Vertex, an international Customer Management Outsourcing business (CMO), commissioned the research which clients in the private and public sectors participated in. The results concluded that consumers find the high street retail environment delivers better customer service than any other sector including its online cousin with 68 per cent of claiming it to be ‘fairly good’ or ‘very good’. This is in sharp contrast to Central Government agencies which were rated ‘fairly good’ or ‘very good’ by only 28 per cent of respondents.

While the research shows retailers and financial services (banks, building societies and insurance companies) are seen as the most trustworthy when it comes to protecting personal information, significant concerns remain with around a third still claiming they are ‘untrustworthy’. This lack of trust rises to an incredible 55 per cent for Central Government agencies.

The survey also confirmed the importance of a choice in the ways that consumers interact with organisations: 42 per cent of those surveyed actively seek to avoid face to face interactions with public bodies – a figure that is only exceeded by customers of utilities (74 per cent).

Other findings highlighted the major gripes of engaging with an organisation. Unsurprisingly “holding” or having to follow unnecessary automated responses topped the list (50 per cent) while the desire for first call resolution, and being dealt with by the person who answers the phone, was cited by around one in six.

Paul Sweeny, Chief Executive Officer at Vertex commented: “Although customer engagement is more complex than ever it’s important not to lose sight of the one consistent factor that makes for a great experience – the capabilities of the organisation’s people. In our experience, motivated, empowered and passionate customer service personnel make the biggest contribution to a brand’s satisfaction scores.”