By Economic Times Editor: The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) has published findings from its latest UK Customer Service Index (UKCSI) and it doesn’t make good reading.  It states that a record 13% of adults in the UK had made a complaint of some sort to a company in 2021 in the UK, the highest figure in its history since its inception in 2008.

The industry ombudsman confirmed the same with substantial increases in complaint numbers in the UK last year, including housing and financial services.  The former rose by a shameful 21 per cent but the latter rose by an unprecedented 58 per cent respectively.

Ten thousand people were asked about their experiences by UKCSI about businesses and how they interact with them.

To make matters worse, and in addition to the record rise in complaints, 16 per cent of respondents also stated they had also ‘experienced problems with a brand’s service in the past six months’.

Of course, there are credible excuses causing the rise in complaints – not least supply chain delays. Brexit has not helped, causing even more shortages and delays of goods and parts. The pandemic has played its part with Covid causing staff shortages and many working from home with less than capable technology than in the office. One assumes that this will be the same all over the world, one way or another.

Frustration and unmet expectations among consumers are commonplace. So much so that the increased levels of complaints are causing higher degrees of abuse by customers, which itself causes a rise in agent burnout that sees staffing levels fall – and yet more delays.

Jo Causon, CEO at the Institute of Customer Service, stated: “We need to address wider service chain issues if we are to improve the nation’s performance and productivity. More customers than ever before are willing to pay a premium for quality service. This suggests there is an opportunity to invest in delivering the real value that customers expect and deserve.”

Another record in the survey was reached when 34% of UKCSI respondents said they would be willing to pay more for better service.

Adam French, consumer rights expert at Which? added – “The pandemic has revealed some of the best and worst of customer service. Which?’s research found that 7 in 10 people felt more loyal to a retailer if it had been reliable and accommodating throughout the pandemic. With online shopping becoming the norm, consumers should be able to expect the same level of customer service when shopping online as when shopping in a store. Any retailers falling short – either online or in-store – must up their game to make sure no one is left frustrated or out of pocket due to bad customer service.”

My own experience is no different. I bought a Shark vacuum cleaner. Ten months later a small plastic part that holds the roller to the frame failed. Even though the product was under warranty – customer service determined it was ‘wear and tear’ and its replacement could only be the entire ‘floor nozzle’ at £79.99, which they were prepared to sell me, albeit for a two week wait. For a one inch piece of plastic costing pennies – this is galling for any consumer. The statement – “Our confidence in our design and quality control means that your new Shark vacuum cleaner is guaranteed for a total of 5 years” rings hollow in my case.

Mobile, TV and broadband are other sectors that irritate us when things go wrong. TalkTalk has generated both the most broadband and landline complaints from customers, due to faults and service issues, new research reveals. Vodafone and Virgin Mobile were the most complained-about mobile operators, according to a quarterly report from Ofcom. It found Virgin Media generated the highest volume of pay-TV complaints.

Complaints about new cars reached record levels even though new car registrations plummeted. Complaints were up 14.1 per cent last year.

Do you get what you pay for? BMW ranked 20th whereas Skoda (now ranked 6th) and Nissan (now joint 9th) climbed into the top 10 performing organisations in a top 50 ranking of brands offering the best customer satisfaction across 13 market sectors.

Energy companies were no better (with results from before the energy crisis). Which? surveyed energy customers to ask whether or not complaints had been resolved. Almost half (47%) of those who had cause to complain said they were dissatisfied with how it was dealt with.

Which? found that 14% of the people surveyed felt they had an issue to raise with their energy supplier between October 2020 and October 2021 – but (89%) of those people went on to launch a complaint.

For me, the issue is about the relationship you have with a company. If I buy a vacuum cleaner from Shark, it breaks down within months and all they can propose is an extortionate sale to resolve the problem – I’ll never buy from that company again – ever. And the more these things happen, the more we lose trust more widely, which is a shame.

It’s a shame because business spends huge amounts of money attracting new customers. And yet, contrary to that effort new research estimates that UK businesses lose £12 billion every year as a result of poor customer service. That research showed that 93% of respondents switched businesses at least once in the last year because of poor customer service alone.

For decades companies have really done little more than finding ways of making customer service as cost-effective as possible for them, rather than providing a service that is genuinely valuable to the customer. One only has to look at offshoring call centres.

For over ten years I flew British Airways domestically (Heathrow to Glasgow) every two weeks and then Heathrow to the Middle East for another five years before I was treated so badly by them, I refused to fly with them again – and haven’t. Just before the pandemic, BA was already doing badly – ranking 114th by the Reputation Institute.

Other brands that have managed to reach the bottom of the reputation barrel (pre-pandemic) are Thames Water, Severn Trent and Scottish and Southern Energy, RBS and Lloyds TSB. The very bottom 10 also included National Car Parks (NCP), Phones 4U and the owner of the Daily Mail (& General Trust).

Nowadays, I have a list of companies I would never use, then a list only to be used as a last resort – and view the rest with scepticism.

I no longer fill out ridiculous satisfaction surveys the minute I’ve bought something. I was recently asked to fill out a satisfaction survey one day after my car had been serviced. It should have been sent one day before.

Around a quarter of adults in the UK believe that levels of customer service are unacceptable, with customer satisfaction at its lowest level in years (just after the financial crisis of 2008/09). And it feels that the pandemic has given many companies the green light to put in even less effort as they chase profit over customer loyalty.

What also surprises me is that the reputational risk of inaction by brands has never been higher. Evidence now suggests that one in three customers will turn to social media for a resolution if they want a rapid response because traditional methods of contact are failing. And it is here that consumers are able to vent their anger to a much wider audience about poor customer service.