customer service

FEATURES & INVESTIGATIONS BEST BRANDS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

1st

2nd

3rd=

3rd=

3rd=

6th

7th

8th

FIRST DIRECT (99)

LUSH (99)

JOHN LEWIS (99)

LAKELAND (98)

WAITROSE (97)

SPECSAVERS (100)

WATERSTONES (97)

GREEN FLAG (96)

87%

Valued as a customer Product/service knowledge Resolving complaints

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86%


83%

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83%


Best and worst brands for

customer service

Our survey of more than 3,500 UK consumers reveals your customer service champions and those brands that just aren’t up to scratch

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The 100 best and worst brands for customer service Top and bottom in banking, energy, telecoms and retail Your top 10 customer service irritations revealed

83%


82%

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F

irst Direct, a bank that has no high street branches but still manages to make its customers feel valued, is the top-rated brand for customer service in the UK. Energy giant Npower limps into last place with the lowest score out of the 100 brands in our survey. This survey is all about customer service, shining a light on how brands across the banking, telecoms, energy, retail and travel industries treat you, in isolation from the

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81%


value for money they offer or the quality of the products or services they supply. Although cost is an important factor when choosing your bank, airline or energy supplier, you’ve told us that excellent customer service makes a big difference, too. First Direct is joined in the top five by last year’s top-scorer Lush, much-loved department store John Lewis, popular cookware retailer Lakeland and winner of the Which? Awards Best Supermarket 2014, Waitrose. These brands

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80%


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often score highly in our satisfaction surveys and they are clearly getting their service right. In last place is Npower, with fellow energy supplier Scottish Power scoring almost as poorly. Both brands have had well-publicised problems with customer service in the past year, and in June (p5) we found that both suppliers kept our researchers waiting more than 10 minutes on average when they called with queries or complaints. Last year’s lowest-scoring brand, Ryanair, has crept up to 98th place.

BRANDS RATED FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE (NUMBERS 9 TO 100)

ILLUSTRATION BY: SPENCER WILSON

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79% 79% 79% 79% 79% 78% 78% 78% 78% 78% 77% 77% 77% 76% 76% 76% 76% 76% 76% 76% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75% 75%

= 36 = = = = = = = = = 46 = = = = = = = = 55 = = = = 60

THOMSON (91) B&Q (100) BANK OF SCOTLAND (98) BRITISH AIRWAYS (99) CLYDESDALE BANK (98) DOLLOND & AITCHISON (80) MATALAN (99) MORRISONS (98) SHOP DIRECT CATALOGUES (97) TESCO (94) VIRGIN MEDIA (98) DUNELM (98) HALIFAX (92) KWIK FIT (96) LLOYDS BANK (97) O2 (93) PHONES4U (96) PLAY.COM (90) SUPERDRUG (99) WILKO (95) ARGOS (99) EASYJET (93) FIRST CHOICE (94) HOMEBASE (96) SKY (96) BARCLAYS/BARCLAYCARD (95)

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75% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 74% 73% 73% 73% 73% 73% 73% 73% 73% 73% 72% 72% 72% 72% 72% 71% which.co.uk

= = = = = = = = = 70 = = = = = = 77 = = = 81 = = = = 86

CO-OPERATIVE BANK (100) CURRYS / PC WORLD (96) EBAY (90) HSBC (94) IKEA (99) ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (97) SHOE ZONE (99) THREE (93) YORKSHIRE BANK (97) BHS (95) FLYBE (95) MBNA (90) NATWEST (98) SANTANDER (99) TOPSHOP / TOPMAN (94) WH SMITH (97) CAPITAL ONE (94) LIDL (93) SPORTS DIRECT (93) TOYS R US (97) DFS FURNITURE (95) EDF ENERGY (95) POUNDLAND (95) POUNDSTRETCHER (96) VODAFONE (97) BRITISH GAS (96)

which.co.uk

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71% 71% 71% 71% 71% 71% 71% 71% 71% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 69% 69% 69% 69% 68% 68% 68% 68% 68% 67%

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16 WHICH? OCTOBER 2014

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ER M O ICE STRV RE CUS E O SC g in lv s so nt i Re pla m t/ co uc od ice Pr rv e se dg le ow a kn as ed er lu m Va sto cu

