BSI British Standards Targets Low Consumer Satisfaction, Confidence with Service

March 31, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

According to the BSI research:

• 64% of those surveyed believe that customer service in the U.K. is getting worse.
• 72% moved to a competitor after receiving poor customer service.
• 55% of customers are left unsatisfied by the handling of their complaint.

The survey also found that:

• 48% of customers surveyed had made an official complaint in the last year, with 17% complaining more than once.
• 65% of those making a complaint had not been made aware of the procedures available to them for resolving the dispute.
• Only 21% of people who had made a complaint had seen a positive outcome from a dispute resolution scheme.
• 73% of customers surveyed said that a code of conduct would make them feel more confident about buying products and services online.

Mike Low, director of BSI British Standards, said, "Many people will have experienced poor customer service, and this survey shows just how damaging that can be to an organization.

"Customers are not afraid to turn to a competitor if they feel they have been treated poorly. It's also very important that customers are aware of how their complaint will be handled and how disputes will be resolved," Low said.

To help organizations improve levels of satisfaction among their customers, BSI British Standards recently published two new standards:

• BS International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 10001 - Customer satisfaction - Guidelines for codes of conduct for organizations provides guidance on the design and implementation of a customer satisfaction code of conduct. According to BSI, implementation of the standard will potentially reduce confusion about the products and services a customer will receive and will explain what will happen in the event of a quality problem.

• BS ISO 10003 - Quality management - Customer satisfaction - Guidelines for dispute resolution external to organizations is designed for situations when complaints cannot be resolved within an organization. It gives guidance on facilitation, advice and decision making within the dispute resolution process, including direction on the selection of resolution services and the involvement of top management in the process.

BS ISO 10001 and BS ISO 10003 now form part of a suite of customer satisfaction standards, available from BSI British Standards. Used in conjunction with BS ISO 10002: 2004 - Guidelines for complaints handling in organisations, an organization can implement systems for dealing with customer satisfaction from complaint prevention and handling through to dispute resolution, BSI said.

Source: BSI Group.