An in-depth survey of customer care in the UK has revealed that the financial stability of British companies is threatened by poor customer care due to the wastage of millions of pounds on ineffective care programmes. The study from the Customer Care Alliance (CCA) also found that customer care in the UK is currently worse than it is in the USA.
CCA's study, which surveyed nearly 11,000 consumers across 35 industry sectors, also notes that central government services are at the bottom of the customer care league table in the UK.
The survey examined consumers' problem experiences, asking about the level of problems they experienced during the past year and the action they took to resolve their most serious problem. The study's focus was on the effectiveness of the action taken by the organisations responsible for those problems. Findings were then also compared to a companion study conducted in the US.
Key findings
Some 81% of British households (as compared to only 45% in the US) said they had experienced problems caused by the products or services they consumed in the past year. But while 85% complained about their most serious problems, only 11% (compared to 18% in the US) were satisfied with the action taken to resolve those issues.
In most cases, customers needed to make repeated contact before their problem was resolved. It also took too long to resolve their problems, with only 11% being resolved within one day and 20% taking more than thirty days. One-third (33%) of the survey's respondents felt that their problem still had yet to be resolved.
Unresponsive to needs
Another reason for this low level of complainant satisfaction was that the organisations at fault were not responsive to their customers' wants, with 37% of complainants saying the felt they "got nothing".
The table below reports the limited relief received by those complainants that said they did get some kind of remedy: