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Brits Complain Less, but Say Customer Service is Declining
For the third year running, both the proportion of British people complaining about service and the total volume of complaints made has fallen, according to the fourth annual 'Service in Britain' survey. Yet despite this, more than half of British consumers believe that customer service is in decline.
UK MR firms ASR and Research Now conduct the survey, which tracks customer service satisfaction, value satisfaction and loyalty intention for 'your main supplier' in major service industries, as well as the volume of actual and 'frustrated' complaints made by industry.
Some of the recent issues highlighted by the survey include:- 'Frustrated complaint occasions' remain very high, while wider attitudes towards service are negative
- Half of consumers said they would change supplier if they felt let down, rather than complain
- Only 1 in 6 people think customer service in Britain is improving
- telephone systems loom large in the list of complaints: half those questioned ranked 'being left too long on hold' as their top problem, implying that under-investment in call centres is a major issue; while being passed endlessly around automated call systems and incompetent call centre staff is also a major concern.
The survey covers satisfaction, loyalty and complaints information for all main service categories, plus tracking of wider customer service attitudes. Its questionnaire was developed in association with the National Consumer Council, which has backed the study since 2006.
Respondents are members of the Research Now online panel of consumers, and 1019 adults were questioned for this fourth round.
Full results are available and include detailed company ratings for supermarkets, banks, mobile operators, broadband service providers and power suppliers. Web sites: www.andrewsmithresearch.co.uk and www.researchnow.co.uk .
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