IT is very modern. This feeling of hanging in forgetting, and it carries a small display of a red song simply below the line, and watching the morning drifted away. My fourth invitation to customer services was to discover the fate of the valuable delivery that was tried without warning three days ago from what was agreed upon, and I failed to reach on the first date that was re -arranged, and there was no appearance in the second, and after that it disappeared from the quick post radar. “We do not make time holes,” he said operating the call center, indicating that I am waiting for another 12 hours the next day if it appears.
Report issued by Thinktank New Britain Last month it was found that 78 % of people around the country are frustrated when dealing with customer services – and that on average we spend between 28 and 41 minutes every week in dealing with them in long battles. According to UK Institute for Customer Service (UKICS), contentment at its lowest level in a decade – with 24 % of 15,000 respondents for the annual survey of bad experience in 2024. Consumer Group any? I found that the energy and wide energy customersIn the same year, it lost an estimated 27.3 million hours due to the weak customer service, which amounted to 298 million pounds in costs, as consumers were left from his pocket when the problems were not solved.
Was this always bad? When I started reporting consumer affairs in 1998, customers were kept in developing distinct price hooks or not answered messages; Now, the Chatbots that pass the Pak, and an intense discovery may be needed to discover the phone number – if there is one at all. It is a rare reward if this number is answered by a person. In my years of helping readers with my consumer column Your problemsI learned that while problems and techniques evolved, the feeling of frustration remains from customer service.
Perhaps the biggest shift was the launch of Chatbots and AI to confront customer reactions, which is a new frustration for those who suffer from a courageous complaint that needs more than digital proteins. More than two -thirds of the respondents report a bad experience with Chatbots or vocal response system, A survey conducted by Wernten I found last year. According to the Ukics Chairman, Jo Causon, companies that better lead to customer satisfaction are “those that pick up the phone – or an email message – and listen.”
Photo: Djelics/Getty Images
Really listening is the key. I used to wonder in readers who confessed that they threw tears on a line of help when I lost the expulsion. Now realize that you have to bear the experience to understand it. I learned to feel enough quickly during the two weeks that my phone supplier took to operate the new phone recently. Then there was the night in which the 16 -year -old child train threw at a closed rural station 200 miles from the house to get its inventory circulating to the base. This has taught me more about the consumer’s journey more than decades-I felt directly in a sense of injustice and impotence, and in extreme cases, the explicit fear of causing bad service.
One email that I will never forget was from a young mother Who wrote to me in 2023 About her forcing her to get out of the new council apartment after she left her energy resource, E.on, and her child without heating or hot water for the entire winter. “I am in despair,” she wrote. The company was using its pre -payment meters to pay the previous tenant’s debts, causing its supply to be cut. She ignored her desperate appeals and ordered the grievance secretary to recover her money and install a credit counter. It took an intervention from the trustee to get heated and saved.
Most of us accept that things can get worse. Corporates are lines. The error or envelope can disrupt the best plans. It is indifferent to consume consumers: bank employees who She has repeatedly told a 91 -year -old girl that she had died When she complained about freezing her bank account for three months; Hall rental company that Complain From a family I found that the holiday hut was blood -stained sex.
Ironically, the perfect service for a minority of companies makes customers more frustrated than the companies are indifferent. These extremist values raise expectations. The modern customer does not only want a high -quality service, according to UKICS surveys; They appreciate sympathy, transparency, efficiency and speed, and it may be difficult for companies to provide all these in all circumstances.
What these companies miss is that complaints may often be mitigated by sympathetic ear and good faith. One of the readers was composed by a voucher to treat a spa sent by the energy supplier to relieve the pressure caused by its bad service. The retail seller of luggage, who realized that the late time, will not arrive in a timely manner to spend his clients from Essex to Glasgow to deliver him personally. It is given that these clients remained loyal and implemented. Maintains three quarters of the complainants who make a satisfactory decision on custom, according to the research conducted by complaints consultations HuntswoodWhile the same number turns to their competitors if they feel a short change.
Good customer service should not be expensive. Training and innovation can be more effective than charges. Timpson, with retail traders in service, which constantly leads UKICS classifications, depends on what you call “upside down” to keep its customers happy. Employees are enabled by following their own instincts to ensure a good service, including reducing or giving up prices and offering up to 500 pounds in goodwill if disasters. The result? Employees of such an agency are happier and the complainants feel listening.
