Hospitality and tourism leads the field on customer satisfaction

Tourism beat the UK average for customer satisfaction and climbed from sixth to third in the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), while a number of UK eating out brands made it into Nunwood’s 2014 top 100 companies for customer experience.

Customer satisfaction​

According to the latest UKCSI, published by the Institute of Customer Service, the tourism sector experienced a small decline in customer satisfaction of 0.2 points between January and July 2014.

However, the sector outperformed many other industries, scoring higher than the all-sector average in every one of the 28 metrics used to measure performance, and climbing from sixth to third place on the index.

Center Parcs (83.3), P&O Cruises (82.0) and Premier Inn (82.0) were the stand out brands in the sector, but only two tourism organisations scored lower than the all-sector average of 79.8, and tourism as a whole scored 3.5 per cent higher than the average.

Just over 7 per cent of tourism customers experienced problems compared to 13.4 per cent on average across all industries, and satisfaction with complaints handling and the outcome of complaints have both improved since January 2014.

The Institute of Customer Service said this was particularly impressive given the fact customers are more likely to report a problem with a tourism business than other industries, and use social media more often to report problems.

Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service, said: “Tourism faces a unique set of challenges. Customer satisfaction with a holiday for example incorporates the whole experience from leaving my front door to returning after my break. If I am delayed during my journey, have a bad experience at the airport, have a problem with a connection or the accommodation it will reflect on each of the other elements.  

“A problem which may appear to be unconnected to the organisation may be seen by the customer as part of the same thing. If a complaint is to be resolved successfully it has to happen almost immediately if it is not to impact negatively on the overall experience. As a result organisations in this sector must be adept at handling problems quickly and successfully, which is reflected in the impressive performance in the UKCSI.”

Eating out brands​

Meanwhile, M&C Report has revealed​​ that Costa, Greggs, TGI Fridays, Nandos, Pizza Hut and Pizza Express were among the brands named in Nunwood’s top 100 UK companies for customer experience this year.

The top 100, which is based on a survey of 7,500 customers, provides insight into UK brands that achieve excellence through the Six Pillars of personalisation – expectation, resolution, integrity, empathy and time and effort.

Costa, Greggs, Dunkin’ Donuts, Nando’s and Pizza Express all climbed up the ranking this year, while TGI Friday’s, Krispy Kreme and Pizza Hut all slipped but remained in the 2014 top 100.