Even though customer satisfaction continues to fall, retail food is one of the top performing sectors according to the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) from The Institute of Customer Service. It had a score of 79.6 compared with the all sector average of 76.

Retail food is the second-highest scoring sector (out of 13 ) for customer satisfaction, despite falling 1.3 points between July 2014 and January 2015, compared with the 0.3 points drop in the UKCSI all-sector average.

A correlation between customer satisfaction and business success is seen in the retail food sector more than any other – food retailers with UKCSI scores above the sector average delivered 8.2% year on year sales growth in the 12 weeks to 12th October 2014. Those performing below this average experienced a sales decrease of 1.9% over the same period.

Jo Causon, chief executive from The Institute of Customer Service said: “Customer service and satisfaction is not just about dealing with complaints, it is about responding to customers – providing goods and services that are relevant to them and doing so in a way that is easy, efficient and where a problem does arise, it is dealt with in a prompt and professional way.”