Service in regulated sectors: driving an enhanced customer experience through collaboration

With the first of many General Election leadership election debates airing on Tuesday, I’m sure there will be a great deal to think about ahead of ballot day, when we exercise our choice as voters.

Influencing this voter choice will be paramount for parties wanting to achieve the broad support needed to form a government in a month’s time. This is little different for service-led organisations, which must win over consumer choice to grow their businesses. Prioritising customer satisfaction is a crucial step to making this possible.

Our latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index revealed that 31% of customers are prioritising businesses offering excellent service, even if it costs more. By contrast, the same data suggests that 41% of customers who are dissatisfied with an organisation’s level of service would avoid using it again.

Moving customers centre-stage in regulated sectors

It is true, however, that this degree of choice doesn’t always exist. In some regulated sectors, for example, customers don’t necessarily benefit from the same levels of choice in providers.

If anything, service is even more critical in less naturally competitive markets, especially where essential services are provided. However, our data shows that customer satisfaction in less competitive regulated sectors often falls well below the standards that customers should expect, as well as the all-sector average. There will be a range of reasons for this, however, and we should take into account the complexities, obligations and interdependencies inherent in some sectors.

For these reasons, the fourth and final pillar of the Institute’s Manifesto for Building a Service Nation calls on the next government to work alongside The Institute, regulators and businesses to develop a mandate which:

1. Requires organisations in regulated sectors to report on customer satisfaction and experience levels over a period of time
2. Ensures customer experience and satisfaction is benchmarked both within and across sectors
3. To drive a service culture through a longer-term approach and service accreditation

What this will unlock

This will allow organisations to better track and understand the customer experience to improve their service offering and, ultimately, satisfaction levels – to the benefit of both customers and improved productivity, given the significant cost of complaints in these sectors.

Perhaps more importantly, though, different regulated sectors will be encouraged to collaborate, share examples of best practice in delivering service excellence, and benchmark themselves against their counterparts.

In doing so, and by putting in place holistic, cross-sector frameworks for measuring progress, I believe we can drive an improvement in customer experience and satisfaction across all regulated sectors.

Our Manifesto for Building a Service Nation – putting it into practice

Each ask of the next Government set out over the past three weeks will lay the groundwork for the Service Nation of the future and for putting service at the heart of long-term business and economic growth.

We will continue to engage with the media, the Government and other public officials in the months and years to come. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on our Manifesto and what else you want to see from the next Government in support of the Service Nation.