Amazon took the #1 spot as the top performing retailer in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index six time running in the biannual rankings but have now slipped to joint 5th place as an expanded set of measures were introduced.

“Research has found that emotional connection, ethics and the sense that organisations genuinely build experiences around their customers’ needs significantly influence customer satisfaction. As a result, this UKCSI contains new measures that give a richer understanding of current customer needs and priorities, whilst maintaining a consistent, robust benchmark of customer satisfaction performance.”
– Institute of Customer Service

Amazon have faced criticism on a number of fronts including employee working conditions in their warehouses and their tax contributions in the UK. With the new ethics based customer satisfaction measures, Amazon may have been the number one business in the UK for delivering on customer promises but overall they may not be quite as loved as previously thought.

This time around, the UK Customer Satisfaction Index shows a further slight fall in overall customer satisfaction. The number of customers who experienced a problem with an organisation has increased and is at its highest ever level. Fewer experiences were rated by customers as “right first time.” The level of effort expended by customers in dealing with organisations increased slightly. However, satisfaction with complaint handling improved in most sectors which prevented a more pronounced overall drop.

eBay who previously held 9th position as a non-food retailer and joint 28th position overall have dropped out of the top 50. Out of the top 50 UK companies ranked by customer satisfaction, over 20 of the companies are in the top 50 for the first time.

Top 10 UK retailers for Customer Satisfaction January 2019