Customer Life in Britain

This survey is produced by ASR every spring, and has been a barometer of customer satisfaction in Britain since 2005. The 2011 survey was sponsored by Consumer Focus, Ofcom and Which?.

A free report of the main trends is available on request - just call, email or complete the form on the left. The full detailed results can be purchased on request.

The 2010 results were widely quoted in this report from Consumer Focus: ‘Unleashing the new consumer power’ - Click here for report

Conducted in association with Research Now, we poll 1,000 adults to track their satisfaction and likely loyalty levels by major industry. We also track the incidence of complaints and wider feelings towards customer service standards in daily life. The April 2011 survey headlines were:

• Britain is feeling far more pessimistic with regard to spending and savings than a year ago, and we are even less secure in our jobs. Last year’s tough results have got worse. The net proportion who think their disposable income once the basics are paid has gone down (% decreased – % increased) is 44% compared with 33% a year ago. The net proportion thinking they are saving less has increased to 33% from 23% a year ago; the net proportion expecting to spend less on their holidays this year is 23%, up from 14% a year ago. Finally, net job insecurity has grown from 10% to 16%. These sobering results underline the slow rate of economic recover widely reported in the media during April.

• It is therefore unsurprising to find that consistently over half of consumers report using cheaper brands and shops more often in recent months, and a similar majority are visiting price comparison websites more frequently. About a third report being more open than before to good Direct Mail and online deals.

• In this climate it is no surprise to find that a considerable majority think that companies are cutting customer service – and feel that service standards in general have declined. However, a 2 to 1 majority say they don’t in fact want poorer service or to wait longer, even if this brings a saving.

• Over 8 in 10 adults say they are happy to give feedback to companies if they know it will be acted upon – underlining the potential for great customer relationships and loyalty when things go well.

• Four in ten say that being left too long on hold when they phone is their biggest customer service frustration, as has been found by this survey for several years – followed by coping with voice activated systems. This underlines the frustrations with such systems faced by a significant majority of consumers.

• The total volume of complaints made has dropped 15% from last year’s very high level, although a similar proportion of adults (7 in 10) made any complaint at all. Almost all sectors experienced a slight fall in complaints volume.

• The significant squeeze on consumer purse-strings is underlined this year by reduced value for money ratings for insurance, supermarkets, cinema trips and home broadband bills in particular. The far worse ratings reported last year for personal banking services have been equally poor this year. On a positive note ratings for local council customer service are far better than a year ago.