The death of customer service: why has it become so, so bad?

The Guardian

17-04-2025

It is a very modern feeling. That sense of dangling in limbo, enduring a tinny rendition of a Simply Red song down the line, and watching the morning drift away. It was my fourth call to customer services to discover the fate of a valuable delivery that had been attempted without warning three days earlier than agreed, failed to arrive on the first rearranged date, was a no-show on the second, and had subsequently vanished off the courier's radar. 'We don't do time slots,' said the call centre operative, suggesting I wait in for another 12 hours the following day in case it turned up.
A report by the thinktank New Britain last month found that 78% of people across the country feel frustrated when dealing with customer services – and that on average we spend between 28 and 41 minutes every week dealing with them in lengthy battles. According to the UK Institute for Customer Service (UKICS), satisfaction is at its lowest level in a decade – with 24% of the 15,000 respondents to its annual survey reporting a poor experience in 2024. The consumer group Which? found that energy and broadband customers, in the same year, lost an estimated 27.3m hours to poor customer service, which amounted to £298m in costs as consumers were left out of pocket when issues weren't resolved.
Has it always been this bad? When I began reporting on consumer affairs in 1998, customers were kept at bay by premium rate helplines or unanswered letters; now it is chatbots that pass the buck, and intensive sleuthing may be required to unearth a phone number – if one exists at all. It is a rare bonus if that number is answered by a human being. In my years of helping readers with my consumer column Your Problems, I've learned that while the issues and technologies have evolved, the sense of frustration with customer service remains.
Perhaps the biggest shift has been the rollout of chatbots and AI to grapple with customer interactions, which is a new frustration for those with a gritty complaint that needs more than digital platitudes. More than two-thirds of respondents reported a bad experience with chatbots or a voice response system, a survey by Verint found last year. According to UKICS CEO Jo Causon, the companies that perform better on customer satisfaction are 'those that pick up the phone – or an email – and listen'.
Listening really is key. I used to wonder at readers who confessed they'd shed tears over a helpline when a parcel went missing. Now I realise that you have to endure the experience to understand it. I learned the feeling quickly enough during the two weeks it took for my phone provider to get my new handset operational recently. And then there was the night that a train company dumped my 16-year-old at a locked country station 200 miles from home to get its rolling stock back to base. That taught me more about the consumer journey than my decades of reporting – I felt first-hand the sense of injustice, impotence and, in extreme cases, downright fear that bad service can cause.
One email I will never forget was from a young mother who wrote to me in 2023 about being forced out of her new council flat after her energy supplier, E.ON, left her and her child without heating or hot water for an entire winter. 'I'm in despair,' she wrote. The company was using her prepayment meter top-ups to pay off the debt of the previous tenant, causing her supply to cut out. It ignored her desperate pleas and an order from the ombudsman to refund her money and install a credit meter. It took intervention from the Guardian to get her heating and her savings back.
Most of us accept that things can go wrong. Companies are fallible; error or circumstance can disrupt the best-laid plans. It is indifference that incenses consumers: the bank staff who repeatedly told a 91-year-old that she was dead when she complained about her bank account being frozen for three months; the holiday rental firm that dismissed the complaints of a family who had found their holiday cottage was a bloodstained sex den.
Ironically, it's the exemplary service of a minority of companies that makes customers more frustrated with corporate indifference. These outliers raise expectations. The modern customer doesn't just want a quality service, according to UKICS surveys; they value empathy, transparency, competence and speediness, and it can be challenging for firms to deliver all of these in all circumstances.
What these companies miss is that complaints may often be mitigated by a sympathetic ear and a goodwill gesture. One reader was consoled by a voucher for a spa treatment sent by her energy supplier to relieve the stress its poor service had caused her. A luggage retailer who realised a delayed order would not arrive in time for his customer's holiday drove from Essex to Glasgow to deliver it in person. It is a given that those customers remained loyal and carried on spending. Three-quarters of complainants who achieve a satisfactory resolution maintain their custom, according to research by the complaints handling consultancy Huntswood, while the same number flee to rivals if they feel short-changed.
Good customer service doesn't have to be expensive. Training and innovation can be more effective than head counts. Service retailer Timpson, which consistently tops the UKICS rankings, relies on what it calls 'upside down management' to keep its customers happy. Staff are empowered to follow their own instincts to ensure good service, including reducing or waiving prices and offering up to £500 in goodwill if disaster strikes. The result? Employees entrusted with such agency are happier and complainants feel heard.
