UK customer experience fails to improve

According to the report, the UK’s top 10 brands for customer experience are as follows:

1. Lush (*4 )
2. First Direct (*1 )
3. John Lewis (*2 )
4. Richer Sounds (*22 )
5. QVC (*3 )
6. Amazon (*5 )
7. Skipton Building Society (*13 )
8. American Express (*49 )
9. Ocado (*12 )
10. AO (*6 )

*last year’s rank

But while some brands — such as new top performer, Lush cosmetics — have made progress, overall there has been no improvement on 2014’s average score. In some sectors, such as telecoms, logistics and grocery retail, performance has actually declined. Utilities and non-food retail brands have seen the most progress since 2014. Compared to its international counterparts, UK brands are being outperformed: average scores across the UK are 5% lower than in the USA.

“UK businesses find it challenging to get things right for their customers,” said Tim Knight, director at KPMG Nunwood. “Despite growing investment and boardroom focus, many firms still struggle to put the customer at the heart of their transformation efforts.

“As the country approaches more rapid economic growth, those brands at the top of this year’s rankings are best positioned to delight customers and shareholders alike. Top rankings in customer experience link not only to better loyalty, but improved revenue growth and EBITDA.

“Learning from the customer experience best practice of today’s leaders will be critical to competing in tomorrow’s market.”

The research was based on interviews with 10,000 consumers.