According to reports in the Telegraph recently, the number of customer complaints doubled last year to more than 66 million. That’s not all; the number of problems raised by upset shoppers to companies also increased by 74%. This is bad news for companies that try to pride themselves on customer service, and we believe that should be every company.
Today, the demand for fast responses and a friendly service is higher than ever. Customer service is also talked about more than ever between customers. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook mean that any bad experiences can be shared faster than ever before. That’s a lot of instant bad publicity that you would be better off avoiding.
In research gathered by Ombudsman’s Services, it found that retail was the most complained about sector, with over 18 million individuals complaints raised in 2014, followed closely by Telecoms and Energy Suppliers.
The top ten most complained sectors in 2014 were:
- Retail
- Telecoms
- Energy
- Banking and finance
- Public transport
- Leisure and Tourism
- Tradesmen
- Property
- Postal
- Professional services
While over a third of complaints have been made online, many consumers are blaming the removal of human interaction from online transactions that make minor problems a bigger issue.
British consumers are now more willing to take action against companies when they have an complaint, although figures have should that an additional 71 million problems were never brought to a company’s attention. It takes, on average, 1.5 complaints per person to get an issue sorted. Based on these latest figures, experts are saying that more needs to be done to tackle poor customer service in the UK and that companies need to improve the way complaints are dealt with.
Could you use some help with your customer service? Call us on 0800 0835159 with any queries or email [email protected] for any extra information.