AMAZON (93) AMERICAN EXPRESS (93) GAME RETAIL (100) LLOYDS PHARMACY (98) MARKS & SPENCER (97) BOOTS (100) NEXT (97) SAINSBURY’S (96) SMILE (76) WICKES (95) APPLE (93) CLARKS (98) NATIONWIDE (96) AA (97) ASDA (94) DEBENHAMS (95) HALFORDS (99) PETS AT HOME (100) RAC (96) TSB (97) ALDI (100) HOUSE OF FRASER (97) MAPLIN (96) MOTHERCARE (94) SCREWFIX (93) THOMAS COOK (96)

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67% 67% 67% 67% 66% 66% 65% 64% 64% 64% 63%

RYANAIR (97) 98 Last year’s lowest scorer still fails to HH impress with its customer service

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59%

SCOTTISH POWER (97) 99 The biggest faller in this year’s table – from joint 62nd to 99th

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58%

NPOWER (96) 100 Well-publicised billing problems have left customers frustrated

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57%

= = = = 91 = 93 94 = = 97

CARPHONE WAREHOUSE (96) EON (96) JD SPORTS (96) PRIMARK (97) CO-OPERATIVE FOOD (96) TK MAXX (94) 99p STORES (92) BT (96) EE (96) SSE (92) TALKTALK (96)

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AT THE BOTTOM

Customer service scores based on ratings given by respondents for customer service for each brand. Sample sizes are in brackets after each brand name.

OCTOBER 2014 WHICH? 17



Your number one bugbear is having to navigate an automated phone system so you can talk to a real person

The bottom of our table is dominated by brands with millions of customers. With so many people to keep happy, making small improvements could have a huge impact. Npower received 450,000 complaints from customers in the first quarter of 2014 alone, after serious issues with its billing systems. High-profile billing troubles have also plagued Scottish Power, having transferred its customers from an old computer system to a new one since our 2013 survey. Npower has pledged to become the best of the big six energy suppliers for customer service by the end of 2015, but our survey shows there’s still a long way to go. Shortly after we published our 2013 survey, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary announced big changes to his airline’s customer service. A revamped, more user-friendly website came first, followed by improvements that included allocated seating, fewer announcements on flights late at night or early in the morning, and a reduction in many of the extra charges that frustrated so many customers. As yet, this hasn’t significantly boosted its customer service score.

to understand the person on the other end of the phone. This seems to be a common gripe, also mentioned by customers of Barclays, Capital One, TalkTalk, Three and Virgin Media. Customers don’t want to be passed around between different departments either. One TalkTalk customer described having their patience tested: ‘Faulty phone problem has taken over a month to resolve. Had three engineers checking the same issue and each person doesn’t know what the previous person has checked.’ For high street shops, the focus remains on getting face-to-face service right. A major frustration is when staff are too busy chatting to help their customers. John Lewis, Lakeland and Lush have plenty of staff who are ready to help, according to the customers we surveyed. And speed isn’t only important on the telephone; long queues in shops really wind up customers.

Leading by example

So how could the brands at the bottom of the table turn things around? Our respondents were happy to tell us what they think the best brands are doing right. Your number one bugbear is having to navigate an automated phone system to talk to a real person. First Direct enables people to get straight through to a member of staff, and while the call isn’t always answered instantly, it’s a smoother experience for the customer. Some of you who have dealt with BT in the past 12 months commented on not being able

Amazon saved Christmas for one respondent: ‘When a gift went missing, Amazon promptly sent a replacement, so the recipient never knew there had been a problem.’ Lakeland went above and beyond for a customer who lived far from the store: ‘I got home with a purchase to find out that two replacement filters were missing. As it’s a 35-mile round trip to the shop, I rang them and they put the filters, plus an extra four, in the post and I had them the next day.’ If Npower is really going to fulfil its pledge to be the best big energy supplier for customer service, it has a lot to learn from the brands at the top of our table and their ability to turn potential disasters into triumphs.

Our research We surveyed 3,621 members of the UK public in May/June 2014 about the big brands they had interacted with in the past 12 months – face-to-face or by email, telephone, post or social media. Brands were chosen based on market share within their sectors. Each brand was rated on making its customers feel valued, knowledge of products and services, helpfulness of staff, resolving complaints or problems, and access to customer support. Respondents were also asked to give each brand an overall rating out of 10 for customer service, which is where our Customer Service Score comes from.

From disaster to delight

Whether you’re talking to a company over the phone, in a shop or on Twitter, great service is always friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and polite. But can brands do even more to excel? In the comments given by our survey respondents, one indicator of amazing customer service came up again and again: if something goes wrong, fix it and make it even better.

