The UK utilities sector has the second highest customer satisfaction rates in Europe, according to a report released today by the Institute of Customer Service.

The research, which compares levels of customer satisfaction across eight European nations – UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands - shows the UK topping the table for customer satisfaction in all sectors surveyed, except for transport (in which it comes joint first with Poland) and utilities (which was topped by Germany).

The Institute’s European Customer Satisfaction Index (EUCSI) scores the UK an overall customer satisfaction rating of 76.1 – this is 3 points higher than its closest rival, Germany (73.1).

The data also shows that countries such as Germany and the UK, which have lower unemployment levels and greater GDP per capita, tended to have the best customer satisfaction scores. Conversely, those countries with higher rates of unemployment and lower GDP – such as France, Italy and Spain – all score lower for customer satisfaction.

This is the first time the Institute has compiled research into how customer satisfaction levels vary across Europe. The EUCSI builds on the Institute’s UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which has been running since 2008.

The research was conducted with 26,906 customers from eight European nations (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden) in October 2015. The research covers data from six industry sectors in total: banking, insurance, retail (food), telecommunications and media, transport and utilities.

Building customer trust a key area for improvement in UK

Although the UK leads the way when it comes to how satisfied its customers are, the EUCSI data highlights building customer trust as an area for improvement.  At first glance, with 89 percent of the most satisfied customers scoring organisations a nine or 10 out of 10 for trust, the signs are positive.  However, the UK average is lower than that across the EU (95 percent) meaning that UK organisations have to work harder to secure customer trust.

The report also highlights European differences in customer priorities.  Competence, behaviour and attitude are important across all eight European nations studied, but there are noticeable national preferences.   In the UK, for example, customers ranked ‘ease of doing business’ and the ‘helpfulness of staff (in person)’ as more important than the European average.  In Germany, product reliability, on-time delivery and the condition of delivered goods were above average; and Italian customers reported that the availability of website support was of high importance. 

The Institute of Customer Service is the professional body for customer service with a community of over 500 organisational members – from the private, public and third sectors – and over 4,000 individual memberships. 

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, commented:

“It’s encouraging to see that UK organisations are achieving higher levels of customer satisfaction compared to the rest of Europe as this demonstrates our competitiveness. However, as the data shows, this doesn’t necessarily translate into customer trust putting the onus on UK companies to look at tangible ways of building greater confidence among their customers to ensure long-term – and sustainable - loyalty.” 

“On the whole, the data illustrates that customer service has come of age and is now clearly linked to a country’s economic performance. If we take those countries with the lowest customer satisfaction scores, we can see that each has had its own economic and social challenges in recent times and this is clearly reflected in the customer satisfaction data. As a result, good customer service should not be seen as a ‘nice to have’ for organisations, but as a key competence and asset which can bring wider economic benefits.”