Customer service spirit begins in the meeting hall, according to CaUSON. “If the council understands the need to deal with customers well, this will reach the quality of service,” she says. “It is not only a communication center, but the long -term strategy and investment in effective people and technology.”
It is important that four of the first five companies in UKICS customer service classifications are not owned by shareholders. Timpson, Starling Bank, National and John Lewis scored the highest satisfaction with Marx & Spencer (Food Department). When shareholders’ profits are not the primary focus, investment can give priority to customer care for quick profits.
BT and BRISHISH AIRWAIS, brands that were once strongly strong for British life, are a testimony of what can happen when priority is given to profits on care. EE, which is now part of BT, is the second most wide range and landline represented The latest report issued by the OFCOC Communications Regulator. Between airlines, any? BA classification belowBelow Ryanair, to satisfy customer service.
““The weak performance of the measurement of British Airways in our poll indicates a decrease in the days that were seen as determining the criteria that others should aspire,” says Rorre Boland travel editor.
Ba said that the results were at odds with customer ‘observations after an investment of 7 billion pounds. A spokesman for BT said EE Millions have invested to improve customer support and reduced complaints from the period of Offcom.
Some companies hope that the brand renames previous memories of disasters. Delivery company Hermes She changed her name to EVRI and invested in a new slogan in 2022 at a time when he was widely criticized due to poor parcel, but one thing has remained the same: it was classified at the bottom of the Offes delivery companies for two years, respectively, with only 32 % of customers who were used to benefit from how to distinguish their doubts. Evry says the restart has caused a change in ownership and that it has been classified as one of the most delicious companies in OFCIISIZANS COVEL and Yougov.
Ultimately, customers who have enough money are ready to pay more to ensure a reliable service – although perhaps not in the way that the reservation platform is mired. During the epidemic, I presented Fees that travelers can pay to ensure timely responses. Those who do not want to pay up to 17.99 pounds, went to the back of the waiting list and faced the supervisor fee.
But often, shopping around it is not an option. while Vocabulary can skip the waiting list in HMRCThe rest of us must bear the reputable slow customer service line. And when it comes to traveling, passengers do not always have the luxury of choosing the operator who want courage. Openreach, which has left many of the guardians in Communications LIMBO, has a monopoly near the UK breeze infrastructure. Likewise, local authorities, housing societies and water companies can stay away from the service of the distant because their customers have no choice.
The good news is that the expectations slowly improve, according to Huntswood. Companies diversify their communication channels and more complaints are resolved sooner.
But my inbox and postbag are still a very long way. Meanwhile, affected consumers should get a good book, prepare some nutritious snacks, keep their phone charger within their reach and prepare for the long distance.
How to complain effectively
Keep a record of calls and email messages, including the time, date and what was said.
If an initial call It does not make you anywhere, You complain about writing. Email is more effective From the letters Since it is easier to track copies.
Do not forget to include your full name, address, customer reference/reservation/request in all correspondence. This will help the company to Determine you on Its system. It is explained in the topic line This is a complaint.
Some companies are suspended complaints by hiding their contact details. If so, try to publish on social media, While companies hate to fight them in the public domain, or move directly to the summit. You can find executive email addresses on chief executive officer.
Be polite and brief. Summarize the problem clearly; Attach any relevant documents; Mention the result you are looking for and the deadline.
Read the relevant consumer law online so that you can cite any reserve regulations. the Consumer Rights Law 2015 It is a good starting point. Merchants require the recovery, repair, or replacement of goods (or services) that are not as shown or satisfactory quality. Advice offers for citizens A group of template messagesOr you can contact companies via Complaints of the solution site.
If your initial attempt is on deaf ears, then escalate by following the company’s complaints, which must be detailed on its website. If this fails, discover the appropriate grievance secretary service or the settlement of alternative disputes (ADR). Some sectors, Such as financing, energy and communications, up to a chart must be recorded; For others, it is voluntary. there It is the list of plans on Related Trading Standards Institute A website. the small The Court of claims is an option if there is no applied AdR, or if you do not accept the decision of the Secretary of Grievances. Try to send another “A message before work“ To the company in which the court fees are included to see if it activates it.
Useful backup copy to divide 75 Subordinate Consumer credit law. This allows you to claim a recovery through the bank you deal with if you pay the credit card and cost the goods or service 100 pounds or more. Discount card payments are protected by a voluntary Fee.