TOP 10 CUSTOMER SERVICE GRIPES We asked our survey respondents to choose their biggest customer service irritations. Here are the ones that really wind people up

1

2

Automated telephone systems 43%

Passed around lots of people

6

7

Long queues 18 WHICH? OCTOBER 2014

33%

3

37%

Trying to sell you unwanted products 32%

Annoying ‘hold’ music

4

35%

8

Lack of knowledge about products 24%

Staff talking to each other

5

34%

9

Standard responses to problems 24%

Rude staff

Travel

Personal finance

Energy suppliers

Top: Thomas Cook 75% Bottom: Ryanair 59%

Top: First Direct 87% Bottom: Capital One 69%

Top: EDF Energy 68% Bottom: Npower 57%

Our survey covered the big holiday brands, with a mixture of well-used travel companies and airlines. According to our survey, low-cost airline Ryanair is still lagging behind its main competitor EasyJet on customer service, particularly when it comes to having knowledgeable staff. The recent widely publicised focus on customers at Ryanair is yet to have a big impact on how the public feels about the budget brand, but it could take a few journeys with the airline for people to decide whether it really has changed for the better.

First Direct is not just the best brand overall, but it tops the personal finance category in our survey by a big margin, with staff that are helpful and effective at resolving problems. The biggest difference between finance brands is how valued they make you feel as a customer, with only First Direct achieving the full five stars. The bank, with no branches of its own, is also the only brand in the whole survey to receive five stars for access to customer support (not shown in the tables). Credit card company American Express and online bank Smile are fairly high up the table.

All of the ‘big six’ energy companies are in the bottom fifth of our overall table. After lots of bad news stories in the press, and an ultimatum from regulator Ofgem, Npower is still not managing to get its customer service right. Scottish Power scores almost as badly, after dropping from joint 62nd place in 2013 to 99th place this year, following reported issues with its billing system and long call-waiting times. None of the major energy brands scores more than two stars for making customers feel valued.

Retailers

Telecoms

Supermarkets

Top: Lush 86% Bottom: 99p Stores 65%

Top: Virgin Media 74% Bottom: TalkTalk 63%

Top: Waitrose 83% Bottom: The Co-operative 66%

Lush is becoming a regular near the top of our customer service surveys, and our latest one is no exception. With five stars for everything but access to customer support (which no retailer achieved), Lush is clearly doing something right, although we did receive a couple of comments from respondents saying that its staff can be a bit too attentive when they just want to browse. John Lewis and Lakeland are hot on its heels with their own raft of five-star ratings. At the other end, it seems that cheap doesn’t necessarily mean cheerful, with budget retailers Primark, TK Maxx and 99p Stores scoring poorly for product knowledge, helpfulness and valuing their customers.

There are fewer differences in star ratings between the phone and broadband brands in this survey – none of them scores highly for access to customer support or making customers feel valued. The top telecoms brands score well for knowledge, a vital attribute when something complicated goes wrong with an essential service like broadband. Virgin Media stands out for its approach to resolving complaints and problems, while fellow broadband and TV provider Talk Talk is in 97th place and scores only two stars in each category. Telecoms giant BT also failed to achieve more than two stars for any aspect of its customer service.

As well as being one of the top brands overall, Waitrose is the only supermarket to be awarded five stars for making its customers feel valued, and is also rated as more helpful than its competitors. Lowest-scoring supermarket The Co-operative Food only managed two stars for making customers feel valued and is close to the bottom of our overall table. Waitrose also has the edge on Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco when it comes to demonstrating knowledge of its products and services, as well as resolving complaints or problems. And in a battle of the discounters, customers say Aldi beats Lidl on knowledge and resolving complaints.

33%

10

FIND OUT MORE

Having to wait for help or a response 21% which.co.uk

Recent Which? articles about customer service l ‘And the winners are...’, July 2014, p16 l ‘Are you being served?’, October 2013, p16 l ‘Best and worst high street shops 2014’, June 2014, p28 which.co.uk

On Which.co.uk l See full star ratings for all 100 brands at: which.co.uk/ bestbrands2014 Join the conversation l Have your say on what you find most irritating or inspiring about brands’ customer service at: which.co.uk/irritations

THE BOTTOM LINE

Outstanding service leaves you feeling positive, valued and likely to want to repeat your experience – but our survey shows that many firms still have a long way to go in delivering this. Don’t be afraid to complain if you receive poor service and, where possible, vote with your feet in the direction of our top-rated brands. OCTOBER 2014 WHICH? 19