Local government came last in a survey of customer satisfaction by the Institute of Customer Service with a score of 56 per cent. This is the first UK Customer Satisfaction Index which shows how well or badly UK organisations perform. The survey asked 2,000 respondents to score on priorities such as professionalism, complaint-handling, quality, and competence and friendliness of staff. It is planned to repeat the survey at six monthly intervals.Utilities performed slightly better with 58 per cent. Telecommunications scored 63 per cent and transport 64 per cent. Organisations at the bottom of the table showed up particularly badly when dealing with problems and it is claimed that this demonstrates a poor attitude to customer relations. The ambulance service was the best performer in the survey with 88 per cent.

The ICS claims that the index will, for the first time in the UK, allow people to quickly identify the best and worst performers. This, it is hoped, will encourage organisations to look outside their own sectors for comparisons, benchmark their performance and so improve their customer relations.

The survey is available at: http://ukcsi.com/