Overall customer satisfaction in the tourism sector has increased over the past year, continuing the ongoing upward trend in satisfaction since 2011, reveals the UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), published today by the Institute of Customer Service. The UKCSI gives the UK’s tourism industry an overall customer satisfaction rating of 79.9 out of 100 – 0.6 points higher than its July 2015 score, and the third highest ranking sector.
The data offers important insights into key metrics, including complaints, trust and changing channel use. This year, the sector has experienced an increase in website use for communication with customers, and a fall in the amount of ‘in person’ contact.
Ten organisations within the sector have improved, with only four demonstrating a fall in customer satisfaction. Premier Inn tops the tables as the highest scorer in the industry, with Pontins as the most improved, and Late Rooms.com makes its first appearance in the UKCSI. However, there is a diverse range of service performance in the sector, with a gap of 10.2 points between the highest and lowest ranked organisations.
The UKCSI is the Institute of Customer Service’s national measure of customer satisfaction based on 10,000 consumer responses. It provides insights into the state and direction of customer satisfaction at a national level, across 13 key sectors and for individual organisations.
The results found a clear link between organisations getting customer experiences right first time and achieving high scores for satisfaction. On average the UKCSI score was 82.7 for those organisations where customers said they had issues resolved immediately, but when this did not happen the score drops to an average of 59. This correlation can be seen in the telecoms industry, where customers rate companies as getting it right first time in 78% of cases and the sector received an overall rating of 79.9.
In many sectors there has been an increase in the score for customer effort – in other words, customers said they had to expend more effort in dealing with organisations than they did a year ago. In the tourism sector, 38% of people say that it has taken them more than two complaints to get a problem fixed. The extra staff time spent on repeat customer contact to resolve issues is arguably time which could be better spent, with businesses set to save money on staff hours if a focus is placed on getting it right first time.
Across all sectors, the research also reveals that many people don’t make the effort to complain to organisations if they do have a problem; 24% of people who experienced an issue did not report it. ‘Not thinking their complaint would make a difference’ was by far the most common reason for not reporting, cited by 51% of people.
The UKCSI also revealed new evidence of the tangible business benefits of good customer service for all sectors. The relationship between the highest levels of customer satisfaction and trust has strengthened in the past year, with 96% of customers who rate an organisation nine or ten out of ten for customer satisfaction also giving the highest levels of trust.
Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service, comments:
“’Getting it right first time’ has to be a prerequisite for any organisation. Customers expect to be dealt with quickly and competently – as soon as they start to feel let down or ignored, their trust is lost. It’s encouraging to see the tourism sector is making progress, but prevention is always better than cure, so the industry should take note of the areas which need to be focused on. Efficiency, effectiveness and empathy are key, and organisations should always follow up with customers to ensure that the problem is resolved.”