourism are the top 3 performing sectors.  Transport, utilities and telecoms were the worst-rated, but 12 / 13 sectors improved their score and the gap between the highest and lowest performing sectors has narrowed.

However, two of the findings present challenges to organisations which are looking to distinguish themselves from their competitors through improved customer service.

1.       Customer effort – the amount of time and energy customers need to expend when dealing with an organisation has risen for every sector compared with January 2016.  This suggests that more companies are getting the basics of customer service right, but that there is more work to do.

2.       Customer loyalty - it has become more challenging to convert improvements in customer service into tangible signs of customer loyalty and advocacy.
For thirty years MSB has helped organisations to improve the customer experience by providing award-winning research and training which helps our clients to:

• Understand their customers’ views of their organisation
• Identify customers’ service expectations
• Give frontline employees the skills and techniques to deliver outstanding service
• Prevent problems and handle complaints
• Improve employee engagement, which in turn benefits customer service

To find out more about how MSB can help, please visit the dedicated Customer Experience page.

A link to the latest UK Satisfaction Index report can be found here.