The ethos of customer service begins in the boardroom, according to Causon. 'If the board understands the imperative of treating customers well, it will inform the quality of the service,' she says. 'It is not just about a contact centre, but long-term strategy and investment in effective people and technology.'
It is significant that four of the top five companies in UKICS' customer service rankings are not owned by shareholders. Timpson, Starling Bank, Nationwide and John Lewis scored the highest satisfaction ratings along with Marks & Spencer (food division). When shareholder dividends are not the primary focus, investment can prioritise customer care over quick profits.
BT and British Airways, brands that were once bastions of British life, are testament to what can go wrong when profits are prioritised over care. EE, now part of BT, is the second-most-complained-about broadband, landline and pay TV provider in the latest report by the telecoms regulator Ofcom. Among airlines, Which? ranks BA bottom, below Ryanair, for customer service satisfaction.
'British Airways' poor performance in our survey shows how far it has fallen from the days when it was seen as setting the standards others should aspire to,' says Which? travel editor Rory Boland. The top performers in a survey of short and long haul carriers were Jet2.com and Singapore Airlines respectively. Both 'show it is possible to give passengers good service at a time when delays, cancellations and terrible customer service have become almost the norm,' adds Boland.
BA said the findings were at odds with its customer feedback following £7bn worth of investment. A BT spokesperson said EE has invested millions to improve customer support and that complaints have reduced since the period reported by Ofcom.
Some companies hope a rebrand will erase memories of past disasters. The delivery firm Hermes changed its name to Evri and invested in a new logo in 2022 at a time when it was being widely criticised for mishandling parcels, but one thing has stayed the same: it has been ranked bottom of Ofcom's league of delivery firms for two years running, with only 32% of customers surveyed satisfied with how their complaints were handled. Evri says the relaunch was triggered by a change in ownership and that it is ranked as one of the most improved companies in surveys by Ofcom, Citizens Advice and YouGov.
Ultimately, customers with sufficient funds are willing to pay more to ensure reliable service – although not perhaps in the way envisaged by the booking platform Gotogate. During the pandemic, it introduced fees that passengers could pay to guarantee timely responses. Those unwilling to pay up to £17.99 went to the back of the queue and faced admin charges.
But often, shopping around is not an option. While VIPs can skip the queue at HMRC, the rest of us have to endure its notoriously slow customer service line. And when it comes to travelling by train, passengers don't always have the luxury of choosing which operator they wish to brave. The telecoms provider Openreach, which has left many a Guardian reader in communications limbo, has a near monopoly over the UK's broadband infrastructure. Similarly, local authorities, housing associations and water companies can get away with abysmal service because their customers simply have no choice.
The good news is that slowly the outlook is improving, according to Huntswood. Companies are diversifying their communications channels and more complaints are being resolved sooner.
But my inbox and postbag show there is still a very long way to go. In the meantime, aggrieved consumers should get out a good book, prepare some nourishing snacks, keep their phone charger handy and get ready for the long haul.
Keep a log of calls and emails, including the time and date and what was said.
If an initial call gets you nowhere, complain in writing. Email is more effective than letters as it's easier to keep track of copies.
Don't forget to include your full name, address and customer reference/booking/order number in all correspondence. This will help the company to identify you on its system. Make clear in the subject line that this is a complaint.
Some firms cunningly stall complainants by concealing their contact details. If so, try posting on social media, as firms dislike battling it out in the public domain, or go straight to the top. You can find CEO email addresses at ceoemail.com.
Be polite and concise. Summarise the problem clearly; attach any relevant documents; state the outcome you are seeking and your deadline.
Read up on the relevant consumer law online so you can cite any regulations that back up your claim. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is a good starting point. It requires traders to refund, repair or replace goods (or services) that are not as described or of satisfactory quality. Citizens Advice offers a range of template letters, or you can connect to firms via the complaints website Resolver.
If your initial attempt falls on deaf ears, escalate it by following the company's complaints process, which should be detailed on its website. If that fails, find out the appropriate ombudsman or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. Some sectors, such as finance, energy and telecoms, have to be signed up to a scheme; for others it is voluntary. There is a list of schemes on the Chartered Trading Standards Institute website. The small claims court is an option if there is no applicable ADR, or if you don't accept an ombudsman's decision. Try sending a last 'letter before action' to the company listing applicable court fees to see if that energises them.
A handy backup is section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. This allows you to claim a refund via your bank if you paid by credit card and the goods or service cost £100 or more. Debit card payments are protected by a voluntary chargeback scheme.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.