Great British Grumble

The vast majority of British adults (86%) make at least one complaint to a service provider each year, according to the new 'Service in Britain' survey by Andrew Smith Research and Research Now. The major utilities, telecoms providers and supermarkets top the list of target organisations.

Complainers do so an average of once a month, and feel like doing so a further four times a month. Only 14% could think of no complaints made in the last year. Men and younger adults are most likely to complain, whereas women and middle aged adults are more likely to bottle up their frustration.

Consumers are far more likely to tell family, friends and colleagues about their problem than make a complaint, confirming the belief that complaints only reveal a small part of the damage caused by poor service.

Of 20 sectors examined, those attracting the highest numbers of complaints include the power and insurance companies, with banks, supermarkets, telecoms providers and local councils also high on the list. The highest levels of frustrated complaints are to telecoms companies and Central Government, indicating that people have considerable concerns about these services, yet are unable to get them easily addressed.

Supermarkets enjoy the highest levels of genuine loyalty among five major sectors for which this aspect was studied, whereas up to 20% of customers of power and telecoms providers are seriously thinking about switching. Banks are unlikely to lose customers but this is often because moving / reviewing options is too much hassle, rather than because customers are particularly happy with what they get.

Across 15 service categories, people are least satisfied with the value they get from train companies: a third of users give a poor value rating whilst only 1 in 8 rates value highly. Local council services and buses also fair badly on the value for money measure.

1268 British consumers aged 18+ responded to an online survey between 18 and 22 Feb. The agencies' web sites are at www.andrewsmithresearch.co.uk and www.researchnow.co.uk

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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